Tyne Theatre and Opera House

One of only eight Grade One listed original theatres in Great Britain, the theatre is also the only one that dates to the Victorian period. The north part of the building is located within the boundary of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site. Stage and understage The stage represents perhaps the most complete working example of the English wood stage - possessing four bridges, eight sloats, one carpet cut, two corner traps, three warm thrappled wing shafts, two staircase traps, three object traps and one grave trap. Overhead there is a series of drum and shaft mechanisms to operate synchronised scene-changes, and a hemp fly floor stage left with drum and shaft for the act drop. An…

The Tyne Theatre & Opera House originally opened on Monday 23 September 1867 and was designed by William Parnell for Joseph Cowen (1829-1900), politician and industrialist, and son of Sir Joseph Cowen, a prominent citizen and Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne from 1865 to 1873. Money for the construction and no doubt materials for the theatre came from the family business, the Blaydon Brickworks, four miles west of Newcastle. The original design was to house a stock company (producing theatre company) managed by George Stanley who successfully staged locally produced drama, opera, musical spectacles and pantomimes from 1867 until 1881. By the 1880s improvements in railway…