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Vaudeville Theatre
James Street, Guildford
Swan Guildford Historical Society:
The Vaudeville Theatre in James Street Guildford was built by George Hiscox, publican at the Guildford Hotel, in 1897. It included a stage and auditorium, seating for 600 people, a dressing room and toilets at the back of the building.
The theatre was said to include 'every modern appliance' against fire, including nine escape doors described in a local newspaper as a great acquisition to the Valley of Swan.
Over the years the theatre was well used by the Guildford community for a variety of acts such as light opera, dances, balls, fancy dress parties, concerts, school celebrations and Christmas parties. Anglican church balls at this venue were huge, running for two nights, one for adults and one for children on the following night. Catering was lavish.
The building, located next door to the Guildford Hotel, still operates today as a second hand shop. It has also been used as a garage/mechanics business, as shown in this photo taken in 1981.
Michael Grogan (in Facebook):
My father went there and watched the silent movies and he said they ran the power off a Ford T model at the rear and it was later a panel beaters owned by the Dawson family.
References and Links
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 May, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/cinemas/vaudeville.html (it was last updated on 6 December, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.