Detailed Information

The site was originally occupied by The Marina which opened in April 1893. The large open interior was capped with a semicircular belfast roof. The venture was not a success and within a year the owning company went bankrupt before the building was sold and subsequently reopened as the Pavilion Theatre in February 1894.

The Pavilion Theatre was intended to match the theatres and dance halls at other resorts in the UK such as Blackpool where the Tower Ballroom and Grand Theatre were popular. The Pavilion Theatre was used for concerts, music hall, exhibitions, bazaars, and in one case roller skating.

The Pavilion Theatre ultimately closed after a handful of seasons before theatre architect Frank Matcham was brought in to remodel it. Matcham used the skeletal infrastructure of the previous theatre, and parts of the semicircular roof of the original theatre are still visible. Aside from the front buildings, Matcham’s new theatre was built within the footprint – and under the roof of – the previous theatre.

Matcham may have been selected in part for his success in designing the Grand Theatre and Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, a seaside town similar to Douglas on the Isle of Man. His plans were presented in March 1899, construction started shortly thereafter, and the new theatre opened as the Gaiety Theatre and Opera House in mid-July 1900 with a West End production of “The Telephone Girl”.

In 1932, film projection facilities were added to allow for the growing demand to visit cinemas.

In 1971, the dilapidated building was bought by the Max government for £41,000. Restoration work started in the late 1970s but it wouldn’t be until the 1990s that a full restoration to the theatre’s original spledour would be completed, ahead of the theatre’s centenary in the year 2000.

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