The transformation of Covent Garden's old Flower Market is now complete with the opening of the new Theatre Museum to house Britain's richest holding of theatrical material. This developed from the gift, in 1924, of Mrs Gabrielle Enthoven's remarkable collection of theatrical memorabilia, but later acquisitions, including the collections of the British Theatre Museum and the proposed Museum of the Performing Arts, widened the scope and increased the size of the collection until it far outgrew the limited space available at South Kensington. The radical solution to this problem was to create a new museum in Covent Garden.
Within the new museum it has been possible to mount
an exhibition illustrating major developments, events and
personalities from throughout the performing arts - theatre, mime
and pop, melodrama and ballet, the circus and the opera house.
The story is told and the atmosphere created with the
help of stage models, costumes, prints and drawings, posters,
puppets, props and a variety of memorabilia. In addition to
this semipermanent display, there are two temporary
exhibition galleries, named in honour of Sir John Gielgud
and Sir Henry Irving.
The museum's paintings collection is displayed in the Lower Foyer, an Edwardian re-creating designed to serve as a meeting place and as foyer to the adjacent platform theatre. This will be used during the day for audio-visual presentations and also for lectures and smallscale events.
The most striking feature of the Ground Floor Foyer is the golden angel, or "Spirit of Gaiety", which was rescued from the top of the Gaiety Theatre in the Aldwych. Also saved from destruction and displayed on the ground floor are the elephant- decorated boxes from the Palace Theatre, Glasgow, and the old Duke of York's box office from which the entrance tickets to the museum are sold.
(from "Theatre Museum")
|Author| |Bibliography| |Theatre|