Stoll Theatre
22 Kingsway,
London,
WC2 6NR
22 Kingsway,
London,
WC2 6NR
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 13 comments
Laraine:
I would love to have the programme that your wrote about. I would scan it and put copies on my website.
Regards.
The exterior and interior are featured in Laburnum Grove(1936)available on DVD.
Hello, on going through my Dad’s papers after his passing I found a programme for the Stoll Theatre Kingsway commencing Monday April 20th. On the back it has the next weeks programme for week of April 27th 1942. My Dad was stationed in Red Hill during WW2 on 457 Squadron. If anyone out there is a collector I am happy to put it in the post.
Hello everyone. I came upon this site after searching for the Stoll Picture Theatre, which I had not previously heard of. Ken’s links photos are superb, and show the exterior to great effect. However, we also have rainy days (and nights) here in London, and I found this link, which shows a wet London from years gone by. The Stoll is at 1:14-1:23 in the clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGp55bOrHvM
Enjoy.
I was lucky enough to see a number of productions at the Stoll as a child, including Oklahoma!, the Festival Ballet, Antonio and his Troupe amongst others. The auditorium was spectacular. In reply to Paul Lewis, London may not have possessed any cinemas to compare to the New York Roxy or Capitol, but the Granada (Gala) Tooting and State Kilburn would give them ‘a run for their money’ in their hey days – in fact, they are none-too-shabby now.
Check out at:
http://playingbingo.co.uk/land-bingo/club-finder/l/london-gala-bingo-mitcham-road-tooting-gallery.php
The Stoll was London’s greatest theatre loss especially considering it was unique in being housed in such an outstanding building worthy of protection status even without the theatre inside! London never possessed any really great movie theatres on a par with say the N.Y. Roxy or Capitol but this was it’s finest live theatre.
The Stoll Theatre, photographed in August 1955 during the run of “Kismet”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allhails/2783357767/
Ken- I recall that the tram tunnel portal, complete with tracks, was still in place when I looked for it circa-1990. Another classic London theatre which I “just missed” in 1959 was the second Gaiety Theatre near Charing Cross Station. Site of many a famous musical, I later learned that it was razed about 1957 after standing vacant for a long while. The Stoll really was a splendid gem of a building !
Ron, If ever you return, you will see the Kingsway tram tunnel is still there. It is now partly used as a road tunnel, partly used as offices for the Thames flood defence and the entrance at the top of Kingsway (beside Holborn) is still unused and has the cobble road and tram track still in place!
I have a book (somewhere in my attic) which has a nice interior photograph of the Stoll Theatre. It was indeed a splendid theatre, unfortunately gone before I came to live in London.
The Stoll had a very long and elegant facade. I saw a photo once of the interior, taken from a balcony and looking toward the stage. Very nice ! When I sailed to England for the first time, as a youth in 1959, I went looking for the Stoll and was disappointed to learn that it had recently been demolished. Close to it was a tunnel portal for tram cars and I learned that the trams had also recently gone. So I “batted zero” that afternoon !
Thanks, Ken, for this great write-up, yet another wonderful asset of this website.
A vintage photograph of the Stoll Picture Theatre from the archives of English Heritage:
View link
Two vintage postcard views of the Stoll Theatre, as the London Opera House:
View link