This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
What is today known as The Loft Theatre Company began as the Warwick and Leamington Dramatic Club which was founded in 1922. The first performance was The Silver Box which was staged at the Spencer Street schoolroom in 1923.
It became the only theatre in town when the Theatre Royal (see article) was converted to a cinema in 1932. However, other venues such as Urquhart Hall and the Town Hall (see article) were used from time to time for performances of various kinds.
The Club established a permanent home in a first-floor loft at No 58A Bedford Street in 1932. This was at the rear of what had been the Bedford Hotel which faced the Parade. It then became The Loft Theatre Company and performed at many venues in town. The Loft Theatre Company was evicted from the premises in Bedford Street in 1942. The company found that the Colonnade cinema in Victoria Colonnade was available for sale in 1943 but it was soon requisitioned for war purposes.
Victoria Colonnade lay alongside the river to the west of Robbins’s or Victoria Baths. The colonnade was marked on a map of 1852 but was not named on it. There was no other building marked in the area to the west of the baths. The first reference to the name Victoria Colonnade was in 1861.
In 1862 a spacious and commodious Drill Shed was erected to the west of the baths. However, a new Drill Hall for the 10th Warwickshire Rifles was erected off Adelaide Road (now known as Riverside) in 1870 and the drill hall at Victoria Colonnade was used as a venue for entertainment with the name Victoria Pavilion. It had various names including Colonnade Theatre and Victoria Grand Circus. Charles Dickens mentioned a grand circus building in Dombey and Son, perhaps on this site. It was also a riding school in the 1880s. The circus building appears on the maps as a roughly circular building and part of the outline of the present-day theatre is curved. Victoria Pavilion probably closed in 1906 and was sold and rebranded the Colonnade Theatre.
As noted above, the new premises were not easily acquired because the Colonnade was requisitioned by the Camouflage Unit for use from 1943 to 1945. However, the Loft Theatre did manage to occupy the building from 1945. The Colonnade premises were converted by Loft Theatre members and included redundant seating from the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford.
There was a devastating fire at the theatre in 1958 and thanks to various offers of help the theatre was restored; the council waived the charge for the removal of fire waste. There was another fire in November 1964 and the Loft Theatre established temporary headquarters at No 11 Church Street. On this occasion the building had to be demolished and the present theatre was built. The theatre company performed at Urquhart Hall from 1964 to 1968. The new building opened 1968 when the first play was Private Lives by Noel Coward.
A two-storey extension was built in 1987. There was another fire in 2001 which was in a building in Spencer Yard where costumes and furniture were stored. Many costumes were destroyed but much furniture was saved. It was believed to a case of arson.
There have been various proposals to redevelop Spencer Yard and the surrounding area as a cultural quarter. In 2005 there were discussions about converting Spencer Street church to become the home of the theatre. A plan for development was drawn up in 2006 with a modern office building in place of the Loft Theatre, facing the river. In 2009 there was another stillborn proposal to demolish the theatre and replace it with a four-storey building with two restaurants and offices above. In 2018 the idea for a Cultural Quarter around the theatre and wider area has been revived.
Michael Jeffs, 2018
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS are presented at the end of this page — https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/articles-from-royal-leamington-spa-a-history-in-100-buildings/