Terry Pilcher
The Granville Theatre, Fulham
, 1953
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches
Signed
Provenance
The Artist's Family
Note: Located in the Walham Green area of the west London district of Fulham. The Granville Theatre of Varieties opened on 19th September 1898.
From 1910 until at least 1915, the Granville Theatre of Varieties was in use as a cinema and for that use the seating capacity was reduced to 850. It was still listed in the Kinematograph Yearbook 1937 edition, possibly screening films on Sundays only, a day when live performances were not allowed. It went back to variety productions on its stage, and from 1942 it was re-named Granville Theatre, when it was in use as a playhouse theatre, staging small scale plays.
The Granville Theatre was closed in 1950. In 1952 it was used extensively as a location for the film “Tread Softly” starring, Francis Day, Patricia Dainton & John Bentley. Following this it was converted into a film studio. The building itself remained unaltered, apart from a leveling of the main orchestra stalls floor. The film studio used closed in 1956 and the building lay empty and unused.