Frank Matcham

• Born: 22 November 1854 at Newton Abbot, Devon
• Married:    9 July 1877, at St James' Church, Pentonville Hill, Maria, (Effie) the younger daughter, of Jethro Robinson
• Died: 18 May 1920 at 28 Westcliff Parade Westcliff-on-Sea Southend Essex
• Burial: Highgate East Cemetery London 22 May 1920

Frank Matcham was probably the most prolific British theatre architect. Between 1879 and 1912 he designed about 150 theatres, over twice as many as his nearest rival, and nearly a quarter of all the theatres built in this period. Such buildings as the Coliseum and Hippodrome in London, the Opera Houses of Blackpool and Belfast, and the Bristol Hippodrome, with their combination of functional efficiency and ornate opulence, are to many people the very essence of what a theatre should be. Yet even in his own day, Matcham, the son of a Devon brewery manager - was considered by gentleman architects of the day not quite comme il faut, too "commercial" to be entirely respectable. His designs were illiterate in that is they failed to conform to the strict rules of architectural composition though the overall effect was spectacular. Ewin Sachs, a contemporary architectural critic, was notably dismissive. Conceding him a mention in his 1896 Modern Opera House and Theatre (given Matcham was a subscriber), Sachs wrote: "There is no doubt that his plans have a certain individuality and his schemes generally serve the utilitarian purpose of the occupiers in a satisfactory manner. However, to fully illustrate such theatres in a volume dealing with theatre architecture in its best sense would be anomalous as to include the ordinary jerry-builder's cottages in a volume on domestic architecture." Posterity's official judgement has been more appreciative. The Coliseum is listed Grade II*, so are the Hackney Empire, the Blackpool Grand and the charming but (by Matcham standards) comparatively restrained Richmond Theatre. Only 24 of his theatres now remain in more or less complete condition, but are still regarded as among the best theatres we have

Matcham was working at a time in the late Victorian and Edwardian period when the demand for entertainment was booming. However, stricter rules on public safety required the replacement of many existing theatres. Matcham was very efficient. He could rapidly produce a scheme for a theatre, often on a very restricted site, that met all his client's functional requirements and looked spectacular. The foundation stone of the Metropolitan Music Hall, Edgeware Road was laid on 7 August 1897 and the theatre was open for the Christmas pantomime in the same year. Although Matcham was rebuilding within the partial shell of an earlier theatre, a four month building contract still remains an exceptional feat. He often prepared colour-washed drawings which served two purposes. The colour coding indicated the materials to be used but the stunning drawings also helped to sell the schemes to prospective clients.

Francis (Frank) Matcham was born on 22 November 1854 at Newton Abbot, Devon, the second child of Charles Matcham, brewery manager, and his wife Elizabeth. Shortly after his birth the family moved Torquay where Charles Matcham was employed as manager to Mary Bridgeman's Torquay Brewery and Frank attended Babbacombe School. Around 1868, aged 14, he was articled to George Soudon Bridgeman, architect and civil engineer in Torquay, but he moved to London to re-commence his apprenticeship, this time as a quantity surveyor. He then returned to Bridgeman as a senior assistant. Sometime in 1876 or early 1877 he returned to London to work in the Mayfair office of the theatre architect Jethro Thomas Robinson, theatre consultant to the Lord Chamberlain. On 9 July 1877 he married Robinson's younger daughter Maria. When Robinson died suddenly a year later Matcham took over his practice, completing Robinson's unfinished designs for the Elephant and Castle theatre, opened June 1879. Matcham’s association with the North West of England began in 1886 when he was asked to alter the Theatre Royal in Blackburn for James F. Elliston. Elliston had first moved to Bolton as manager for Charles Duval at the Theatre Royal in 1875, but in 1878 took over the theatre on the latter's retirement and held the reins there until his death on Christmas Eve 1920.  He was also the lessee at a number of other theatres and a particular friend of the Revill family. When William Revill's Theatre Royal, Stockport, was destroyed by fire in August 1887, Elliston persuaded him to engage Frank Matcham for the rebuild.  The Revills were a family famous in the entertainment industry in the north and were related by marriage to Frederick W. Purcell, another theatre owner of the same generation as Elliston and Matcham. Purcell was born in Liverpool in 1850. In 1877, he went to Bury where, in conjunction with W. J. and Wallace Revill, he built the Opera House, which lasted until 1888. So successful was he that he eventually employed Frank Matcham to build the new brick and stone theatre which opened on Boxing Day 1889 and where Elliston became lessee. In 1883 he had leased, with the option of purchase, the Theatre Royal, Rochdale, and he engaged Matcham to undertake alterations to the auditorium and facade, also in 1889.  Through the Revills he met Henry Irving who laid the foundation stone at the Theatre Royal, Bolton, (17 October 1888). Matcham gave him a silver trowel with a representation of Irving as Hamlet carved on the ivory handle. This was the first of a number of such occasions when Irving officiated at Matcham theatre openings, and a friendship between the two men grew and continued until the end of Irving's life.

 Matcham never joined the RIBA. He retired in 1912 and died suddenly at his home, 28 Westcliff Parade, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex on 17 May 1920 as a result of blood poisoning. His widow survived him for less than six months.

Address
1903        9 Warwick Court Holborn London WC

Residence
c1888        Pondside House, Bishops Waltham Hampshire
1895-1904    10 Haslemere Road, Crouch End, London N8 9QX, London Borough of Haringey
1928        28 Westcliffe Parade Southend-on-Sea

Obituary: Builder28 May 1920 page 649
Obituary: The Stage 1920

Archive: Matcham's original drawings are housed in London's Theatre Museum

Reference: Building Design 25 January 2002 Page 14-15 - Exhibition review Richmond Theatre