Group    From 1818 

Royal Coburg Theatre / Royal Victoria Theatre / Old Vic

Categories: Theatre

Group

This theatre designed by the German architect Rudolphe Cabanel, began life in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre under the patronage of Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Prince Leopold of Coburg. In 1834 it was renamed the Royal Victoria Theatre under the patronage of Victoria, Duchess of Kent. It went through some financial difficulties in the 1870s and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace. In 1880 it was taken over by Emma Cons, see there for more information.

In George Eliot's 1876 novel 'Daniel Deronda' a character, Mirah aged 19, comes to London looking for the Coburg Theatre where her father had worked when she was a child and the family living in nearby 'Colman Street', near to Blackfriars Bridge. She is told "... that's all done away with. The old streets have been pulled down; everything is new." We can't find anything to substantial this description, nor the existence of a Colman Street nearby.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Royal Coburg Theatre / Royal Victoria Theatre / Old Vic

Commemorated ati

Emma Cons - Old Vic

Our thanks to our deciphering-of-difficult-to-read-inscriptions consultant, J...

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Emma Cons - W1

Cons was not herself wealthy so it seems odd to describe her as a philanthrop...

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Lilian Baylis - SW9

Lilian Baylis, 1874 - 1937, manager of the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells Theatre...

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Morley mosaics - WBR - Emma Cons

Emma Cons, born 1838. Emma was a politician, suffragette, educationalist,busi...

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Morley mosaics - WBR - Lilian Baylis

Lilian Baylis, born 1874. A niece of Emma Cons, Lilian flourished as a theatr...

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Other Subjects

T. E. Collcutt

T. E. Collcutt

Architect. Born Thomas Edward Collcutt, in Jericho, Oxford. President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1906 to 1908. He designed the Imperial Institute building in Kensington, the ...

Person, Architecture, Theatre

1 memorial
Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy

Punch's Puppet Show was first performed in England and witnessed by Samuel Pepys 1662, in Covent Garden. And still popular in 2015.

Concept, Children, Theatre

2 memorials
Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The fourth theatre on the site since restoration times, this is the oldest theatre in use in London. In 1745 the National Anthem had its first public performance here, in an earlier building.

Building, Theatre

2 memorials
Emma Cons

Emma Cons

Social reformer and theatre manager. Born London. Knew and was influenced by Octavia Hill, John Ruskin and Henrietta Barnett. Her involvement in the temperance movement led to her taking on the lea...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, Social Welfare, Theatre

3 memorials
Bedford Music Halls, Old and New

Bedford Music Halls, Old and New

Performers and patrons were depicted by the artist Walter Sickert at the turn of the century.

Place, Theatre

1 memorial