Lyceum Theatre

Located in Newport, Gwent (formerly Monmouthshire) in South Wales. The Victoria Hall was built in 1876 and later became the Victoria Theatre. It was a magnificent building with a central portico and balcony and 10 Corinthian columns along its facade. It was gutted by fire on 28th May 1896.

Noted theatre architect W.G.R. Sprague was brought in to design a new theatre within the walls of the former Victoria Theatre. It opened on 4th October 1897 with a production of “The Geisha”. Seating was provided for 1,250-seats in the Renaissance style auditorium. Seats were located in Stalls, Pit, Dress Circle, Balcony, Gallery & 6-Boxes at the rear of the Dress Circle and 2-large boxes on each side of the 27feet wide proscenium. The stage was 35feet deep and there were 10-dressing rooms. In the early years it screened films as part of the programme, but this had stopped by 1914.

In 1929 it screened its first talkie “Marion Davies in "Not So Dumb” and was converted into a cinema, from 1934 using a Western Electric(WE) sound system. There was also a cafe inside the building. The seating capacity had been reduced to 1,032-seats. Into the 1950’s the stage was brought into use for occasional variety performances to supplement the film presentations. The Lyceum Theatre was closed as a cinema on December 3, 1960 with Audie Murphy in “Duel at Silver Creek” & Christopher Witty in “Life in Emergency Ward 10”. The lease had run out, and new operators took over presenting live shows featuring local amateurs and films. The last presentation was a pantomime which closed the theatre on 18th February 1961.

It was demolished in 1967 and a new ABC cinema was built on the site (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures as the City Cinema).

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