The Royal Public Rooms

Subscription Rooms, Hippodrome and Plaza Cinema

If you ever shop in Boots, in the High Street, and enter the store through the corner entrance, you will be walking across the site of the Royal Public Rooms, a one-time ballroom, theatre and cinema.

The first Assembly Rooms in Exeter were built by William Mackworth Praed in 1769 in Cathedral Yard - within a year the new building became the Hotel or as we know it now, the Royal Clarence Hotel.

On 17th October 1820, the purpose built Royal Public Rooms were opened, for a musical festival, at the bottom of Northernhay Place, adjacent to the New London Inn in New London Square. The building, constructed by Miss Congdon, was on the site that had been originally used for horsemanship and exhibitions. The ball room measured 92 ft by 41 ft and 40 ft high and could accommodate 700 people. Its purpose was to provide a public space for concerts, balls, exhibitions and other events. It also had a tearoom and separate exhibition rooms. It was 44 ft wide on the street. When it was first opened, sedan chairs would wait outside for parties attending concerts and balls. In 1823, the first hackney carriages were introduced by Humphrey Stark, who obviously found London Inn Square would provide plenty of custom from the Public Rooms and the New London Inn. 

Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale gave two concerts, one at 8pm and the second at 2am, at the Royal Public Rooms in 1847 – 1,600 paid 10/6, 15s and 1 guinea to see her perform with the gross receipts of £1,280. It was estimated that she was paid £800 for the two concerts. In 1878 Thomas Gardner was the lessee and in 1897 it was William Edwards.

First Film Show - 1907

The Royal Public Rooms became the venue for a film show in February 1907 with a lecture incorporating film about the life of trawler fishermen.

The Hippodrome Theatre and Living Pictures

By 1908 the building was taken over by Fred Karno who commissioned the architect Kendall to convert it into an Edwardian music hall, named the Hippodrome. It was opened on 2 November 1908. The main auditorium could seat 700 with a balcony and gallery seating a further 380. Charlie Chaplin is said to have appeared there, before he went of Hollywood. It was also used as an early cinema, giving Chaplin the chance to return, but this time on celluloid. Marie Lloyd and Harry Tate were two others who trod the Hippodromes boards.

The first night performance "...opened to overflowing houses with a variety programme that won general applause from all parts of the house." The programme included the "...drawing-room performance of the Dandies to the neat acrobatics of Archie Rogers, the comedy items of Ivy Proudfoot, Lenton and Lane, Bert Terrell, and Jack Pleasants, the clever burlesque of Rubart, and the eccentricities of old friend Rabbit, with a capital lot of living pictures at the finish."

As the programme of events shows, 'living pictures' were shown at the end of each performance. An advert for the first night stated "HIPPODROME PICTURES Showing all the Latest up-to-date Events.' The Hippodrome was not the first to show moving pictures in Exeter - the Victoria Hall had shown its first film as early as 1896.

Before the advent of television documentaries, spectaculars were staged that told the story of recent and historic events. In November 1912, the Hippodrome staged a re-enactment, by Charles and John Poole, of the sinking of the Titanic. The story from the departure at Southampton, to the collision with the iceberg and the sinking was presented as a series of eight tableaux - 'Unique mechanical and electrical affects, special music and the story was described in a thrilling manner'. In 1925, the Hippodrome was purchased by a Mr Percy Adams, the existing lessee, from the Exeter Municipal General Charities Trust.

The Plaza Cinema

The Hippodrome, with both live shows and cinema, was competing with the Theatre Royal, just a few dozen yards away on the other side of New London Square. Adams sold the Hippodrome in 1929 to Mr Vickery, from Taunton, who closed it and engaged architects Messrs Lucas and Langfords of Exeter to redesign the theatre into a cinema only. Messrs R C Lee and Co Ltd undertook the renovation, which included a gold proscenium arch around the screen.

On 6th February 1931, the Hippodrome, now named the Plaza Cinema opened its 875 seats as a talkie cinema, with Mr Lattimer as the manager. The King of Jazz which featured a young Bing Crosby and utilised the recently developed 2 strip Technicolor system was the first film to show at the Plaza. The second feature was the P G Wodehouse musical, Sally which was shot in black and white also with a Technicolor sequence. The sound system was by Western Electric, while the decoration around the screen was supplied by Daw Cinematograph Co Ltd.

By 1935 the manager was A G Firebrace. In 1936, the rival Savoy was built to replace the New London Inn, giving Exonians two cinemas within yards of each other.

A sheet of flame

This grand old building would not survive the blitz of 4 May 1942 and a hit from a single high explosive bomb destroyed it and created a conflagration in the buildings all around.

"......caused by a bomb which fell on the Plaza Cinema almost entirely demolishing the building. This building was a converted theatre of the old type and a very bad fire risk; the explosion caused a sheet of flame which seemed to envelop the premises immediately."

Neither of the Plaza's nearest rivals, the Savoy/ABC, and the Theatre Royal survived the 20th-century, leaving this part of Exeter to the serial shopper.