The citizens of Windsor were furious that the theatre had been turned into a chapel. They set a splendid example to their descendants by subscribing the £6,000 needed to build a fine new theatre on the site of the present building. This was opened in 1815 and continued with fluctuating fortunes until it was gutted by fire on 18th February 1908.

Postcard The ruins of the theatre after the fire
Windsor Museum

An account of the disaster in the local press seems more concerned with the prowess of the various fire brigades called to the scene than with the sad fact that Windsor was once more without a theatre. Fortunately its owner, Sir William Shipley, was a prosperous and public spirited man who was determined that the old building should be replaced by one worthy of its setting.

The present building was completed in 1910 and opened on 17th December that year. For some years Sir William Shipley remained in personal control of the theatre’s activities. Like many businessmen, however, he found theatre management too bewildering, frustrating and unpredictable and in 1921 he leased the building to Messrs Collins and Gladwin. When Mr Collins died, Jack Gladwin became sole Lessee and successfully pursued a policy of housing touring companies of every kind.

Bill Litten, a stagehand who worked and lived in Windsor, remembered a circus at the theatre in 1926 in which a large bear on a chain terrified the chorus girls who had to squeeze past the animal as its paw stretched towards them with inches to spare. There was a lioness with cubs and three chimpanzees, one of whom escaped and climbed up the backcloth to the delight of the audience who thought it was all part of the act. The same year he remembers the theatre putting on The Last of Mrs Cheyney.

The coming of talking pictures in 1928 knocked the bottom out of business. A year or two later Mr Gladwin converted the theatre into a cinema and subleased it to a local syndicate who used it as a dumping ground for third-rate pictures.

Three years later John Counsell rescued it briefly from its ignominious fate. For eight months he strove in vain to establish a repertory company with very little capital and in face of the obstinate indifference of all but a faithful few of the public. After several attempts to start again, he eventually succeeded and formed a repertory company in March 1938. Six weeks later the theatre achieved some of its former glory. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended a performance of The Rose Without A Thorn. The next morning the theatre was headline news and from that moment it may be said that the Theatre Royal and its company were accepted as an essential part of the Windsor scene.

This set a precedent which has been frequently followed by the present Queen and almost every other member of the Royal Family. In 1988 the company celebrated its fiftieth birthday, an occasion graced by the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

When the war came, John Counsell joined the Army. His wife, Mary Kerridge, his manager Arnold Pilbeam and Oliver Gordon as producer saw the theatre through the vicissitudes of the war years. Mary was responsible for running the theatre, and directed several productions; she wrote the book for all the pantomimes, which are still used as the basis for those presented today; and she helped tirelessly with the theatre’s day to day management, giving advice and encouragement.

Since then the theatre has seen many changes, both in policy and structurally. From weekly repertory with a resident group of actors the company evolved to the production of plays, independently cast, each running for three weeks to an average audience of 14,000. Its traditional pantomime is justly famed for inventiveness and spectacle. Various periodic improvements to the interior structure and amenities of the building culminated in the elegant splendour of its present decor, designed by Carl Toms in 1965 and refurbished in 1973, 1994 and 2018.

Bill Kenwright
Photo: overtures.org