‘The stage-doors, for united elegance and delicacy, are superior to any thing of the kind we have seen or heard of in this country’
In 1775 the Drury Lane Theatre was renovated by Robert Adam and his brother James after David Garrick had approached them with a commission. The Annual Register of that year provided a marvellously detailed account of the extent of the renovations and their impact on the observer:
‘On opening the theatre in Drury-lane this evening, for the first time this season, it appeared more like a new than an old theatre, in consequence of the great alterations made in it during the last summer. The new front is simple and elegant, and considerably improved by the addition of eight great lamps. The most useful alterations within doors consist in the heightening of the ceiling, twelve feet; the removal of all the old side-boxes, top and bottom, and substituting others on a large scale, supported by light elegant pillars; the addition of different passages to the upper and lower boxes, and spacious entrances from Bridges-street to every part of the house; with directions, in large letters, to each. The chief ornamental improvements within doors consist of numberless decorations, which cannot fail to strike the beholder. The roof is covered with a circular painting, finely executed, and remarkable for its well-studied simplicity. The light airy pillars that support the upper boxes, galleries, &c. are inlaid with plate-glass on green and crimson ground, which being finely contrasted, afford a happy and elegant effect. Around each of these are some pretty fancied open paintings, with various borders, which together with the crimson spotted lining of the boxes, and the light festoon curtain painted underneath the whole, relieve them finely. The stage-doors, for united elegance and delicacy, are superior to any thing of the kind we have seen or heard of in this country. The old chandeliers are taken down ; those on the sides are replaced by neat gilt branches on the pillars, holding two candles each ; in the front are four new chandeliers, of a more light and fashionable construction : and there is no slit to be in the new curtain. –
‘The alterations, as well within as without, are such, in short, as do great honour to the taste of Mr. Adam, the artist who designed them, and the spirit of the managers, who have now converted an old barn into the most splendid and complete theatre in Europe’.
These renovations were not to last, the theatre was rebuilt by Henry Holland in 1794 after the old theatre had been demolished in 1791.
MJ Holman
