Chartered Surveyors St. Helens Merseyside

Approximate Population: 102,629

The past twenty years have seen major redevelopments in St. Helens, Merseyside. This has included mass pedestrianisation of much of shopping area, with traffic being directed around the town centre on existing roads. There have been several noteworthy theatres in St.Helens. The first Theatre Royal was built on Bridge Street and was a large wooden barn. This was open for several seasons until heavy snow caused the roof to collapse. It was then replaced by a new Theatre Royal on Milk Street. This building can still be seen today, in its newer guise as The Citadel arts centre.

The Theatre Royal on Milk Street consisted of stalls, two balconies and an ornate interior. It became extremely popular with touring theatre and music hall, playing host to the likes of Vesta Tilley and George Formby and some of the best known theatre productions of the day. Most of its popularity was due to the manager, Wallace Revill. Due to the growing audience figures, Revill built a new theatre on Corporation street and transferred the Theatre Royal name to this, and the Theatre Royal remains on the site to this day. The Milk Street theatre was then purchased by the Salvation Army where it was more or less completely re-built internally. It was re named SA Citadel. It remained in this use for nearly 90 years, until the Salvation Army moved to a newer site. It was then opened as The Citadel arts centre in 1988, and was completely refurbished again in 2000. Today it is an extremely popular venue for live music, dance, drama and art.

The Corporation St Theatre Royal opened by Revill, was relatively short-lived as it was destroyed by fire. It was then replaced by the current building which was designed by perhaps the greatest theatre architect in history, Frank Matcham. The theatre was designed with a baroque style with ornate balconies, chandeliers and boxes. It was hit by disaster again in the 1940s when part of the celling collapsed, with several fatalities as a result. In the 1960s the theatre was purchased by Pilkingtons and was gutted internally leaving it in the rather drab state it is seen in today.

The beautiful auditorium was destroyed as was the ornate frontage, simply replaced with a huge glass sheet. The theatre has remained open ever since and is today a very popular venue with top class touring acts and of course, the annual Pantomime. The front of the theatre was refurbished in 2001, however the inside of the theatre still remains a grey painted reminder of a catastrophic decision in the 1960s which destroyed a masterpiece of theatre architecture.