Opera House [Blackpool]
Teatro dell'Opera di Blackpool
Theatre building in Blackpool, United Kingdom
theater in het Verenigd Koninkrijk
Edificio teatrale a Blackpool, Regno Unito
Opera House
The Winter Gardens is a vast entertainment complex containing a number of individual entertainment venues constructed between 1875 and 1939. The Pavilion was one of the first buildings to be constructed and was converted to a theatre by Thomas Mitchell in 1889. The present auditorium of 1896-97 is by Wylson & Long. The proscenium stage was blocked off in the 1980’s and converted to a restaurant, but the auditorium is still a most impressive space. It has a splendidly opulent music hall interior, with two balconies running round three sides and a richly decorated ceiling. Very little of Wylson & Long’s work has survived to the present day. The Blackpool Winter Gardens Pavilion survives as their most important monument. In 2017 Blackpool Council commissioned a Statement of Significance for the Pavilion and this has shown that the Pavilion is in fact one of the only remaining auditorium examples in the United Kingdom that exemplifies and spans the period of the end of music hall and the development of variety. As such it is of significant importance.