List Entry Summary
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Name: WHITEHALL THEATRE
List Entry Number: 1259399
Location
WHITEHALL THEATRE, WHITEHALL SW1
The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Greater London Authority
District: City of Westminster
District Type: London Borough
Parish: Non Civil Parish
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: II
Date first listed: 20-Dec-1996
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: LBS
UID: 462945
Asset Groupings
This List entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List Entry Description
Summary of Building
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Reasons for Designation
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
TQ3080SW WHITEHALL, SW1
(west side)
1900-/83/10153 Whitehall Theatre
GV II
Theatre. 1929-30 by Edward A Stone. Steel and reinforced concrete clad in brick and with Portland stone facades to front and rear. Rectangular plan, but with angle between entrance hall and foyers and auditorium which is concealed in the arrangement of the foyers and stairs. Symmetrical facade with bronze windows to first and second floors linked by panels set back in chamfered surrounds. Stepped parapet. Rear elevation with arcaded mouldings.
Interior. Foyer and stairs lead to auditorium with gallery and stage with fly tower. Angled and ribbed proscenium arch with tympanum containing stylised mermaid appearing from a shell and scrolled foliage decoration. Similar motifs are the centrepiece of the octagonal concave ceiling. These curved and moulded surfaces in stippled silver act as reflectors in the ceiling light. Stalls box set back from proscenium, with box over set in ribbed surround, and with two further boxes to either side at back of circle, all with masques and cartouches on box fronts, and those at rear with dentil mouldings. Foliage decoration and dentil mouldings to balcony fronts. Silver cornices. The decoration of black, red, gold and silver was designed to be reflective and is an important part of the composition.
With only 650 seats the Whitehall Theatre was a novel departure for West End theatres, intended according to the Architect and Building News for light comedies rather than the melodramas of earlier years or for big musicals. It was among the first theatres in Britain to champion `an architecture of light', pioneered in German theatres and cinemas during the 1920s but not found in British cinema architecture until the mid-1930s. The auditorium has a decorative cohesion and prettiness rare in theatres of its day, and has the best surviving original fabric of this type of theatre.
Sources:
Building, October 1930;
Architecture Illustrated, November 1930;
Architecture and Building News, 9 January 1931.
Listing NGR: TQ3004080288
Selected Sources
Books and journals'Architecture and Building News' in January, (1931)
'Architecture Illustrated' in November, (1930)
'Building' in October, (1930)
Map
National Grid Reference: TQ 30040 80288
The below map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. For a copy of the full scale map, please see the attached PDF - 1259399.pdf - Please be aware that it may take a few minutes for the download to complete.
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This copy shows the entry on 25-Apr-2024 at 02:52:49.