Hi Curlew, great to hear from you. You could well be our ‘missing piece’, as we too have struggled to find photos of the original interior! I’d be particularly interested to know what the staircase between the foyers looked like – it’s heartbreaking that it was still there so recently but is now gone. The plans lay everything out quite clearly: the stalls bar was in the cellar (which explains the unusually beautiful tiled pillar we found down there!) and the circle bar was in the room off the circle foyer, the one with the hopper window that you wondered whether might have been an office. Satchwell actually designed the theatre originally without any bars, but added them on revised plans later. The plans themselves are something to behold too, so beautifully detailed and incredibly evocative of the period.
I’d love to chat with you more about it – email to follow!
Well, curlew is right on the money :) Phase 2 has been scrapped (they’re building up instead of out now) and the Palace lives to see another day!
I’ve been reading this site with interest; it’s great to see such support for the Palace out there – and the links to your galleries and pages are fab.
I thought you guys would be interested to know (not public info yet, just for you!) that the Palace Theatre is, indeed, on the market and that we are in the process of forming a Building Preservation Trust in order to buy and fully restore the theatre, circa 1st March 1937 :)
Even now an enormous amount of Roland Satchwell’s original build remains – I spent a happy half hour the other day poking around the SL fly gallery, complete with all 28 original hemp lines, rolled scenery and various 50yr old graffiti on the bricks surrounding the ladder!
So much remains: doors, light fittings, door knobs, tiles, glass… how could anyone do anything other than restore this beautiful, old, tenacious building!
We have spent time studying Satchwell’s original plans, and have so far talked to The Theatres Trust, the Architectural Heritage Fund, the Twentieth Century Society, the Heritage Lottery Fund, local regeneration officers, Huddersfield Civic Society and the DCMS – who are currently deciding whether or not to award the theatre Grade II listed status, on which much depends.
I must point out that we are right at the beginning of this process and the Palace is by no means out of the woods; until the listing comes through and/or we are in a position to fund the acquisition (which we are not yet) there’s still the risk someone could snatch it away (seriously, if you know anyone who could spare a coupla hundred thousand, point them our way, please!)
I would really love to hear you thoughts/comments/opinions on this. Again, we are right at the beginning of this journey, and not all steps have yet been covered (I seem to spend all day every day on the phone or laptop!) hence no publicity as yet. I just felt you guys deserved to know! Will post a link to our website too as soon as we’ve finished tweaking it.
Hi Curlew, great to hear from you. You could well be our ‘missing piece’, as we too have struggled to find photos of the original interior! I’d be particularly interested to know what the staircase between the foyers looked like – it’s heartbreaking that it was still there so recently but is now gone. The plans lay everything out quite clearly: the stalls bar was in the cellar (which explains the unusually beautiful tiled pillar we found down there!) and the circle bar was in the room off the circle foyer, the one with the hopper window that you wondered whether might have been an office. Satchwell actually designed the theatre originally without any bars, but added them on revised plans later. The plans themselves are something to behold too, so beautifully detailed and incredibly evocative of the period.
I’d love to chat with you more about it – email to follow!
Well, curlew is right on the money :) Phase 2 has been scrapped (they’re building up instead of out now) and the Palace lives to see another day!
I’ve been reading this site with interest; it’s great to see such support for the Palace out there – and the links to your galleries and pages are fab.
I thought you guys would be interested to know (not public info yet, just for you!) that the Palace Theatre is, indeed, on the market and that we are in the process of forming a Building Preservation Trust in order to buy and fully restore the theatre, circa 1st March 1937 :)
Even now an enormous amount of Roland Satchwell’s original build remains – I spent a happy half hour the other day poking around the SL fly gallery, complete with all 28 original hemp lines, rolled scenery and various 50yr old graffiti on the bricks surrounding the ladder!
So much remains: doors, light fittings, door knobs, tiles, glass… how could anyone do anything other than restore this beautiful, old, tenacious building!
We have spent time studying Satchwell’s original plans, and have so far talked to The Theatres Trust, the Architectural Heritage Fund, the Twentieth Century Society, the Heritage Lottery Fund, local regeneration officers, Huddersfield Civic Society and the DCMS – who are currently deciding whether or not to award the theatre Grade II listed status, on which much depends.
I must point out that we are right at the beginning of this process and the Palace is by no means out of the woods; until the listing comes through and/or we are in a position to fund the acquisition (which we are not yet) there’s still the risk someone could snatch it away (seriously, if you know anyone who could spare a coupla hundred thousand, point them our way, please!)
I would really love to hear you thoughts/comments/opinions on this. Again, we are right at the beginning of this journey, and not all steps have yet been covered (I seem to spend all day every day on the phone or laptop!) hence no publicity as yet. I just felt you guys deserved to know! Will post a link to our website too as soon as we’ve finished tweaking it.
:)