Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)
[Mackintosh, Iain]
"Matcham, Frank"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
who specialised in the design of theatres and
music halls
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
. He worked extensively in London, predominantly under
Moss Empires
Moss Empires was a company formed in Edinburgh in 1899, from the merger of the theatre companies owned by Sir Edward Moss, Richard Thornton and Sir Oswald Stoll. This created the largest chain of variety theatres and music halls in the United ...
, for whom he designed the
Hippodrome
The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...
in 1900,
Hackney Empire
Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in L ...
(1901),
Coliseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...
(1903) and
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...
(1910). His last major commission before retirement was the
Victoria Palace
The Victoria Palace () is a government building on the large Victory Square () in Bucharest, housing the Prime Minister of Romania and his cabinet.
The Victory Palace was designed in 1937 to house the Foreign Ministry, and nearly complete in 19 ...
(1911) for the variety magnate
Alfred Butt
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet (20 March 1878 – 8 December 1962) was a British theatre impresario, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder. During a fourteen-year tenure as manager of London's Palace Theatre, beginning in 1904, ...
. During his 40-year career, Matcham was responsible for the design and construction of over 90 theatres and the redesign and refurbishment of a further 80 throughout the United Kingdom.
Matcham was born in
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, where he became apprenticed at the age of 14 to the architect
George Soudon Bridgman. Matcham moved to London, aged 21, where he joined the architectural practice of
J. T. Robinson, who was to become his father-in-law. Under Robinson, Matcham completed his first solo design, the Elephant and Castle Theatre, which opened in June 1879. He took over the business on Robinson's death and continued the designs of various provincial theatres. He formed his own practice, Matcham & Co., in the 1880s and enlisted skilled craftsmen. His first major association came in the 1880s when he was employed to design and refurbish theatres belonging to the Revill family who owned many of the theatres throughout the United Kingdom.
Matcham's most successful period was between 1892 and 1912 when he worked extensively for Moss Empires, a theatre building business headed by
Edward Moss and run by
Oswald Stoll
Sir Oswald Stoll (20 January 1866 – 9 January 1942) was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company. He also owned Cricklewood Studios and film production company Stoll Pictures, whi ...
. Under them, Matcham completed 21 theatres, including three in London, with the rest being in the provinces. Also during this period, although not with Moss Empires, he completed the designs for the
Tower Ballroom
Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the tallest man made structure in the British Empire. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in ...
at
Blackpool Tower
Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the List of tallest buildings in the British Empire and the Commonwealth, tallest man m ...
,
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Blackpool Grand Theatre is a theatre in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Since 2006, it has also been known as the National Theatre of Variety. It is a Grade II* Listed Building.
History
The Grand was designed by Victorian theatre architect Fr ...
and the
Theatre Royal, Norwich
The Theatre Royal is an art-deco theatre in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is one of the country's oldest established theatres.
It hosts a large range of touring productions. The theatre had a £10m refurbishment in 2007, designed by Tim Foster ...
, all in 1894, and the
County Arcade, Leeds, in 1900. The author Iain Mackintosh, writing for the ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' in 1993, describes Matcham's theatre interiors to be superior when compared to the building's external designs. Matcham's use of
cantilevers
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
for the galleries allowed him to discontinue the use of columns, which would otherwise obstruct the audience's view of the stage. The auditorium decorations were often mixed with
Tudor strap-work,
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
detail, Anglo-Indian motifs, naval and military insignia,
rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
panels, classical statuary, and
baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
columns.
Matcham retired to
Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 m ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, shortly before the First World War, where he died of a heart attack, brought about by a blood infection, in 1920. His biographer Brian Walker notes from the architect's personal archives that he was "a man of remarkable vigour and had an enthusiasm for life ... he possessed a tranquility of mind and a great sense of humour and fun."
[Walker, p. 4.]
Early life
![Two buildings on Union St Torquay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Two_buildings_on_Union_St_Torquay.jpg)
Francis Matcham was born on 22 November 1854 in
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
.
[Walker, p. 1.] He was the second of nine children and the eldest son of Charles Matcham (1826–1888), a brewer, and his wife, Elizabeth Lancaster (1830–1905).
[Wilmore, p. 217.] In 1857 Charles Matcham moved his family to Union Street,
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...
, and secured a job as a manager of a brewery and a malthouse.
Frank was educated at Babbacombe School, in
Babbacombe, Torquay.
Matcham showed an early interest in architecture and became apprenticed at the age of 14 to
George Soudon Bridgman, a local architect.
[Walker, pp. 1–2.] The apprenticeship lasted 18 months until Matcham was offered a job at a
quantity surveyor
A quantity surveyor (QS) is a construction industry professional with expert knowledge on construction costs and contracts. Qualified professional quantity surveyors are known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) in the UK and Ce ...
's office in London in around 1868. Working in the capital allowed Matcham to study with different architectural professionals. His training under a quantity surveyor
taught him how to draw up estimates of cost, interact with building contractors, and introduced him to complex calculations, something which he was unlikely to have been taught at school.
["Growing Up On The English Riviera" by Gorel Garlick; Wilmore, p. 42.] He also learnt the importance of working to tight schedules imposed by demanding customers.
left, The Gaiety Theatre in the
Strand, a building from which Matcham took inspiration as a student, alt=Black and white photograph of a large building with a domed-shape roof set on a corner plot on a busy London street.
In his spare time, Matcham visited many of London's buildings but took a particular liking to theatres and music halls. A building of special interest to him was the newly completed
Gaiety Theatre in the
Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
, designed by
Charles J. Phipps
Charles John Phipps (25 March 1835 – 25 May 1897) was an English architect best known for his more than 50 theatres built in the latter half of the 19th century, including several important London theatres. He is also noted for his design of ...
. Matcham was impressed at Phipps's ability to build a normal-sized theatre on a small, awkward plot, and it is probable that Matcham gained inspiration from the Gaiety in some of his later buildings which were also built on restricted plots of land.
It is not known how long Matcham spent in London, although it was not uncommon for an architect to take up to six years to become qualified. The theatre historian Görel Garlick estimates that Matcham spent three years in the capital during this time, which would seem probable as by 1871 Matcham was back in Torquay and again under the guidance of Bridgeman, this time as his chief assistant. Bridgeman was eager to take advantage of Matcham's experience in London and asked him to help on the redesign of the Lyceum Theatre in Torquay.
Isaac Singer
Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of what became one of the first American multi-n ...
, the American businessman, moved from France to Devon in late 1871. His intention was to buy a large property in the English countryside for his family. His attempt at buying
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...
's
estate was unsuccessful and instead, he purchased the Fernham Estate, in
Torbay
Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...
, on which
Oldway Mansion was eventually built.
["Tenders", ''The Builder'', 1 March 1873, p. 176.] Singer commissioned Bridgeman's office to undertake the design and instructed that a theatre be built within the house, long since demolished. Garlick considers it entirely possible that Matcham was given responsibility for the design of the theatre because of his educational experiences in London. Singer spared no cost in terms of Oldway Mansion's construction; he sourced the finest materials from around the world and instructed Bridgeman to design the interior in an exuberant French style. Garlick notes that it was highly likely that Singer's exuberance would have influenced someone as architecturally impressionable as Matcham whose later theatres also used extravagant decoration.
Entry into the Robinson family business
In around 1875, soon after the completion of Singer's house, Matcham secured a job with
J. T. Robinson's office in London. The employment allowed Matcham to become more familiar with what Matcham's biographer Brian Mercer Walker calls, "theatre design of a high order".
Matcham's time under Robinson was brief; Robinson died unexpectedly at the family home in
Bloomsbury Square
Bloomsbury Square is a garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London. Developed in the late 17th century, it was initially known as Southampton Square and was one of the earliest London squares. By the early 19th century, Be ...
, London, in 1877, shortly after Matcham's marriage to Robinson's daughter, Maria, on 9 July.
Matcham was entrusted by the family to continue with Robinson's designs which included the refurbishment of the Elephant and Castle Theatre,
as well as the modifications to the Cambridge Music Hall in
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
.
By the mid-1870s around 137 theatre fires had been reported in the United Kingdom which prompted parliament to create the Metropolis Management and Building Act (1878) which established safety rules for developers to adhere to. Matcham found the rules to be problematic; because of them, the Elephant and Castle Theatre project had to be extended by six months.
[Walker, pp. 5–6.]
In 1882 Matcham took on the redesign of the Grand Theatre in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
. It was an important project for him: it was the first to be designed using unobstructed sightlines to the stage and was notable for its holding capacity, and prompt construction, something for which he latterly became known in architectural circles. The Grand was revolutionary in its design; it was used as an educational showpiece to amateur architects and it was often visited and commented on by architectural critics and journalists.
[Walker, p. 6.] In one of the three volumes, entitled ''Modern Opera Houses and Theatres'', which were published between 1896 and 1898, the author
Edwin Sachs made reference to the Grand's "good sighting and acoustics of the auditorium, economy of space and cost, and rapidity of execution". Matcham's improvement of sightlines were a result of his use of cantilevered steel. This new design allowed for the balconies to protrude into the auditorium without the use of the supporting pillars which increased seating capacity and gave the audience better views of the stage. It was a design that Matcham patented and incorporated into all his future theatrical designs.
The Paragon in
Mile End
Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
, East London, in 1882, was Matcham's next major project. The design was one of importance, according to Walker, as it showed a great emphasis on the ventilation system—the first of its kind—which used a sun burner in the roof and warm air ducts, above ground level, which emitted draughts.
[Walker, p. 7.] The builders of the theatre, Crowder and Payne, advertised the venue as being "the best-ventilated theatre in London".
[Walker, p. 68.] It opened in May the following year to much praise for its achievements in audience comfort. The success of the Paragon allowed Matcham to open up his own office in Belfast in 1884.
Work under the Revills
Outside of London, and prior to 1886, Matcham only had two designs commissioned, both in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
: Hengler's Grand Cirque and the
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. . In 1879 he started work on the redesign of the Royalty, a playhouse originally designed by
James Thomson and one that had been built on the first floor of a four-storey building. The layout was problematic and Matcham had to make a series of adjustments. To compensate, he designed a ventilation system which involved the installation of an exhaust duct over the
auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
gas light which caused the heat from the burners to rise up and create a movement of air through the theatre. It was a design that he also used on the Gaiety, Matcham's second Glaswegian theatre. The Royalty took just four weeks to complete and was relatively inexpensive, two factors that helped enhance his reputation.
Matcham met the actor and theatrical manager James Elliston in 1886. Elliston, a native of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, had heard of the architect through his work in Glasgow and commissioned him to reconstruct the side boxes and gallery and to improve the acoustics and ventilation system at his theatre, the Theatre Royal,
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
. Through Elliston, Matcham was introduced to William J. Revill, the proprietor of the People's Temperance Hall in
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
.
["Matcham's Revills'" by Michael Sell; Wilmore, pp. 52–53.] The Revill family were influential in theatrical circles with their connection to the stage going back to the 18th century.
Revill contracted Matcham to draw up designs for a new building after the hall was destroyed by a fire in 1887. The new building, as with most of the Revill family's theatres, was to be named the Theatre Royal and Opera House; it was completed to schedule the following year. The finished structure was considered to be state of the art by the town's magistrates who granted an entertainments licence that June. ''
The Era'' considered the new building to be "undoubtedly one of the finest theatres in the country". According to the biographer Michael Sell, Matcham's relationship with Elliston helped the young architect to become a nationally recognisable name in theatrical architecture and brought him to the forefront of his profession.
Matcham was commissioned in 1888 by Revill's son, the theatre manager Wallace Revill, to design a new theatre on land he had purchased in
St Helens,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. The new theatre was named the Theatre Royal and Opera House. It was constructed of brick with stone dressings and comprised an orchestra pit, stalls, a dress circle of three rows, an upper circle, which had the unusual feature of its own retiring rooms, and a very large gallery which allowed for unobstructed views. The entrance façade was built in the classical style with three wide bays of giant
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s. On the theatre's opening night the following year, Elliston called the building "one of the most beautiful theatres
ehad ever seen".
In addition to the Stockport theatre under Revill, Matcham received another commission from Elliston, this time to rebuild the Theatre Royal and Opera House, in
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, which had caught fire on 4 January 1888. Elliston's only requirement was for the building to be completed within a 20-week period, which Matcham honoured. The foundation stone was laid by the actor
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...
on 17 October, a month before its opening. Owing to the large numbers of people who died in a similar theatre fire in
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
the previous year, Matcham improved the safety features, such as fireproofing the ceilings and walls; widening and straightening the staircases; using outwardly opening doors; installing hydrants on each floor; and hanging an automatic, fireproof curtain in the auditorium. The interior was decorated in terracotta and gold tints and the seats covered in crimson upholstery.
Other theatres followed for the Revill family who had by now employed Matcham full-time to work on their projects.
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
and
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
, then both in Lancashire, were to get their own Theatre Royal and Opera House with the Rochdale building being a renovation of an existing building. The Bury theatre opened on 26 December 1889 with a
pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
production. The theatre lacked interior decoration as Matcham had been behind schedule. He made a rare appearance, on stage, that night, and assured the audience that during a fortnight's closure he would complete the designs. To compensate for the lateness, he took the unusual step of sub-contracting the auditorium's artwork out to a London-based sculptor.
["Matcham's Revills'" by Michael Sell; Wilmore, pp. 65–67.]
The following year Matcham was contracted by Frederick Purcell, a member of the extended Revill family, to undertake the renovations of his theatre that had caught fire the year before. Matcham was afforded the benefit of being able to use the existing building, which increased the possibility of his being able to finish the project on time. The same year, The Grand Cirque and Amphitheatre opened in Bolton. Matcham's design allowed for it to be used as a circus and a theatre and for the venue to be changed between the two in a few hours. It was decorated in the
Italian style and had the capacity to seat 3,200 people. The circus ring eventually fell out of favour with audiences and it was covered over.
Purcell took over the family business in 1899 after the death of four of its members but only commissioned a few buildings over the next decade, including the Alexandra Theatre,
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish.
The ...
. Matcham continued to work with Purcell until around 1908 when the latter decided to wind up the business. Matcham's last design for the family, according to the historian Michael Sell, was the King's Theatre,
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's s ...
, in 1907. The architecture historian
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
called the King's Theatre "splendid" and described the theatre as having a "prominent hexagonal tower with Ionic columns and lion finials around a broad spire-like top crowned by a cupola with a replica statue of Aurora. The interior is charming and richly detailed, making full use of the tight space. Plaster figures and mouldings in Matcham's full-blown Baroque."
Matcham & Co.
![2011 Refurbishment Everyman Theatre Cheltenham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/2011_Refurbishment_Everyman_Theatre_Cheltenham.jpg)
The establishment date of Matcham & Co. is unclear; it could originate from when Matcham established his office in Belfast in 1884 after the success of the Paragon Theatre in Mile End, or it could be a renaming of Robinson's business which Matcham took over a decade or so prior to the 1880s.
["The Matcham Office at Work" by John Earl; Wilmore, p. 92.] What is known is that it operated out of three offices in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its roots ...
at different times. The first was in Bedford Row, between 1880 and 1886, after which it moved to 3 Great James Street. The business stayed there until 1893 when it moved again, this time to 9 Warwick Court, where it remained until after Matcham's death.
["Stoppage of Building", ''The Architect'', 18 June 1920, p. 424.] It is not known how many staff Matcham employed;
[Wilmore, p. 128.] he worked with a regular team of assistants and craftsmen, among them, Felix De Jong, an expert in work with fibrous plaster;
[Wilmore, p. 130.] Jonas Binns, a specialist decorator;
and Albert Dean, a master furnisher. During their time in operation, Matcham & Co. completed around 170 theatre designs. Matcham was assisted in his designs and the running of the business by the engineer R.A. Briggs and
F. G. M. Chancellor, an architect. Little is known of the working relationship between the three men, only that it was a prosperous one.
[Wilmore, p. 124.]
Theatre boom years: 1892–1912
Before variety theatre,
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
s were the preferred entertainment of the working-class communities in London and the provinces. Acts including
George Robey
Sir George Edward Wade, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (20 September 1869 – 29 November 1954),James Harding (music writer), Harding, James"Robey, George" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University P ...
and
Marie Lloyd
Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 – 7 October 1922), professionally known as Marie Lloyd (), was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as " T ...
were deemed "overly racy", according to ''
The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'', with major theatres banning them in the interests of decency. The restrictions were brief, mainly because of the negative effect such censorship was having on audience numbers.
["Curtain up – Frank Matcham's London Coliseum"](_blank)
''The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'', 12 February 2004, accessed 4 October 2017. By the 1880s most music halls were either operated by amateur syndicates, who cared less about revenues and more about entertainment, or wealthy, profit-driven businessmen. Safety, in both cases, was frequently compromised, mainly down to cost, so much-needed renovations were often ignored. Music-halls had, for many years, been a hugely profitable business, but had become the subject of stringent regulations and safety controls. By 1880 covert inspections were taking place by local authorities to ensure proprietors were adhering to the safety requirements; the rules were so strict that a lot of the ageing halls, particularly those whose proprietors had little money, were forced to close. Those that remained open were instructed to improve and refurbish their premises to meet expectations. The boom required competent architects who knew how theatres worked.
Moss Empires and Oswald Stoll
From 1898 to 1910
Oswald Stoll
Sir Oswald Stoll (20 January 1866 – 9 January 1942) was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company. He also owned Cricklewood Studios and film production company Stoll Pictures, whi ...
had been the managing director of
Moss Empires
Moss Empires was a company formed in Edinburgh in 1899, from the merger of the theatre companies owned by Sir Edward Moss, Richard Thornton and Sir Oswald Stoll. This created the largest chain of variety theatres and music halls in the United ...
, a theatrical entertainment circuit headed by the impresario
Edward Moss, which at its height was responsible for 33 theatres around Great Britain. Matcham first worked for Moss Empires in 1892 on the
Empire Palace,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
[Walker, p. 158.] Moss was so impressed with Matcham's work that he commissioned him to design other provincial theatres over the next seven years. Matcham's work in London under the impresarios included the
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
in
Hackney, and the
Coliseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...
and
Hippodrome
The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...
theatres, both in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
. In total, Matcham was responsible for designing 21 theatres for Moss and Stoll over a 20-year period which ended with the
Wood Green
Wood Green is a suburban district in the borough of Haringey in London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms a maj ...
Empire, in 1912.
Stoll intended the Hackney Empire to be his London headquarters, but the plan changed midway through construction when he decided to locate his offices further into central London: this caused a drastic reduction in the Empire's budget to allow extra finances for the new headquarters at the Coliseum. Matcham rushed together a secondary, cheaper design of the Empire's façade and presented it to Stoll on a piece of scrap tracing paper. The exterior of the Empire was a design that Matcham always loathed but was one, according to the historian Michael Sell, that demonstrated the architect's "seemingly endless powers of invention" and one that will "forever remain a landmark". The auditorium is noted by
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
as being "one of the most exuberant Matcham interiors in Britain", while the historian Brian Walker called the Empire's interior "the most perfect Matcham interior in Greater London". Pevsner considered the Empire to be "splendidly confident" and "among the best-surviving Edwardian variety theatres".
For the Coliseum, Matcham encountered a problem; Stoll wanted the theatre to be the largest and most lavish in London.
[Barron, p. 368.] Matcham was concerned that the vast size would cause a reduction in sound quality and view to the stage; accordingly, he gave particular attention to the theatre's acoustics and designed the balconies so that they sloped towards the auditorium sides, rather than the more traditional method of being supported by
piloti
Pilotis, or piers, are supports such as columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water. They are traditionally found in stilt and pole dwellings such as fishermen's huts in Asia and Scandinavia using wood, and in ele ...
s; Matcham pioneered the use of cantilevered steel in his designs, and took out patents to protect his work.
The theatre featured a revolving stage, the first of its kind in London, which allowed for imaginative ideas, including the theatre's extravagant celebrations of
Derby Day, featuring guesting jockeys riding real horses, galloping against the moving revolve.
Backstage there were, according to Pevsner, "box-to-box telephones" and "changing rooms so that evening dress could be donned on site". The Coliseum cost £250,000 to build.
![Blackpool Tower Ballroom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Blackpool_Tower_Ballroom.jpg)
Walker called it the "fruit of close collaboration and understanding between client and architect". He further noted: "Matcham's frequently noticed skill in planning is here matched by a different kind of wizardry. Few of his contemporaries could have made so memorable an architectural statement on so short a frontage in such an unpretentious thoroughfare. It is much more impressive than, for example, the neighbouring Garrick Theatre of 1889" According to the theatrical magazine ''
The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'', Matcham's design provided "a handsome marble staircase, the landmark tower topped by a revolving globe and an impressive range of amenities, including spacious tea-rooms on each floor, lifts to the theatre's upper levels, lavishly decorated retiring rooms, a roof-garden with a glass-domed roof and an information bureau from which messages and telegrams could be sent and where doctors might register their whereabouts in case of emergencies".
Other works
Matcham rarely ventured away from theatres but did so on occasion. He was commissioned by the Blackpool Tower Company, a Standard Contract & Debenture Corporation, to design the decoration for the ballroom, which formed part of their
entertainment complex
A family entertainment center, often abbreviated FEC in the entertainment industry also known as an indoor amusement park, family amusement center, family fun center, or simply fun center, is a small amusement park marketed towards families with s ...
in
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. The ballroom's interior was Matcham's only design for the complex, although
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
consider it probable that he was also responsible for the remodelling of the circus, also within the complex, in 1900. Pevsner considered the circus to be "the largest and most elaborate theatre of its type in England" and provided the UK with a "permanent setting for a circus not available in any other resort".
The complex opened in 1894.
[Tower Buildings]
''National Heritage List for England'', Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
, accessed 12 June 2019. The same year, he completed the designs for
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Blackpool Grand Theatre is a theatre in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Since 2006, it has also been known as the National Theatre of Variety. It is a Grade II* Listed Building.
History
The Grand was designed by Victorian theatre architect Fr ...
and the
Theatre Royal, Norwich
The Theatre Royal is an art-deco theatre in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is one of the country's oldest established theatres.
It hosts a large range of touring productions. The theatre had a £10m refurbishment in 2007, designed by Tim Foster ...
.
The regeneration of
Briggate in the 1890s, one of the oldest streets in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, included the building of a number of shopping arcades to accompany the existing Thorntons Arcade, completed in 1878. Matcham designed the Cross and County Arcades for the Leeds Estate Company, between 1898 and 1900, at the northernmost part of the street. At the same time as his work on the County Arcade, he designed the Empire Palace, for Moss, which was located further down Briggate.
[Walker, p. 161.] He created two new streets, Queen Victoria Street and King Edward Street, which run between Briggate and Vicar Lane. Matcham's buildings include 49–51 Vicar Lane; 2–24 King Edward Street and 115–120 Briggate, which consists of shops and offices within the County Arcade development.
[49 and 51, Vicar Lane; 2–24, King Edward Street; 115–120, Briggate](_blank)
''National Heritage List for England'', Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
, accessed 5 December 2017. The construction costs of the County Arcade were in excess of £300,000. According to Walker, Matcham's biographer, the architect took on the designs for the County Arcade either because of a decline in the need for new theatres, or an attempt to try out something different. Either way, Walker considered the project to be completely out of character for Matcham who had previously displayed such energy and enthusiasm for all his designs.
Together with a few public houses in London, Matcham's other non-theatrical commissions include a new wing for the Royal
Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund at
Brinsworth House and a printing works in
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
.
["15, 16 and 17, Hatfields"]
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
, accessed 12 June 2019.
Retirement and death
In 1910 the
London Palladium
The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 an ...
was completed and opened on 26 December.
Designs for the
Victoria Palace Theatre
The Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station. The structure is categorised as a Grade II* listed building.
History Origins
The theatre began life as a small conc ...
, for the variety magnate
Alfred Butt
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet (20 March 1878 – 8 December 1962) was a British theatre impresario, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder. During a fourteen-year tenure as manager of London's Palace Theatre, beginning in 1904, ...
, were already under way; it opened the following November. During the design stage of the Palace, Matcham was also working alongside
Bertie Crewe
William Robert 'Bertie' Crewe (1860 – 10 January 1937) was one of the leading English theatre architects in the boom of 1885 to 1915.
Biography
Born in Essex and partly trained by Frank Matcham, Crewe and his contemporaries W.G.R. Sprague an ...
for a new Hippodrome in
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
which was to become Matcham's last major design.
The inter-war period was slow for theatrical architects and builders, mainly because of the introduction of cinema, and many of the theatres that had been designed in Matcham's office were now becoming picture houses. Matcham & Co.'s projects had started to slow down by 1913; that year, the only theatrical venture was the Palace Theatre, in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
.
![House of Frank Matcham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/House_of_Frank_Matcham.jpg)
Matcham retired to
Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 m ...
with his wife shortly before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and left the running of the business to Chancellor and Briggs.
He died at his house, 28 Westcliff Parade,
["Mr Frank Matcham Dead", ''Western Daily Press'', 19 May 1920, p.10.] on 17 May 1920.
His death was attributed to blood poisoning, brought about from cutting his finger nails too short.
[''The Architects' Journal'', 26 May 1920, p. 682.] The funeral took place at St. Paul's Church,
Finchley
Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross.
Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill and H ...
, before his interment in the family vault
[Death of Mr. Frank Matcham", ''The Era'', 26 May 1920, p. 6.] in
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
. He left an estate worth £86,389 (£ in adjusted for inflation). Matcham bequeathed his company, equally, to Briggs and Chancellor.
A journalist for ''The Architect'' newspaper predicted that the business would continue,
which it did, although it never achieved the same success as it did under Matcham. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Chancellor retired and moved to the countryside, where he died in 1941.
Briggs held the business in a dormant state until after the war when it was sold to a property agency in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
. It continued, on a small scale, until it was eventually wound up in the late 1970s.
Personal life
![Charles A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Charles_A._Matcham.jpg)
Matcham was a devoted if frequently absent husband and father. He married Maria Robinson, the daughter of his tutor, J. T. Robinson, on 9 July 1877 at
St. James's Church,
Pentonville
Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish o ...
. They had two daughters; Eveline, who was born in 1878,
and Constance, in 1884.
In an interview with ''
Vanity Fair'', Matcham listed an interest in music but admitted that although he owned a
Stradivarius
A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are co ...
violin, he "wasn't particularly good with it".
Another hobby was amateur dramatics and on occasion, the Matchams would stage minor pieces, for the entertainment of their neighbours, when they lived in Dollis Avenue, Finchley. From a review of Matcham's personal archives, Walker concludes that the architect was "a man of remarkable vigour and enthusiasm for life ... he possessed a tranquility of mind and a great sense of humour and fun."
Of Matcham's eight siblings, two were notable:
Charles Matcham (1862–1911) moved to America in 1881 and became a millionaire businessman within the civil engineering industry. His early work for the
American Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Englan ...
["Charles Matcham Succumbs to Illness", ''The Morning Call'', 23 September 1911, p. 5.] included the building of the first
telephone exchange
A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...
s in Europe and the introduction of the telephone to
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
where he personally installed
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Gra ...
's phone system.
["Charles Matcham Succumbs to Illness", ''The Morning Call'', 23 September 1911, p. 6.] Through his later work, he founded several concrete-making companies and invented a cement stone pulveriser for which he owned the
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
.
Sydney Matcham (1868–1957) moved to
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
*Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
*Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
*Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, where he founded the Matcham Travel Bureau, the city's first travel agency.
Legacy
Matcham's theatres were often mocked by architects during the five decades after his death,
and little care was taken by local authorities to preserve them during area regeneration programmes, particularly during the 1960s.
[Earl & Sell, pp. 276–278.] It was only after 1970 that his buildings were taken seriously and, according to Mackintosh, his genius was widely recognised.
In 1995 the
Theatre Museum
The Theatre Museum in the Covent Garden district of London, England, was the United Kingdom's national museum of the performing arts. It was a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum. It opened in 1974 ...
acquired in excess of 7000 of Matcham's drawings. Of these, around 500 are highly finished and represent over seventy-five theatres or cinemas and about one-sixth of his total life's output.
![Frank-Matcham-Plaque (14455846627)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Frank-Matcham-Plaque_%2814455846627%29.jpg)
The total number of
theatres Matcham designed is unknown and has been the subject of much speculation. The architect Victor Glasstone estimated the architect's work to include 66 new theatres and the remodelling and restoration of 58 others, between 1879 and 1910;
["King Kong versus Godzilla: The Competition for the Royal Opera House at The Hague, 1910–11" by Iain Mackintosh; Wilmore, p. 143.] Matcham's biographer Brian Walker lists him ahead of his contemporaries and counts 92 designs, with the closest to him being Charles J. Phipps, with 72.
According to the theatre historians John Earl and Michael Sell, Matcham was the original architect for half of the 48 surviving theatres associated with him, and the rest he restored, altered or remodelled from existing buildings. A further 111 of his theatres were either bombed during the wars, destroyed by fire,
or demolished as part of area regeneration, mostly during the 1960s.
From the start of the 1900s Crewe and
W. G. R. Sprague had started to make names for themselves in architectural circles. It has been suggested by various architectural journals that Crewe and Sprague were pupils of Matcham, and although Glasstone was sceptical of this in his 1975 book ''Victorian and Edwardian Theatres'', the author Iain Mackintosh noted a clear Matcham influence in Sprague and Crewe's designs; he describes the former as being suaver compared to Matcham, whilst Crewe, although sharing a lot of Matcham's exuberance, was "more polished" because of his earlier training in Paris.
Sir Alfred Butt, writing in ''The Era'', considered: "Frank Matcham lived for his work, and unquestionably was pre-eminent as a theatrical and music hall architect."
According to the historians, Roger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius, Matcham was "the most consistent and prolific architect of the later music halls ... his buildings, mostly in the provinces and the suburbs of London,
ereequal or exceed in splendour
ompared tothe metropolitan theatres and opera houses."
On 22 November 2007 Matcham was commemorated by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
when a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
was unveiled at his former London home, 10 Haslemere Road,
Hornsey
Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey. It is an inner-suburban, for the most part residential, area centred north of Charing Cross. It adjoins green spaces Queen's Wood and Alexandra Park to the ...
, by the actors
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE (born 20 October 1934) is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both ''Coronation Street'' (as Eric Babbage) and ''EastEnders'' (as Stan Carter) ...
and
Prunella Scales
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a ...
.
["Frank Matcham plaque unveiling, Crouch End, London", '']The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
'', 29 November 2007, p. 55.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Frank Matcham SocietyFrank Matcham page
Frank Matcham and Company at the Victoria and Albert Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matcham, Frank
People from Newton Abbot
English theatre architects
1854 births
1920 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
People from Hornsey