Mermaid Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre at Puddle Dock
Puddle Dock
Puddle Dock, in Blackfriars in the City of London, was formerly the site of one of London's docks. It is now the site of the Mermaid Theatre.The area was dramatically altered by major works in the 1960s, involving the reclaiming of foreshore of the Thames at Puddle Dock and the rebuilding of Upper...

, in Blackfriars, in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 and the first built there since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new theatres to abandon the traditional stage layout; instead a single tier of seats surrounded the stage on three sides.

History

The 20th-century theatre was the life's work of actor Bernard Miles
Bernard Miles
Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century....

 with his wife, Josephine Wilson. His original Mermaid Theatre was a large barn in his house in the St. John's Wood area of London. This seated 200 people, and during 1951-1952 it was used for concerts, plays and a celebrated opera production of Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...

with Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

, Maggie Teyte
Maggie Teyte
Dame Maggie Teyte DBE was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song.-Early years:Margaret Tate was born in Wolverhampton, England, one of ten children of Jacob James Tate, a successful wine and spirit merchant and proprietor of public houses and later lodgings. Her parents...

 and Thomas Hemsley
Thomas Hemsley
Thomas Jeffrey Hemsley, CBE is an English baritone. He made his debut in 1951 as Purcell's Aeneas at the Mermaid Theatre, London, and debuted at Glyndebourne in 1953....

, conducted by Geraint Jones, which was recorded by HMV. For the third season in 1953, the Mermaid Theatre was moved to the Royal Exchange.

Miles was encouraged to build a permanent theatre and raising money from public subscriptions, he oversaw the creation of the new building on land formerly occupied by a warehouse. This site was close to the location of an abortive attempt to build a theatre (named Porter's Hall) for the amalgamation of the Children of the Queen's Revels and Lady Elizabeth's Men, during the Jacobean
Jacobean
Jacobean indicates the period of English history that coincides with the reign of James I of England :*Jacobean era*Jacobean architecture*Jacobean literature*Jacobean English...

 period. This project, undertaken by Philip Rosseter
Philip Rosseter
Philip Rosseter was an English composer and musician, as well as a theatrical manager. From 1603 until his death in 1623 he was lutenist for James I of England. Rosseter is best known for A Book of Aires which was written with Thomas Campion...

 with distant backing from Henslowe
Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London...

 and Alleyn
Edward Alleyn
Edward Alleyn was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of Dulwich College and Alleyn's School.-Early life:...

, was ended because of complaints from the neighborhood's residents.

The new Mermaid Theatre opened in 1959 with a successful production of Lock Up Your Daughters
Lock Up Your Daughters
Lock Up Your Daughters is a musical based on an 18th century comedy, Rape Upon Rape, by Henry Fielding and adapted by Bernard Miles. The lyrics were written by Lionel Bart and the music by Laurie Johnson...

and it was the venue for many other very successful productions, such as Cowardy Custard
Cowardy Custard
Cowardy Custard is a musical revue and was one of the last Noël Coward shows staged during his life. It was devised by Gerard Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. A book, also titled Cowardy Custard, was published in connection with the revue, similarly celebrating the Coward image.The biographical...

(often cited as responsible for the revival of interest in Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

's works) and including an annual staging of Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...

, with Miles reprising his role of Long John Silver
Long John Silver
Long John Silver is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Silver is also known by the nicknames "Barbecue" and the "Sea-Cook".- Profile :...

, which he also played in a television version. The Mermaid Theatre also ran the Molecule Club, educating children about science.

In July 1961, the poet and author Sylvia Plath read her poem, "Tulips" at the Poetry at the Mermaid Festival, sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The program notes that there were twelve commissioned poets at the festival, one of which was Plath's husband, Ted Hughes.

Gomba Holdings, a property company owned by Ugandan Asian businessman Abdul Shamji and his family, which had interests in the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...

 and Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...

, bought the theatre in the mid-1980s in the hope of redeveloping the Puddle Dock site. Bernard Miles' tenure as honorary artistic advisor was terminated, and the theatre's importance declined. In 1989 Abdul Shamji was sentenced to 15-months in prison over the Johnson Matthey
Johnson Matthey
Johnson Matthey plc is multinational chemicals and precious metals company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...

 bank collapse, and Josephine Wilson died in 1990 and Bernard (by then Lord) Miles in 1991. Marc Sinden
Marc Sinden
Marc Sinden is an English theatre producer, documentary director and actor. His father is the actor Sir Donald Sinden.-Theatre:...

 took over as artistic director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...

 in 1993 but left the next year, then actor Roy Marsden
Roy Marsden
Roy Marsden is an English actor, who is probably best known for his portrayal of Adam Dalgliesh in the Anglia Television dramatisations of P. D. James's detective novels.- Education :...

 and Vanessa Ford took over the running of the theatre for a few months prior to its eventual closure.

After a further change of ownership the theatre was slated for demolition in 2002 as part of redevelopment plans. Already it had fallen into disuse, the buildings being used more often as a conference centre than a theatre. A preservation campaign by actors and other supporters attempted to reverse the decision. In April 2003 Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...

, Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...

, ordered the council to block the demolition. As of March 2005, new plans had been submitted for the redevelopment of the site. Nothing materialised and the building continued to operate primarily as a conference centre. The BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....

 used it for occasional concerts, and the BBC recorded of a popular weekly radio show, Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....

that showcased musicians like of violinst Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...

 and singer Josh Groban
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...

.

Loss of theatre status, and redevelopment plans

In September 2008, the Corporation of London City Planning Committee, against the advice of the Theatres Trust and noted actors, producers and artistic directors, granted a certificate that stripped the former playhouse of its theatre status. The move may save the developer £6 million worth of Section 106 funding which it had previously agreed to pay in lieu if it closed the 600-seat Mermaid; the company could be released from the obligation because no theatrical productions have taken place for more than ten years. The existing plans would see the Puddle Dock building converted into a conference centre and fitness suite, plus offices, a nightclub and retail and restaurant space. Campaigners are concerned that the entire building may be demolished. John Levitt, former chairman of Save London’s Theatres Campaign, which led the high profile battle to save the venue, branded the decision “a tragedy” and “sheer meanness”.

External links

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