The Garrick Theatre is a former theatre, cinema and bingo hall in

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. it is noted for its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style, and it is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The theatre was built on the site of the Opera House, which had burned down in 1929. It was designed by George Tonge (1876–1956), an architect practicing in Southport, whose work included designing many cinemas. The auditorium seated 1,600, and there was a large stage, to accommodate musicals, operas and ballet. It opened on 19 December 1932, with the play ''Firebird'', featuring

Gladys Cooper Dame Gladys Constance Cooper (18 December 1888 – 17 November 1971) was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television. Beginning as a teenager in Edwardian musica ...

."Garrick Theatre"
''Cinema Treasures''. Retrieved 2 January 2025."Garrick Theatre"
Theatres Trust. Retrieved 2 January 2025. The theatre was sold in 1957 to Essoldo Cinemas, opening on 21 January of that year with the film '' Love Me Tender''. After a brief period as the Essoldo, the name reverted to the Garrick Theatre. From May 1962 no live shows were staged. It became a bingo hall in 1963; from 1984 it was a Top Rank bingo club, later becoming

Mecca Bingo Mecca Bingo (formerly called Top Rank) is a British operator of bingo clubs, with over 70 locations throughout the country. Mecca Bingo is owned by the Rank Group, which operates bingos, casinos and online gambling in Belgium, Spain and Britain. ...

. It closed in March 2020, because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and it was announced in April 2021 that it would not re-open. Mecca Bingo's lease of the building expired in September 2021. It was given listed status, Grade II, 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 Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

on 29 July 1999. The building was put on the Theatres Trust's Theatres at Risk Register in 2022. In June 2023 the new owner submitted plans to convert the theatre to contain a hotel, residential rooms, and features including a gym, bar and an events space."Revealed: Former Garrick Theatre in Southport to be transformed with hotel rooms, apartments, gym and spa"
''Stand up for Southport'', 21 June 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2025. The application commented: "In general terms, the reordering of areas of the building will have a negligible impact on the significance of the building itself, and allow for a sustainable new use of a key structure." Theatres Trust commented that "we noted concern regarding the viability and deliverability of the plans.... The current scheme proposes loss and harm to the historic fabric without providing adequate detail or information to justify it." Approval by Sefton Council of the change of use plans was reported in April 2024. Tom Clarke, Theatres Trust's National Planning Adviser, wrote: "It is hugely disappointing that planning permission has been granted without taking into consideration our concerns, and those of Historic England, who also objected to the scheme....""Planning application approved for Theatre at Risk Southport Garrick"
Theatres Trust, 30 April 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2025.

Description

The theatre, on the corner of Lord Street and Kingsway, is built of brick with dressings of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

and concrete. There are shops at ground level, above which there are tall windows, decorated with bands of an Art Deco design; above the curved corner there are fluted stone

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. On Lord Street to the left of the entrance there is a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

above the first floor with an open promenade.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures completed in 1932 Buildings and structures in Southport Grade II listed cinemas Grade II listed buildings in Merseyside Art Deco architecture in England Theatres in Merseyside

History

Description

See also

References