The New Empire Theatre was a historic

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

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 Grea ...

, England. Built in 1896, it closed in 1998 and was demolished in 2017.

History

The New Empire Theatre was built in 1896 by theatre impresario Frederick Marlow. He had owned the public hall previously on the site, and converted it to The Empire Theatre in 1892. A fire on Boxing Day 1895 destroyed the building. Marlow took it upon himself to rebuild a bigger, better theatre, with five floors and electric lighting. The theatre was the first of its kind in Southend, and was called "the prettiest theatre outside of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

" by local press at its opening in 1896. Marlow presented a varied programme of musicals,

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...

s, plays, variety and music hall. He remained at the theatre until 1905 when it was taken over by the

Theatre Company Ltd. The following fourteen years the theatre was run on a leasehold basis by various people, including Albert Marchinsky, an

illusionist Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

known as "The Great Rameses", a successful magician and music hall entertainer who spent some time pursuing theatre management as a career. By 1919, the advent of moving pictures had brought about many changes in Southend, and the theatre closed its doors, making way for an enlarged and magnificent cinema, The Rivoli. From 1921 to 1962, the Rivoli thrived as a cinema, in 1929 installing sound equipment to facilitate the talking pictures. In 1962, the Rivoli was taken over by the ABC chain and underwent further refurbishment, including the addition of a Marine Bar underground, making use of the old Empire passageways. The cinema continued for another 20 years, and in 1982 was twinned to create a second, smaller cinema at the old Rivoli Mezzanine level. The cinema was renamed under the

Cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

brand during the 1980s, but again reverted to ABC during the 1990s. By 1998, a new wave of multiplex cinemas had emerged to reverse the long decline in cinema attendances, and one of many traditional cinemas in Southend to close over a long period was the ABC. In February 1998, it showed its last film, and the venue was once again closed. However, after 6 months of closure, the site reopened as the New Empire Theatre, with a production of the Little Shop of Horrors on the 10th October 1998. The theatre operated until November 2008, when bailiffs were called in due to non payment of rent. On 26 July 2015, the 120-year-old theatre was devastated by arson. The fire had destroyed the theatre's much-admired first floor amphitheatre. According to a spokesman for the Essex fire service, "the building suffered extensive damage and the roof has collapsed, largely destroying the first floor auditorium." After the theatre was bought by an unidentified Hong Kong company in August 2016, the company decided to demolish the theatre. Demolition work began in March 2017.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 51.5355, 0.7125, type:landmark_region:GB-ESS, display=title Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea Theatres in Essex 1986 establishments in England