Frank Matcham

Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920) was an English architect who specialised in the design of theatres and music halls. He was best known for his work in London under Moss Empires, which included the designs of the Hippodrome (1900), Hackney Empire (1901), Coliseum (1903), Palladium (1910) and the Victoria Palace (1911). During his 40-year career, he was responsible for the design and construction of over 90 theatres and the redesign and refurbishment of a further 80 throughout the United Kingdom. According to the dramatist Alan Bennett, there was a Matcham theatre in every corner of the UK.

Matcham, c. 1900

Matcham was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, where he became apprenticed at the age of 14 to the architect George Soudon Bridgman. Matcham moved to London, aged 21, where he joined the architectural practice of J. T. Robinson, who was to become his father-in-law. Under Robinson, Matcham completed his first solo design, the Elephant and Castle Theatre, which opened in June 1879. He took over the business on Robinson's death and continued the designs of various provincial theatres. He formed his own practice, Matcham & Co., in the 1880s and enlisted skilled craftsmen. His first major association came in the 1880s when he was employed to design and refurbish theatres belonging to the Revill family who owned many of the theatres throughout the UK at that time.

Matcham's most successful period was between 1892 and 1912 when he worked extensively for Moss Empires, a theatrical company headed by Edward Moss and run by Oswald Stoll. Under them, he completed 21 theatres, most of which were in the provinces. Also during this period, although not with Moss Empires, he completed the designs for the Tower Ballroom at Blackpool Tower and the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, both in 1894; and the County Arcade, Leeds, in 1900. The author Iain Mackintosh, writing for the Dictionary of National Biography in 1993, describes Matcham's theatre interiors to be superior when compared to the building's external designs. Matcham's use of cantilevers for the galleries allowed him to discontinue the use of columns, which would otherwise obstruct the audience's view of the stage. The auditorium decorations were often mixed with Tudor strap-work, Louis XIV detail, Anglo-Indian motifs, naval and military insignia, rococo panels, classical statuary, and baroque columns.

Matcham retired to Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, shortly before the First World War, where he died of a heart attack, brought about by a blood infection, in 1920. His biographer Brian Walker notes from the architect's personal archives that he was "a man of remarkable vigour and had an enthusiasm for life ... he possessed a tranquility of mind and a great sense of humour and fun."[1]

Legacy

Matcham's theatres were often mocked by architects during the five decades after his death,[3] and little care was taken by local authorities to preserve them during area regeneration programmes in the 1960s.[100] It was only after 1970 that his buildings were taken seriously and, according to Mackintosh, his genius was widely recognised.[3] The Theatre Museum, in 1995, acquired in excess of 7000 of Matcham's drawings. Of these, around 500 are highly finished and represent over seventy-five theatres or cinemas and about one-sixth of his total life's output.[3]

Plaque at the London Coliseum, unveiled by the Frank Matcham Society in 2014

The total number of theatres Matcham designed is unknown and has been the subject of much speculation. The architect Victor Glasstone estimated the architect's work to include 66 new theatres and the remodelling and restoration of 58 others, between 1879 and 1910;[86] Matcham's biographer Brian Walker lists him ahead of his contemporaries and counts 92 designs,[101] with the closest to him being Charles J. Phipps, with 72.[3] According to the theatre historians John Earl and Michael Sell, Matcham was the original architect for half of the 48 surviving theatres associated with him, and the rest he restored, altered or remodelled from existing buildings. A further 111 of his theatres were bombed during the wars, destroyed by fire,[3] or demolished as part of area regeneration, mostly during the 1960s.[100]

From the start of the 1900s Crewe and W. G. R. Sprague had started to make names for themselves in architectural circles. It has been suggested by various architectural journals that Crewe and Sprague were pupils of Matcham, and although Glasstone was sceptical of this in his 1975 book Victorian and Edwardian Theatres, the author Iain Mackintosh noted a clear Matcham influence in Sprague and Crewe's designs; he describes the former as being suaver compared to Matcham, whilst Crewe, although sharing a lot of Matcham's exuberance, was "more polished" because of his earlier training in Paris.[86] Sir Alfred Butt, writing in The Era, considered: "Frank Matcham lived for his work, and unquestionably was pre-eminent as a theatrical and music hall architect."[93] According to the historians, Roger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius, Matcham was "the most consistent and prolific architect of the later music halls... his buildings, mostly in the provinces and the suburbs of London, [were] equal or exceed in splendour [compared to] the metropolitan theatres and opera houses."[102]

On 22 November 2007 Matcham was commemorated by English Heritage when a blue plaque was unveiled[103] by the actor Timothy West and the actress Prunella Scales at his former London home, 10 Haslemere Road, Hornsey.[104]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. Charles Matcham originated from Andover in Hampshire, while Frank's mother, Elizabeth, was born and brought up in Islington, London. They married at St Giles in the Fields, then part of Holborn, Middlesex, in 1850. After briefly settling in Andover, shortly before the birth of the eldest child, Elizabeth, in 1851, the Matchams moved to Torquay owing to Charles's desire to capitalise on the increase in tourism in the seaside town.[5]
  2. George Bridgeman was born in 1839[7] and was the son of John Bridgeman and Mary née Soudon. Mary Luscombe Bridgeman, John's mother, was the proprietor of the family brewery business at which Charles Matcham worked.[8] The Bridgemans were also neighbours to the Matchams in Union Street, Torquay, and their probable landlords.[9] George first came to notice when at the age of 23, he helped to design a large residential development in the Roundham area of Paignton. George Bridgeman's employers were responsible for the designs of many local buildings including schools, public houses, and municipal structures. Bridgeman went on to form his own successful drawing office, shortly after Matcham left for London. He was later appointed as the chairman of Paignton Urban District Council and became their principal architect responsible for designing many of the buildings that still make up Paignton,[10] including the Palace Avenue development.[11]
  3. Robinson was a leading theatre architect in Victorian London. His rebuilding of the Old Vic theatre in 1871[3] was a particularly noted design. Later that decade he became a consulting architect to the Lord Chamberlain of the Household.[3][20]
  4. James Elliston (1852–1920) was born in Edinburgh. He was known as a hard-working entrepreneur and had a varied career both on and off the stage. He had been based in Blackburn since 1875 but had previously managed theatres in Liverpool, Bishop Auckland, and Durham.[31]
  5. The building was the first purpose-built, stone and brick theatre in Stockport. It introduced the latest designs in ventilation and featured an updated version of gas lighting. The auditorium had a capacity of 3,000 and featured tip-up seats in the dress circle and upholstered chairs in the boxes. Local building contractors were used at a cost of £12,000, a fee paid personally by Revill. The theatre was demolished in 1962.[33]
  6. Particular attention was paid to the roof which was decorated in crimson, green, electric blue and gold. Three large panels over the proscenium and sides of the auditorium depicted scenes of drama, comedy, poetry, and music. There were with life-size carvings of Ludwig van Beethoven, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Shakespeare. Two panels flanked the proscenium, one depicting music, the other, drama.[40]
  7. In 1996 around 10,000 original drawings were purchased by the Theatre Museum after they were found in a damaged and damp state. The drawings represented 75 buildings, 35 of which were either wholly or in part attributed to Matcham.[48]
  8. Francis Graham Moon Chancellor was born in Tasmania and was the lead architect for Matcham & Co. in Matcham's absence.[55] Chancellor was the company's chief surveyor and office manager. In 1931 he designed the new Sadler's Wells theatre[56] and in 1938, completed the State Cinema for Frederick's Electric Theatre circuit.[57] Robert Alexander Briggs possessed more of a business mind compared to his colleagues and was an engineer of good standing. He designed the stage machinery for all of Matcham's Hippodromes. He, along with Matcham, purchased the patent for his self-designed cantilever which was specifically used in theatre construction.[58]
  9. In Victorian England,theatre architects were not taken seriously in architectural circles and were often looked upon as being of inferior status.[61]
  10. The Empire Palace closed on 25 February 1961 and was demolished the following year.[78]
  11. One of the few existing public houses designed by Matcham is the Crown, which is attached to the London Hippodrome Theatre in Westminster, London.[83]
  12. The works have since been converted into flats, but the facade remains from the original designs.[85]
  13. Later, notable designs by the company include the new Sadler's Wells theatre in 1931,[56] and the State Cinema in Grays, Essex, in 1938.[57][89]
  14. Maria was born in 1858 to Jethro Thomas Robinson and his wife, Hannah née Beedham. Maria initially took her mother's first name at birth, but she went by the name of Maria for most of her life. She died a few months after her husband in 1920.[4]

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  2. Walker, p. 1.
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  8. "Growing Up On The English Riviera" by Gorel Garlick; Wilmore, p. 35.
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