The Palace Theatre has connections to Alfred Hitchcock, Cliff Richard and even Harry Houdini. When it opened in 1907 a typical evenings entertainment would have included music, comedy, theatre and much more.
The Palace Theatre was built by W.G.R. Sprague in the Adam (neoclassical) style with an exterior that resembled his Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End of London. The interior included various seating areas including the stalls, a dress circle, several upper circles and box seating for the most expensive tickets. The backstage could accommodate up to 60 performers and the building employed concrete as a fire safety feature.
As a variety theatre it hosted a range of arts performances, including comedians, clowns, musicians, and later (in the 1950s) even nude shows to compete with the rise of TV. It also hosted many operas, musicals and pantomimes; a production in 1944 was the 24th annual resident pantomime, and so it must have been hosting them since 1920. Alma Cogan also reportedly made her debut performance at the Palace.
The building opened in 1907 with a variety performance that included a Bioscope (a type of early movie theatre). In 1937 its rival theatre, the Royal County Theatre (Friar Street), burnt down, and so its owners (County Theatre Reading) took over the Palace in 1939 and ran it until 1960. It was then demolished within the next 2 years.
In 1909 the theatre installed a projector so it could show films too. In the early 1900s there weren’t any cinemas in Reading, instead, films were shown anywhere there was space. So they were shown in between other acts at the theatre. There are also records of films being shown in The Town Hall and in Forbury Gardens.
The Palace Theatre’s Film Projector (known as a Bioscope) used to show films like this one made by pioneering film maker Charles Urban. This film was made using a camera designed by John Prestwich, he was the son of Reading photographer William Henry Prestwich:
Readipop’s Moving On choir share their memories of the place theatre with us on the first Reading on Tour project.