image: New Bedford Theatre, Camden (1899) Painting by Walter Sickert (1915/16)

A ZOOM virtual talk organised by THE FRANK MATCHAM SOCIETY
Sunday October 25th at 3 pm

Did Frank Matcham Have Competition? An illustrated talk by Richard Norman

This talk sets out to extend our knowledge of the heyday of the great theatre building boom (1885-1913) and researches into the background of a new breed of architects, who apart from Phipps and Matcham competed for this lucrative market. Their presence also attracted competing impresarios and theatre builders climbing onto the band-wagon to challenge their rivals (e.g. Moss and Stoll) with competitive schemes.

Architects like Bertie Crewe and William Sprague trained in the Matcham practice and soon realised that there was an opportunity to capitalise using their own design flairs and branch out independently. In doing so, they added to the canon of respected theatre designers. Some were also able to advance with the transition into the new era of entertainment fulfilling cine-variety and super-cinema designs.

This year’s talk is the fourth in a series arranged by the Frank Matcham Society annually to mark ‘European Historic Theatres Day’ on 25 October.

European Historic Theatres Day was established in 2017 by Perspectiv, Association of Historic Theatres in Europe to highlight the work and achievements of historic venues across the continent. In previous years The Frank Matcham Society have organised talks in conjunction with The Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Collections but, with current restrictions preventing us from meeting, this year we are very pleased to join forces with The Society of Theatre Research to provide an alternative means of sharing information and celebrating our historic built culture.

As places are limited you must register in advance and log-in details will be supplied prior to the event.

To register for this ZOOM talk please email r.ritmeester@sky.com                                     

Simply insert ‘Matcham talk request’ into the subject line.