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London Coliseum — Frank Matcham’s Edwardian Masterpiece
A sweeping view towards the stage of the London Coliseum, revealing the extraordinary richness of Frank Matcham’s great 1904 auditorium. The Coliseum opened on 24 December 1904, commissioned by the impresario Oswald Stoll as something more ambitious than another London music hall. Stoll envisaged an enormous people’s palace of entertainment, capable of presenting variety and spectacular productions to audiences on an unprecedented scale. Matcham — then at the height of his career — provided the architecture to match that ambition. The result was one of his greatest achievements. Around the enormous proscenium, Matcham piled architectural effect upon effect: paired and stacked boxes surmounted by domed canopies, columns and arches, richly modelled plasterwork, scagliola and marble effects, and crowning sculptural groups incorporating Roman chariots drawn by lions. Above it all rises the great decorated ceiling and dome. Historic England describes the Coliseum as “one of Matcham’s finest surviving achievements.” Yet Matcham was never interested in decoration alone. The Coliseum also demonstrated his mastery of theatre planning and engineering. The extensive use of structural steel cantilevers allowed the tiers to project into the auditorium without the supporting pillars that had obstructed views in many earlier theatres, helping to provide remarkably good sightlines across a house of enormous capacity. Behind the proscenium lay an equally ambitious theatrical machine. The Coliseum was equipped for the spectacular variety entertainments envisaged by Stoll, including Matcham’s remarkable triple revolving stage and sophisticated stage machinery — making the building as technically adventurous as it was architecturally exuberant. Its subsequent history has been remarkably varied. Variety and music hall were followed by periods of cinema use before Sadler’s Wells Opera moved to the Coliseum in 1968. The company opened its first season here on 21 August 1968 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Six years later, in 1974, it adopted the name by which it is known today — English National Opera. Between 2000 and 2004, the Coliseum underwent a major four-year restoration, completed in time for the theatre’s centenary. The work preserved and revitalised one of the most spectacular surviving interiors of Matcham’s career. More than 120 years after its opening, the Grade II* listed Coliseum remains a working theatre rather than simply a monument to theatrical history. It continues as the London home of English National Opera while also welcoming ballet, musicals and other productions — a breadth of entertainment entirely appropriate to the great popular theatre that Stoll and Matcham created in 1904. Looking towards the stage and the magnificent Matcham proscenium from the upper reaches of the auditorium.
