London Theatres in 1900: The Apollo

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Arthur H. Beavan continued his survey of London's theatres, in Imperial London, published in 1901, with this look at the Apollo:

But the very latest addition to the Metropolitan theatres is Mr. H. Lowenfeld's Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue, opened in February 1900, next to the Lyric, the only instance in town of two theatres standing side by side.

It is a handsome building with a facade in the French Renaissance style, and is constructed entirely of stone, brick and steel.

It has a seating capacity for 1200 persons, each of whom - for the theatre is pillarless - gets a complete view of the stage.

The decorations are in crimson, white and gold.

Another feature is the special construction of the orchestra invented by Mr. Lowenfeld, intended to produce the proper relation in the sound of the various instruments to each other, and to avoid any possible muffling by loss of tonality.

The floor space of the orchestra is in the form of a hollow oval, and the surface is hard and highly glazed.

A wooden sounding-board is placed over this hollow surface, and a three-tier rostrum on glass legs stands on the sounding-board.

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The violins are placed on the highest tier, the wood, wind and remaining strings on the next, whilst the lowest part is assigned to the brass and drums.

By this means the thin violin sound-waves rise before being mixed with the stronger wood, wind and bass sounds, whilst the brass and drums are so removed that they do not interfere with either. The hollow floor and sounding-board truly reflect the whole mass of tone. The idea is a free adaptation of Richard Wagner's construction at Bayreuth.

Electric lighting is used throughout, and an attempt will be made to light the stage so as to obviate shadows.

Next: London's Theatres in 1900: The Queen's Opera House