Plymouth, Theatres | Grand Theatre, Stonehouse

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

PLYMOUTH THEATRES

GRAND THEATRE, STONEHOUSE

The Grand Theatre in Union Street, Stonehouse, was erected by Mr Henry E Reed, after he lost the lease to the Theatre Royal. It was to be managed by his son, Mr John H Reed, and was intended to be competition for the Theatre Royal.

It was designed by Mr H J Snell, of 8 Courtenay Street, Plymouth. The lowest of sixteen tenders was accepted and work started on July 11th 1889.

The blitzed Grand Theatre in Stonehouse, Plymouth.

Read a description of the Grand Theatre ..... and the Construction Credits .....

When the doors opened at 6pm on December 26th 1889, there was such a rush to get in that the theatre was soon filled to capacity and the pantomime, "Cinderella", started 30 minutes early. Read more about the pantomime .....

In November 1896 the management introduced the cinematograph before Mr George Du Maurier's play "Trilby" and, soon afterwards, Poole's Myriorama. Read more .....

Under the new ownership of Messrs United Counties Theatres Ltd, it re-opened on Monday March 1st 1909 as the Grand Theatre and Picture Place, with variety acts included to relieve the eyes! In about 1915 the lease passed to Mr George S King and Mr H D Parry of the Repertory Theatre and then in September 1922 it was announced that the Grand had been bought by a syndicate formed by Mr G Hamilton Baines of the Theatre Royal in Cardiff.

On May 14th 1930 its then owner, Mr E F H Davey, was granted the Grand's first cinema licence and it went over to showing films, although it was never classiified as a cinema. There were three performances, at 2.30, 6.30 and 8.35pm. The lease and the licence passed in December 1932 to Mr H B Mather.

The Grand Theatre was still showing films when it was destroyed in March 1941. Although permission was given for it to be rebuilt, it was destined to be used for a variety of purposes (this was where Mr A G Hurley started building boats for the American market in January 1958) before it was finally demolished in March 1963.