Prince's Theatre

The Prince’s Theatre once stood on Oxford Street in Manchester. Built in 1864 for £20,000, it opened with Shakespeare’s The Tempest under Charles Calvert, the city’s leading actor-manager. Calvert played Prospero while his wife took Miranda, and The Times praised the packed house and the evening’s success. The theatre soon became known for Calvert’s lavish, historically accurate Shakespeare productions. Its interior was remodelled in 1869 by Alfred Darbyshire, adding 300 seats and a painted frieze by Henry Stacy Marks above the stage. The Prince’s introduced innovations such as tip-up seats and early entry tickets for a premium. In 1874 it hosted the first performance of Alfred Cellier’s comic opera The Sultan of Mocha. After the First World War audiences dwindled as cinemas grew more popular. By the 1930s the theatre struggled to survive and gave its last show in April 1940 before being sold to ABC cinema. The building was demolished soon after, but plans for a cinema were abandoned because of the Second World War. The site now lies beneath Peter House, a large office block finished in 1958. Marks’s frieze was removed and later installed in the new Royal Exchange Theatre. Though the theatre itself is gone, its pioneering role in Manchester’s cultural life remains part of the city’s history.