King's Theatre

Heritage listing

Details Theatre, 1906-1907, designed by Frank Matcham for John W Boughton of the Portsmouth Theatres Company; the builder was Frank Corke. Matcham’s original drawings survive, though damaged and incomplete; internal area names used in the Details below have been taken from these, and from descriptions given in the contemporary press. The theatre is built around three late-C19 shops with lodgings above (numbers 24-28 Albert Road), included in the listing. THEATRE MATERIALS: steel frame construction, with red and brown brick, laid in English bond, and stucco: the principal public-facing parts of the theatre, namely the hexagonal corner tower and Albert Road (north) elevation, are stuccoed; the Exmouth Road (west) elevation is of red brick, and the Collingwood Road (south) elevation is brown brick. The roofs are of Welsh slate; there is a ventilation louvre to the roof over the auditorium. The windows in the principal elevations of the theatre are timber with leaded lights, the vast majority original. PLAN: the theatre is an irregular parallelogram on plan, with the hexagonal tower containing the principal entrance occupying the sharp north-west corner formed by the junction of Albert Road to the north and Exmouth Road to the west, the front of house areas forming a triangular section to the north. Further east on Albert Road are four shop buildings (see below), bookended by the hexagonal corner tower, and by a stair tower with entrances to the east. The southern part of the building is occupied by the rectangular auditorium and stage, with backstage facilities wrapped around the south-east corner. EXTERIOR: the theatre demonstrates the eclectic range of Edwardian Classicism, with elements of Baroque, neoclassical, Italianate and Queen Anne Revival influence in evidence. T

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.