Remembering Liverpool Structures - The Teutonic Hall

 

In 1845 several dilapidated houses on Lime Street were demolished to make way for road widening. Following this the Teutonic Hall, originally designed by Edward Tuton, was erected. The Hall was a public space but after ten years the interior was separated into two areas, the ground floor was occupied by Allsopp's New Crystal Palace Waxworks and the upper floor was the Teutonic Hall and exhibited Hamilton Dioramas. From the early 1900s the Diorama had been a feature of many touring music hall programmes. Dioramas, also known as Panoramas, were huge vertical scrolls with painted scenes unwound to present illuminated and changing panoramic views. In 1859 the top floor was converted into the Theatre Variete, under new ownership of Wilson and Montague and in April 1863 presented the first of the Charles Christy Minstrel Shows which were to become the most popular and longest-surviving entertainment at the Hall. In 1865 stage plays were introduced with famous actors such as Brinsley Sheridan, Charles Wyndham and Charles Dickens. The theatre was renamed in 1868 as the St James's Hall and Operetta House, with entertainment consisting of operas, ballets and plays but from the 31st of October 1870 it became the home of the minstrels again.

On the 2nd of May 1875, the theatre was destroyed by fire but amazingly the fire was stopped before it spread to the waxworks below. Rebuilt with shops and an Oyster bar on the ground floor and a new Theatre built above with a capacity of 1,000, it retained the name St James's Hall and opened some years later on the 1st of May 1876. It was then taken over by James Kiernan who opened The Tivoli Palace of Varieties on the 2nd of March 1896 where on the Bill for the opening night was Marie Lloyd, engaged at considerable expense, but the building as a theatre was demolished in 1898. It lay empty until in 1906 Vesta Tilley's husband Walter de Frece completely rebuilt it to the designs of Bertie Crewe. From the 23rd of November 1909 it was known as the Palais de Luxe, the first time to be known as a cinema.  This was under the control of the Weisker Bros, and was advertised as the finest cinematograph entertainment in the United Kingdom, with Comedy, Drama, Sport, Science and Art, accompanied by a high class orchestra. With continuous performances from 3.30pm – 10.30pm, patrons were advised that they could come when they liked and stay as long as they pleased. Admissions remained the same as 1907,  circle 6d and 1/- and stalls 2d, 4d and 6d with the additional service providing tea between 4pm – 6pm for patrons paying 6d and 1/-.

In June 1913, The Liverpool Palais de Luxe Co was formed. Under the new company the cinema became the first in Liverpool to have silent films accompanied with sound, this was made possible by the sound-on-disc system, Edison Kinetophone,  the advertisements stated:  'You see the man, you hear his voice – Greatly accompanied by the Majesties the King and Queen'.

The Cinema ran for 50 years and apart from two closures, one for a month in 1941 after bomb damage, and the second after a fire in 1951 from which the Cinema was modernised. The front being covered in grey and black faience tiles. The tower was removed and the upper part featured the theatres name in neon and above the main entrance was a stainless steel motif of a motion picture cameraman. It was very successful until it finally began to lose audiences and eventually closed for good on the 24th of October 1959 and was demolished and the site redeveloped with shops and a cafeteria.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/01/remembering-liverpool-structures-abc.html