2-982-510 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New Royal Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel-Road, [London]. 1858. 'The present edifice has been erected at the cost of the daughter of the late Mr. Charles Conaughton (Mrs. Donald Munro)...The decorations of the interior...have been provided and fitted up by Mr. John Douglass...The design for the now structure was supplied by Mr. Simmonds, architect, 7, Great Alie-street. The builder...was Mr. Tolley, of Lamb-street, Spital-square...The pit is calculated to seat 2000 persons...The house has been planned to seat comfortably an audience of 3500 persons. The stage is of colossal size, being 70 feet wide, and 58 from the floatlights to the back wall. The interior is splendidly decorated. The embellishments are generally of dead white and gold; and the fronts of the boxes are crimson velvet, the curtains being also of the same colour. The ceiling, likewise, is gorgeously painted, and in the centre is suspended a superb chandelier, manufactured by Defries and Son...It is composed of...richly-cut glass, so drooping as to form draperies of crystal; a mass of lucid metal, brilliant in prismatic hues, sufficient to illuminate alone this enormous building, contains 300 lights, all hidden behind spangles. These are so cut as to increase the light threefold'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.