Coronet Theatre, London


The Coronet Theatre, formerly The Print Room, is an Off West End theatre located in the former Coronet Cinema in London. The building has its origins as a theatre in 1898; the modern company was founded in Westbourne Grove, West London, and opened in September 2010. It produces a programme of theatre, art, dance, poetry, film and music. The theatre is run by Artistic Director Anda Winters.
The Coronet Theatre currently operates using the 195-seat main auditorium, and a smaller, 100-seat black box theatre and studio space called The Print Room.
The Coronet Theatre stages lesser-known work by classic authors such as T.S Eliot, Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter, and new works by contemporary dramatists such as Brian Friel and Will Eno.

History

Building origins

The Coronet Theatre was designed as a theatre by leading architect W. G. R. Sprague at a cost of £25,000 and opened in 1898. It was described in The Era as a "theatre of which the whole country may be proud". Famous actors who appeared at the theatre in its early days included Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt. It suffered, however, from being outside the traditional London theatrical district of the West End, whilst being sufficiently close to that district to find itself in competition with it.

Switch to cinema

In 1916, films were shown at the theatre for the first time, as part of variety programmes mixing live and filmed performance.
In 1923, it became a cinema full-time, and capacity was reduced from 1,143 to 1,010 seats, but it retained, as it still does, its original theatre interior, consisting of stalls and two upper tiers. However, the boxes at each side of the auditorium, next to the stage, were removed in 1931. The stage was blocked off, and the cinema screen is placed within the proscenium arch. The projection equipment was housed in the former dress circle bar.
In 1931, the cinema became part of Gaumont British, and it was at this time that the theatre boxes were removed. In 1950, it was renamed the Gaumont and the upper tier was closed for seating, and capacity was therefore reduced to 196 in the dress circle and 319 in the stalls, a total of 515.
In 1972, the Rank Organisation proposed to demolish the building, but a local campaign based upon its architectural merit and its interesting history secured its survival and, indeed, refurbishment. In 1977 it was sold by Rank to an independent cinema operator, and its name reverted to the Coronet. The new owners replaced the seating in the stalls so as to provide more legroom, reducing total cinema capacity to 399 seats.
In 1989, the building was again under threat, but it was protected by a Grade II listing and the threat passed. In 1996, a second screen with seating for 151 was opened in the stage area.
In 2004, the Coronet was acquired by the Kensington Temple, a large local Pentecostal church congregation. However, it continued to offer mainstream independent cinema programming, without any censorship or Christian slant. It was, for example, the cinema at which David Cameron was reported in the press to have watched Brokeback Mountain on its opening night.
In June 2014, it was announced that the Coronet had been acquired by nearby fringe theatre The Print Room, which planned to make it its new home.

Print Room original premises

The theatre began in a converted 1950s warehouse which had served as a graphic design workshop in Westbourne Grove. The venue had two spaces: an 80-seater studio, which was used for its larger productions, and a 40-seater space for smaller theatre pieces, play readings and art exhibitions.

Print Room moves to new premises

In July 2014, it was announced that The Print Room was taking over the Coronet Cinema in Notting Hill Gate as its new home. In May 2019, Print Room at the Coronet re-branded the company to the original 1898 name The Coronet Theatre.

Productions

The Coronet featured in the 1999 film Notting Hill, as the cinema where a sad Will Thacker watches a film with his big love Anna Scott after they have separated. Also, it is the home of the character Matt Hatter in the animated series Matt Hatter Chronicles.

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