Page 23 - RD_2015_12
P. 23
Reader Request
Her Majestys: A Pre-Fire View
The interior of Her Majesty’s Exhibition Street in 1911. The theatre opened in 1886 as The Alexandra
to the design of Nahum Barnet. It was re-modelled by William Pitt in 1900 at the instigation of J. C. Williamson who
had taken a long-term lease and who gave the theatre its current name. Pitt’s work included
re-designing the boxes to better integrate them with the proscenium. Further work was carried out in 1911 when
the proscenium was repainted in brown, cream and gold, the justification for this photo.
The spruce-up was in honour of a season by Dame Nellie Melba. In the centre of the curtain are the
embroidered letters HM. This was the interior destroyed by fire on 25 October 1929.
Image Source: Theatre in Australia by John West, Cassell 1978.
Photo requested by Peter Woolnagh, Crabbes Creek NSW.
CINEMARECORD 2003 23
