Theater Royal, Nottingham (must see)

The Theater Royal is part of the city's Royal Centre, which also incorporates the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. The theater attracts major touring dramas, opera, ballet, West End musicals and an annual pantomime. The Theater Royal was completed in 1865, after six months of work and costing the clients, lace manufacturers John and William Lambert £15,000. The Classic façade and Corinthian columns designed by Charles J. Phipps are still a major Nottingham landmark.

The noted theatrical architect Frank Matcham was engaged to build the new Empire Palace of Varieties next door. The Theater Royal was closed between the end of April and September 1897 for remodeling. The works included building new dressing rooms at the rear to clear part of the site for the Empire. Matcham also refashioned the existing auditorium. Frank Matcham pioneered the use of cantilevered steel in his designs, and patented his design. This allowed balconies to be built without the use of supporting pillars; which had characterized the work of the previous generation of theater architects, such as Phipps. Without pillars, lowering the stage and increasing the rake of the tiers: sight lines were much improved and the audience capacity increased to around 3,000.

The theater has four tiers of seating, the stalls, dress circle, upper circle and balcony with a total capacity of 1,186 seats. It has seven fully licensed bars including The Green Room Cafe Bar on the ground floor and The Restaurant on the dress circle level.