Let me tell you sad stories of the death of theatres ...... Manchester's Theatre Royal

There will be those who recognise the mangled link to Shakespeare, * and that is all to the good given that this is the story of our own Theatre Royal on Peter’s Street and the statue of the man himself which stands above the entrance.

Closed for business, the Theatre Royal, 2024

It opened in 1845 and can claim to be the oldest surviving theatre in the city.

That said it closed its doors in 1921 and since then has been a cinema, a bingo hall and even a night club.

My 1850 copy of the Stranger’s Guide to Manchester offers up that it could “hold 2,147 people and on the roof, there is a large reservoir capable of holding 20,000 gallons of water in the event of a fire….”**

And it was here sometime in 1970 that I saw the film Woodstock which documented the famous music festival the previous year.

All you ever wanted to know, 2026

I can’t remember too much of what I saw and even less of the theatre.  Nor if I am honest, have I given it much of a glance over the years as I whizz down Peter’s Street.

All of which changed recently after a visit to a new exhibition at Central Ref which explores the links between Shakespeare and the city.  It is simply entitled Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse Exhibition and runs through till May 30th.

That said there is nothing simple about the story which encompasses the American actor, Ira Alridge along with “local businessman John Knowles who commissioned the Theatre, actor-manager Charles Calvert and Rosa Grindon who forged a career as the Victorian age’s leading female Shakesperean scholar” and crosses the Atlantic to America.

The Theatre Royal mode, 2026

Of all the bits on display I was drawn to a model of the Theatre Royal which has its own story.  It comes from Derby Museum and dates possibly from the 1960s.

And as someone who spent his summer holidays out of London visiting my grandparents in Derby that museum was a tad special.  A decade earlier I spent heaps of time mesmerized by a giant model railway which took up a large area of the museum.  Alas the Theatre Royal did not arrive in Derby until long after I had stopped visiting, but it was still a sort of connection.

I could say more but then that would spoil a trip to Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse Exhibition so I won’t.

Mr. Shakespeare and that model of the Theatre Royal, 2026

Suffice to say there is lots to see.

For more details please contact:

r. Ian Nickson. Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester, ian.nickson-2@manchester.ac.uk

Kattie Kincaid, Project Lead for the Shakespearean Garden,  kattiekincaid@hotmail.com

Location; Manchester Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester, M2 5PD

Pictures; Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and remaining images from Shakespeare and Manchester: A Victorian Powerhouse Exhibition, 2026, courtesy of Ian Nickson

*let us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings" , Richard II, Act 3 Scene 2, William Shakespeare 1592

**Duffield, H.G The Strangers Guide to Manchester, 1850