Fluidr / JohnJennings995's "In Explore" set

Castlemaine's Theatre Royal was built in 1858 to replace the first canvas and timber Theatre Royal which burnt down in 1857. Local residents raised a public loan to enable the lessees Messrs Rainer and Gingell to rebuild the theatre. The result was a more substantial building constructed of random coursed local sandstone and brick with a roof of Morewood and Rogers galvanised iron tiles. The new theatre had a capacity for 225 people in the stalls and 675 in the 'Pit'. The front section of the building housed a hotel known as the Royal Hotel which closed in 1910 after a hearing before the Licences Reduction Board. The theatre continued and adapted through various stages as a bioscope and picture theatre from the early twentieth century.

Extensive alterations took place in 1938-39 to convert the theatre into a cinema with a stalls area and dress circle accommodating 972 patrons. The building's facade was rendered and given a Moderne styling characterised by strong horizontal bands, a stepped parapet and glazed decorative tiles to wall surfaces beneath the awning. The 1930s Moderne inspired detailing extends throughout the building's interior. The key elements are the oak stair, 1930s light fittings, exit signs and the fluted pilasters and patterned friezes on the walls and ceiling of the auditorium. From the early 1980s the building was also used as a discothèque, theatre, live music venue and theatre restaurant, as well as a cinema. Sections of nineteenth century decorative schemes including wallpaper survive on interior walls hidden by later accretions. The building continues to operate as a cinema.

Tags: Royal Theatre theater theatre Castlemaine Victoria historic heritage Australia architecture pub hotel Royal Hotel art deco