| Architect |
Original
Architect - Edward A. Stone Refurbished 2004 Foster Wilson Architects |
| Date
Built |
Opened
September 1930 |
| Location |
Whitehall,
London |
| Description |
|
| The Grade II
Listed Trafalgar Studios building, on
Whitehall in London, started life as the
Whitehall Theatre. It opened its doors
for the first time in September of
1930. The "British Listed Buildings"
website says of the building that, "
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. " In the 1990s the theatre was converted into a television and radio studio but in recent years the building was refurbished again to make it suitable for live productions. The architectural practice of Foster Wilson were asked to, " ... create an intimate and informal open-stage space of a kind which cannot be found in most West End proscenium theatres." To achieve this, "Listed building consent was granted for a period of 4 years only, which meant that the changes had to be easily reversible and have minimum impact on the Art Deco interior." Foster Wilson converted the stalls level into a performance space with 100 seats and the circle level into a second larger studio that can accommodate 380. The theatre reopened in 2004. |
|
|
Trafalgar
Studios (Former Whitehall Theatre), Whitehall, London
  |
