Gaumont Stoke-on-Trent

The original theatre on the site on Wolfe Street, present-day Kingsway (coordinates ) was the Crown Theatre, built in 1897; it was a wooden building seating about 1100, designed by Charles Lynham Beckett. It was replaced in 1900 by a theatre designed by George F. Ward, of Owen and Ward. It was named the Gordon Theatre; the existing hotel opposite the theatre was the Gordon Hotel, named after General Gordon of Khartoum. There was a bust of Gordon over the main entrance of the theatre. The richly decorated auditorium, seating about 2000, comprised stalls on the ground floor, with boxes, dress circle and balcony above, and gallery over. The theatre opened on 12 March 1900 with the musical The…