Westminster Theatre

The Westminster Theatre was a theatre in London, on Palace Street in Westminster.

Westminster Theatre

Coordinates	51.49857°N 0.14091°W / 51.49857; -0.14091
Capacity	560 (main house) 100 (studio theatre)
Construction
Built	1766
Opened	1931 (1931)
Renovated	1924, 1931, 1966, 1972
Demolished	2002

History

The structure on the site was originally built as the Charlotte Chapel in 1766, by William Dodd with money from his wife Mary Perkins.^[1] Through Peter Richard Hoare it came into the hands of the family owning Hoare's Bank, and was called St Peter's Chapel.^[2]

It was altered and given a new frontage, by John Stanley Coombe Beard for use as a cinema, St James's Picture Theatre, opened in 1924. The conversion was by a group with court connections including Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood. The film shown at the opening was Rob Roy.^[3][4]

The Picture Theatre then became a venue for drama in 1931 after radical alterations, at the hands of Alderson Burrell Horne (1863–1953). Horne was known in the theatrical world as Anmer Hall, and also used the stage name Waldo Wright.^[5] In the mid 1930s Kathleen Mary Robinson came from Australia to study theatre production and she helped the producer Osmund Daltry. She also directed and the actors included Michael Wilding and the later playwright Emlyn Williams.^[6]

The theatre was bought by the Westminster Memorial Trust in April 1946 as a memorial to men in Moral Re-Armament (MRA) who gave their lives in World War II. The Trust held it for more than 30 years. Besides putting on productions for the MRA, it was let out to other companies.^[7] It was the base for Furndel Productions, run by actor Alan Badel and producer William Anthony Furness, for example with The Ark in 1959.^[8] Influential on the MRA productions was Peter Howard, as playwright and also in changing the running of the theatre, where he replaced amateurs of the early period in the 1940s by professional technicians, and brought in the director Henry Cass.^[9]

In 1966 the theatre was remodelled, with the addition of an arts centre, after MRA fundraising in 1965. Further work was carried out in 1972, with the addition of two floors. The premises were decorated with a work of art by professor Lennart Segerstråle called "Barbed wire or reconciliation". ^{[10] [11][12]}

MRA withdrew from drama at the Westminster Theatre in 1990, for reasons of cost.^[12] Plans were drawn up to extensively remodel the theatre in the early 2000s. A campaign by the owner to save the theatre ended when a fire destroyed 75% of the building on 27 June 2002, with demolition coming soon afterwards. In May 2009, plans for a new 314-seat theatre and a smaller cabaret stage, flats and a restaurant, all situated on the site of the original building, were given approval by Westminster City Council.^[13] The new St James Theatre (now The Other Palace) opened in September 2012.^[14]

Notable productions

• Harley Granville Barker's Waste, 1936.^[15] Directed by the author; this was the first full public production.
• Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History by C. L. R. James, 1936, directed by Peter Godfrey, starring Paul Robeson, Orlando Martins and Harry Andrews.^[16]
• Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, 1943, with Martita Hunt as Mrs Cheveley.^[17]
• Eden and Adelaide Phillpotts's comedy Yellow Sands, from 29 March 1945, with Cedric Hardwicke as Richard Varwell^[18]
• Henry V, July 1953,^[19] Elizabethan Theatre Company, notable as the first London play directed by John Barton
• The Duenna with music by Julian Slade;^[20] lyrics and book by Dorothy Reynolds; London production, opened 28 July 1954 and ran for 134 performances.
• Freedom, 1955, with an African cast, set in the imaginary country Bokondo, filmed in 1956 in Nigeria.^[21]
• The Hurricane, 1961, with Muriel Smith and Phyllis Konstam. Filmed as The Voice of the Hurricane.^[22]
• British Touring Shakespeare Company, Hamlet, 2002

References

1. Belden, Kenneth David (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. Westminster Productions. p. 4.
2. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 10.
3. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 13.
4. "Westminster Theatre in London, GB - Cinema Treasures". cinematreasures.org.
5. Sidnell, Michael J. "Group Theatre of London (act. 1932–1939)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/107544. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6. Lees, Jennie, "Kathleen Mary Robinson (1901–1983)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 5 August 2024
7. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 26.
8. Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 663. ISBN 978-0-8108-9308-5.
9. Jenner, Pamela Georgina. "Propaganda theatre : a critical and cultural examination of the work of moral re-armament at the Westminster Theatre, London" (PDF). pp. 80–1.
10. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 48.
11. "The Other Palace, Theatres Trust". database.theatrestrust.org.uk.
12. "Kenneth Belden 1912–2002, IofC UK". uk.iofc.org.
13. "New theatre for London's West End", BBC News, 14 May 2009.
14. "St James Theatre in London's West End opens", BBC News London, 18 September 2012.
15. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 19.
16. James, C. L. R. (2012). Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History; A Play in Three Acts. Duke University Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8223-5314-0.
17. Lemon, Mark; Mayhew, Henry; Taylor, Tom; Brooks, Shirley; Burnand, Francis Cowley; Seaman, Owen (1943). Punch. Punch Publications Limited. p. 466.
18. Kynaston, David (2008). Austerity Britain, 1945-1951. A&C Black. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7475-9923-4.
19. Greenwald, Michael L. (1985). Directions by Indirections: John Barton of the Royal Shakespeare Company. University of Delaware Press. p. 266, note 40. ISBN 978-0-87413-264-9.
20. Wright, Adrian (2010). A Tanner's Worth of Tune: Rediscovering the Post-war British Musical. Boydell & Brewer. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-84383-542-4.
21. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. pp. 24–5.
22. Belden (1965). The Story of the Westminster Theatre. p. 27.

External links

• History of the Westminster Theatre