Description

MIDDLESBROUGH CORPORATION ROAD, NZ 4920 SE south side.

9/21 Empire Mecca Social Club. II* G.V. Theatre, 1896/99 by Ernest Runtz (London). Mid C20 canopy. Now used as social club. Steel-framed, with terracotta (Doulton & Co.) facings, painted below canopy. Brick at rear. Lakeland slate roof at front. Largely flat roof on auditorium. Welsh slate roofs at rear. Lead-clad domes. Spanish Baroque style. 4-stage, one-bay towers flank 2-storey centre with mezzanine. Continuous moulded plinth. Centre has 4 doors, alternately blocked and renewed, under lintels with enriched cartouches and paired segment-headed overlights, in enriched pilaster surrounds with continuous cornice. Canopy, suspended from iron ties cuts across lintels and towers and extends along returns. Renewed fascia sign fills mezzanine, flanked by colonnettes with tulip feet to shafts and scrolled flame finials. Slightly-recessed 1+5+1-bay first floor. Renewed round-headed windows in middle bays, with keyed archivolts and balustraded aprons. Enriched quasi-Composite columns on pedestals, with continuous shallow frieze and cornice and inverted consoles, between bays. Blind end bays have enriched bas-relief escutcheons. Rendered brick oversailing band below straight parapet with late C20 applied illuminated letters. Steeply pitched roof. Towers each have 2-light window with column mullion, below canopy. Square window in applied Composite pedimented aedicule, with enriched frieze and continuous cornices, in 2nd stage. Sculptured phoenix clasping outer corner on 3rd stage. Oversailing band on enriched consoles, between 3rd and 4th stages, the latter with paired rectangular windows under enriched escutcheon flanked by plain pilaster strips. Chamfered angles at top of 4th stage. Cornice and scalloped parapet with ornamented finials on pedestals at angles and above pilaster strips. Domed octagonal lantern has paired blocked round-headed windows, with moulded imposts, in each face of drum. Ramped and scroll-topped diagonal buttresses. Moulded modillion cornice, and vase finial with flagpole. Similar returns, and 9-bay first floor; ground floor of right return altered. INTERIOR: 3-bay foyer has marble engaged Roman Doric columns, with egg-and-dart capitals, carried through deep rinceau-enriched frieze, to heavily moulded panelled ceiling. Auditorium has 2-tier horseshoe-plan gallery and circle with raked seating, renewed in gallery. Elliptical-fronted dress boxes have basket-headed openings with enriched panelled responds and intrados, recessed behind quasi-Roman Doric (lower) and fluted Ionic columns; top entablature under enriched escutcheon. Boxes supported on giant scrolled brackets. Heavily-moulded corniced ceiling, divided into geometric patterns by richly-ornamented ribs. Central gas lighting burner,suspended from brattishing, screens ventilation shaft. Gallery, circle and box fronts, chamfered proscenium arch and ceiling, enriched with rinceau, cherubs, escutcheons and tropies of musical instruments. 3-bay panelled basked-arcaded saloon, behind Roman Doric screen, adjoins gallery at front of house. Formerly known as Palace of Varieties.

Listing NGR: NZ4966620350

External Links

• Middlesbrough Empire official website
• Wikidata Q31679251

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

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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
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