Early theatres in Christchurch

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 11

Early theatres in Christchurch

(By

W. J. A. BRITTENDEN)

This photograph will, I hope, clear up the misconceptions arising from my statement that the King’s Theatre was next door to the old Theatre Royal. Some readers have apparently overlooked, or misinterpreted the use of the word "old.”

To tell the story of the Theatres Royal and the King’s Theatre we must go back more than a hundred years—nearly 110, in fact. The story begins with a mystery. Who built a music hall halfway along Gloucester Street between Colombo and Manchester Streets? “An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand” and others, call this the “Canterbury Music Hall” about which we do know something. For example that it was inspired by J. E. Coker, that tenders were called in January, 1862, but, because of financial difficulties, it was not opened until June, 1863. Was this particular hall actually in Gloucester Street? If so, why was its interior, within three or four months of comCletion, being entirely reuilt? The “Lyttelton Times,” of December 24, 1863 records “the late music hall in Gloucester Street is being rapidly converted into a pretty little theatre. The hall is losing its dismal proportions so suggestive of a dissenting chapel or Quaker meeting house . . .” It was this Gloucester Street hall whose management had earned public disapprobation for employing bell-ringing "spruikers” at the comer of Colombo Street to drum up business. One gets the feeling that the hall, as Johannes Andersen suggested (he wasn’t sure) went back to early 1862. An 1863 hall between White’s Commercial Hotel (Warner’s) and the Press Lane was quite possible in terms of space. Warner’s, when they were rebuilding after their 1898 fire, mentioned the Canterbury Hall, later the Gaiety Theatre, which they had taken over in the eighties, using the ground floor for sample rooms and building 17 bedrooms above. Certainly, after the Gloucester Street Hall—whatever it was called —had become a theatre, the papers were still carrying advertisements for the Canterbury Music Hall. But to return to the Theatre Royal. The first royal On Boxing Day, 1863, the wedding day of the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra; the Music Hall in Gloucester Street, after the face-lift already referred to, was reopened with the comedy “The Hunchback" under the name of “The Royal Princess Theatre” although the “Royal” was often dropped for the sake of brevity. After a period of inactivity at the end of 1865, the Princess was reopened in February as the (first) Theatre Royal. On June 19, 1876, the theatre closed with another presentation of “The Hunchback,” and was demolished, rebuilding commencing on July 1. On November 4, the 1500seat (second) Theatre Royal —still on Press Lane—was opened with “The School for Scandal.” Incidentally, the speed of construction was not a bad effort for tradesmen lacking the cranes and other facilities of modem builders. On two successive days, however, accidents occurred in the positioning of the nine two-to-three ton principals. On Tuesday, February 25, 1908, the (third) Theatre Royal opened on the north side of Gloucester Street with a J. C. William--son presentation, “The Blue Moon.” The new theatre was directly opposite the second Theatre Royal which still stands there on Press Lane, the upper part of the wooden facade agreeing exactly with the newspaper description of 95 years ago, except that the royal crown is missing. Next-door neighbour On June 21, 1876, the “Lyttelton Times" in the

typically detailed description of the day, discussed the theatre and added: “We might also mention in connection with the new theatre that Mr Beatty (with W. H. Hoskins and Baylee the promoters of the venture which the public had refused to support although all were agreed on the need for a theatre to match those going up in other centres) will, in a day or two, call for tenders for a new hotel which will add to the general appearance." The hotel, opened the next year as "The Palace” was of brick and designed to accommodate 70 to 80 guests. And this building also stands today, with its cast concrete bas relief faces of a man and a woman (do they depict Mr and Mrs George Beatty?) surmounting the first floor windows.

The site had been occupied by the Shakespeare (spelt Snakspeare in the photograph I have) Hotel. I am unaware of the date of its establishment but its name and position suggest it came after the. opening of the Princess. Or was it previously, Coker’s "Criterion” which he built quickly and held briefly after his unsuccessful management of his Commercial (later, Warner’s) Hotel. The Shakespeare, in 1865, at all events, was more of a tavern than a hotel. Tradition has it, and in this case is correct, that a door was cut in the theatre wall to make it easy to move from dress circle to bar. Thus was the convenience of patrons cared for. This short cut was later , blocked up but Mr R. C. Lamb of the Public Library has just discovered a lawyer’s letter to the City Council asking that the theatre be allowed to unseal the door. This was in 1893. Permission was refused. Palace Hotel The new hotel was known as The Palace, a name repeated in the Palace Skating Rink soon to appear across the road. The juxtaposition of theatre and hotel was obviously in the interests of George Beatty who was a partner in one and owner of the other. The theatrical atmosphere, because the hotel obviously catered for the cast of the shows appearing next door, might also explain the great success of George Beatty’s daughters, Maud and May, on the stage. They started with that phenomenon, T. J. Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, composed originally ot boys and girls between the ages of ten and 13 and which toured almost continuously from 1880 to 1903. May Beatty' was back in 1893 as Mrs Kent' and described as proprietress of the Palace. Except for one year, her father had held the licence from 1877 to 1886 but its change of name to the Albert, in 1892 and the return of May Kent in 1893 could not prevent it losing its licence in June, 1894, when it was a victim of the general reduction of liquor licences.

It was probably after 1894 that it was known as the Q.C.E. (Quiet, comfort, economy). It was a boarding house when Mr W. Whitta established a billiards room there. We come to 1910, when a photograph taken from the south, shows a long, narrow brick'toil! being built behind the facade of the old hotel, the Colosseum appearing in the right background. Printing this on January 19, 1910, the “Weekly Press” added a delightful caption: "The astonishing vogue in Christchurch of the cinematograph is proved by this theatre which is built expressly for picture shows in spite of the fact that cinematograph pictures are already regularly shown in the Colosseum and His • Majesty’s Theatre.” Mr W.’ J. Scott does not agree with those who state that the garage of Scott’s Motors was once the King’s Theatre. On this site, in 1910 when his father bought it, he says, there was a blacksmith shop which he demolished and beyond that a pond with empty 'paddocks (used by

circuses) almost to Manchester Street. Perhaps the fact that Todd Motors used the old King’s building as a garage has misled those who linked it with Scott’s. On the extreme right of the photograph can be seen enough of the wooden theatre to identify it, and the partnership of stage and screen. The Globe But to return to the cause of all this discussion the Globe, High Street, Mr G. O. Dowling of Trices Road, R.D. 4, states that a competition was run to chose a name for this continuous picture show. His own suggestion “The Ring Theatre” was

placed second. The Globe was, he agrees a very dark and poorly ventilated place. It had a solitary pianist playing “Hearts and Flowers” for the love scenes and “galloping sonatas” for the cowboy “shoot-ups.” The prominent actors and actresses he remembers were Mary Miles Minter, Mary Pickford, Fatty Arbuckle and Tom Mix. It was, he says, a favourite haunt of the high school boys who had to wait an hour or so for a Sumner tram. It derived its nick-name of the "Rat-hole of Calcutta” from the rodents which frolicked on the stage below the screen. Mr S. V. Whitta, a walking encyclopaedia on local theatres and their pro-

grammes, says the theatre was owned by a Wellington man, Mr Maurice Siegel. The doorman was Mr George Gray. He adds that Freeman’s Cafe originally occupied the whole of the building but retired to the first floor when the theatre opened. His brother, Mr W. Whitta, owned the billiards rooms above J. R. McKenzie’s little novelty shop. He also owned tables where the Four Ships restaurant is today just across High Street. From Mr Lamb, I learn that the seating capacity was 340 and that it was opened in the 1913-14 financial year. It almost certainly closed in 1916 though I have no positive proof of this.