Everything about Frank Matcham totally explained
fuck Frank Matcham (born
22 November 1854,
Newton Abbot,
Devon - died
17 May 1920,
Southend-on-Sea,
Essex) was a famous
English theatrical
architect.Buried in
Highgate Cemetery.
Early career
Frank Matcham's father was a brewery clerk, and he was raised in
Torquay, where he attended Babbacombe school. In
1868, he was apprenticed to a local surveyor and architect, George Sondon Bridgeman. He moved to London and joined the architectural practice of Jethro Robinson, consulting theatre architect to the
Lord Chamberlain's office. In
1877 Matcham married Robinson's youngest daughter, Effie, and only a year later his father-in-law died and he found himself in charge of the practice, at the age of 24. Frank Matcham received no formal training as an architect, but learnt the practicalities on the job.
His first commission was to complete the designs of the Elephant and Castle theatre (opened June
1879).
Career
Matcham and two architects he helped to train,
Bertie Crewe and
W.G.R. Sprague, were together responsible for the majority - certainly more than 200 - of the theatres and variety palaces of the great building boom which took place in Britain between about 1890 and 1915, peaking at the turn of the century.
Matcham himself designed;
Cheltenham Everyman Theatre (1891) Blackpool Grand Theatre and the
Wakefield Theatre Royal and Opera House in
1894, as well as
Buxton Opera House and the Royal Hall (Kursaal),
Harrogate in
1903, and the
Liverpool Olympia (
1905). He also designed several famous
London theatres: the
Hackney Empire (
1901), the
London Coliseum (
1904), the
London Palladium (
1910), the
Victoria Palace (
1911), and rebuilt the
Alhambra Theatre (
1912), in
Leicester Square.
Matcham is remembered in
Northern Ireland for his design of the
Grand Opera House (opened December 1895) on Great Victoria Street,
Belfast. In
Douglas, Isle of Man he's famed for the design of the Gaiety Theatre, which survives to this day.
Matcham also designed theatres in
Scotland: in
Aberdeen, there were
His Majesty's Theatre, built in
1904 to replace the
Tivoli Theatre - the Tivoli was originally known as Her Majesty's Theatre, opened in
1872 to the designs of C.J. Phipps, and was subject to alterations by Matcham in
1897, followed by a complete interior rebuild by him in
1909. Both theatres still survive in Aberdeen, although the Tivoli is sadly disused after a spell as a bingo hall. In
Edinburgh, he designed the Empire Palace Theatre, opened in
1892, and he also rebuilt it after a fire in 1911. It was subsequently demolished and rebuilt in
1927/8, this time to the designs of Newcastle architects Milburn and Milburn, and still stands today, having been refurbished after a time as a bingo hall, as the
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, albeit with a modern glass facade built in
1994. He also designed the
King's Theatre, Glasgow on Bath Street in
1904, which happily also still entertains citizens of that city today.
One unusual commission, built around
1900, is the three blocks in
Briggate,
Leeds, that are today known as the
Victoria Quarter. Matcham's Empire Palace Theatre, which was the centre-piece of the design, was demolished in the
1960s, but his surviving exteriors and the impressive
County Arcade have been refurbished to a high standard.
Frank Matcham pioneered the use of
cantilevered steel in his designs, and took out patents to protect his work. This allowed balconies to be built out into the theatre without the use of pillars supporting each tier, these had characterised the work of the previous generation of theatre architects. Without pillars, there were improved sight lines and, popular with theatre owners, an increased audience capacity.
Preserving the legacy
In 1982 it was estimated that 85% of the theatres that had lit up British towns and cities in 1914 had been lost - 35 of them, including 20 of Matcham's, in London alone.
John Betjeman and
Simon Jenkins had spoken up for such architects of
Victorian and
Edwardian parish churches as the
Gilbert Scotts,
JL Pearson and
GE Street, but few had heard of theatre architects such as Matcham,
Bertie Crewe,
C.J. Phipps,
W.G.R. Sprague and
Walter Emden.
That gross neglect came to an end with one too many proposed ruthless destructions: the Granville Theatre in
Walham Green, in 1971, where the
Greater London Council stepped in to stop a developer. This incident brought about the formation of the Frank Matcham Society, and the beginning of the preservation of this theatrical heritage.
Further Information
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