Theatre Royal, Gloucester

The Theatre Royal in Gloucester once stood in upper Westgate Street. John Boles Watson built it in 1791, and it became a key playhouse in the city. Charles Dickens performed there, playing the trial scene from The Pickwick Papers to a full house. By its centenary in 1891, Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry appeared with the Lyceum Company. The theatre later became a variety theatre and picture house under Charles Poole in 1902. Myriorama shows were staged during its time as a variety venue. It closed in the early 1920s and was replaced by Woolworths in 1922. The site now holds a discount store, and the nearby Theatre Vaults public house once stood close by. The building itself no longer exists, but its history remains part of Gloucester’s past. Visitors today will not find the theatre standing, yet the stories of Dickens, Irving and Terry linger in the city’s memory. The former site in Westgate Street marks where one of Gloucester’s oldest theatres once thrived. The Theatre Vaults public house nearby offers a reminder of the area’s entertainment past. Though the building is gone, the legacy of performances and cultural moments endures.