Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ3957SW HIGH STREET WEST
920-1/17/111 (North side)
10/11/78 The Empire Theatre

GV II*

Theatre. 1906-7. By W and TR Milburn with c1989 rear upper bar
extension. Ashlar entrance building; rear auditorium and
lobbies brick with ashlar dressing; copper dome; slate roof.
L-plan. Free Baroque style.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 2 windows to High Street West; 3-storey
corner entrance tower. Right return 2 storeys; entrance one
window, long rear range. Main front: box office entrance at
left of shop front. One wide tripartite round-headed window
above with upper glazing bars in architrave; canted right
corner of this has narrow first-floor window with upper
glazing bars. Projecting corner tower has paired Ionic columns
supporting ground floor entablature with dentilled frieze;
long panels through upper stages have keyed oeil-de-boeuf
below cornices on first floor; second-floor aproned moulded
sills to small lights under swags with lions' heads;
modillioned cornice to top entablature below balustraded
parapet interrupted by continuation of panels through to
round-headed dormers containing oeil-de-boeuf under long
keystones which extend to moulded round cornice. Ribbed dome
supports lantern of 4 angled pairs of Ionic columns framing
niches, with top open-work sphere supporting statue (replica,
the original inside the theatre) of Terpsichore. Right return
has blank ground floor, Venetian first-floor window. Brick
rear range has shallow canted first-floor bay windows with
upper glazing bars. Plaque on right return commemorates laying
of foundation stone by Vesta Tilley on September 29th, 1906.
INTERIOR: much rich Baroque detail. Main entrance has circular
lobby with painted classical scenes, terrazzo floor.
Auditorium wide with 2 curved balconies, the lower with side
arcades to stairs which rise to balcony from stalls level.
Above these lower stairs boxes project in round turrets at
second-balcony level, with paired Ionic columns supporting
balustraded moulded cupolas with gabled dormers. Rectangular
proscenium arch with central raised tablet. Ribbed coved
ceiling with stucco decoration in Baroque style. All balconies
have richly moulded fronts. A remarkably unaltered interior,
carefully restored by the Borough Council.
(The Curtains Committee: Curtains: 1982-: 184).

Listing NGR: NZ3926957047

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Sunderland Empire Theatre at Wikipedia
• Sunderland Empire Theatre official website
• Wikidata Q7639723

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)