Theatre Royal, Gloucester
former theatre in Gloucester, England
The Theatre Royal at Gloucester, at which Charles Dickens once performed, was an important theatre in the history of the city.
The theatre was built in 1791 by John Boles Watson in upper Westgate Street. Watson died in 1813, and the theatre was sold to the businessman John Blinkhorn in 1857. Charles Dickens once performed the trial scene from The Pickwick Papers to a capacity audience. At its centenary in 1891, Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry both appeared with members of the Lyceum Company. In 1902 the theatre was sold again to Charles Poole who changed it to a variety theatre and picture house. Myriorama shows were given. The theatre closed in the early 1920s and was replaced by Woolworths in 1922. The site is currently a discount store.
The Theatre Vaults public house was located nearby.
The public source identifies “Theatre Royal, Gloucester” as former theatre in Gloucester, England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Theatre, Royal and Gloucester.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16901533. Authority coordinates are 51.866, -2.247. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1791, 1813, 1857 and 1891.
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This entry incorporates text from “Theatre Royal, Gloucester” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.