Theatres

The theatres I knew in the 50s and early sixties were in the Croydon area. The faded splendour of the Grand Theatre with its slightly moth-eaten red velvet and chipped gilding left me in no doubt that I was having an evening at the theatre – I loved it and saw a good number of plays by local and touring rep companies. The Hippodrome was where I saw the worst Macbeth ever which was so bad that it caused much laughter; is my memory fading or did I see Vladimir Horowitz, a truly great pianist, playing mainly Chopin there? The Ashcroft theatre in the Fairfield Halls – cannot remember what I saw there but, as mentioned in another post, I did see many great concerts in the Halls. Of course, there was the Davis Theatre too which was locally believed to be the biggest theatre in Europe with in excess of two thousand seats – tended to be used as a cinema and a popular concert venue rather than as a theatre.