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Description: The Victoria Theatre

Address: The Victoria Theatre Fountain Street Halifax West Yorkshire HX1 1BP

Grade: II

Group detail: Commercial Street (west side)

Full description:
Includes: The Victoria Theatre, BACK COMMERCIAL STREET; Includes: The Victoria Theatre, No. 2 FOUNTAIN STREET; Includes: The Victoria Theatre, POWELL STREET; Includes: The Victoria Theatre, WARD'S END Marked on OS map as Victoria Hall. Concert hall, now theatre and shops. Designed 1897 by W Clement Williams for the Halifax Concert Hall & Public Rooms Co Ltd. Foundation stone laid May 6 1899 by Sir George Fisher-Smith. Opened Feb 8 1901 with concert by the Halle Orchestra. Restored and converted 1962-66. Coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof. Baroque Revival style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 8 x 5 bays with curved corner of 9 bays. Entrance in curve facing SE has slate-covered awning over 3 sets of glass doors; whole curve has Ionic pilasters defining bays, the left the shop front of the box office and the right a separate shop. Deep entablature supports first floor half columns, also Ionic, paired to central 3 bays with wide central window flanked by arched niches containing statues; other bays have single lights, all with transomes. Eaves cornice and roof balustrade with urn finials. One-bay, 3-stage towers flank this section and have pedimented windows in architraves; corniced blind top sections have corner pinnacles and high colonnaded lanterns with oeil-de-boeuf and scroll brackets to top frieze. Long front to Commercial Street has pilasters and entablature framing plate glass shop windows, pedimented sash windows above with richly carved lintel bands, and paired lights in pedimented end bays. Rich carving in pediments. Names of composers carved in impost band include Bishop, Wallace, Arne, Purcell, Balft, Bennett, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn. Roof conical over entrance, with cast-iron cresting surrounding tall arcaded lantern with ogee roof and spike finial; high domes over flanking towers; hipped roofs over ends of Commercial Street front linked by ridge with balustraded parapet. INTERIOR: shows much rich decoration, with especially ornate foyer and stairwell; Corinthian jewelled columns support imperial stairs which have cast-iron curved flowering stems for balustrades, with polished wood handrail; foyer walls panelled with pilasters and moulded over door decoration. Full width stair light deeply coved and filled with painted glass in intense colours, with sways and bows framing central 'VR' motif. Bust of Queen Victoria on pedestal on stair landing. Auditorium entirely without columns to the cantilevered balconies which have bombe fronts; moulded proscenium arch, and coved panelled ceiling.