PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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THE FIRE Plymouth's New Palace Theatre of Varieties was found to be alight at around 12.30am on the morning of Friday December 23rd 1898. The discovery was made by Stonehouse police officer. Although Superintendent Lane and many of his colleagues raced to the scene and started to train hoses on the premises, the rear of the building it was soon well alight. Mr Sowerby, Plymouth's Chief Constable, arrived shortly afterwards, too. They were assisted with crowd control by a detachment of Royal Marines under the command of Colonel R P Coffin. The first actual fire engine to arrive was from Plymouth, in the charge of Mr Wyatt. This was shortly after 1am and by then the stage, the flies and the entire rear of the building was destroyed. The fire reached and destroyed the first three rows of seats in the orchestra stalls. The most significant losses were the splendid dome roof, with its panels depicting naval battle scenes, and the paintings of naval and military heroes, with details of their careers, which adorned the circle balcony. Although a great deal of the wardrobe and scenery were totally destroyed, the only casualties were some bantam hens used by one of the artists. It has been said that he also lost one pig but the pigs were being kept outside the premises and were not mentioned in press reports at the time. The adjoining clothing factory belonging to Messrs Lancaster & Company was not touched largely thanks to an almost new high brick wall that had been erected between the premises at the instigation of the borough surveyor of Stonehouse, Mr A R Debnam. On May 22nd 1899 the New Palace Theatre was reopened, under managing director Mr James Wynes. RETURN TO New Palace Theatre of Varieties
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