Charles J. Phipps

Biography

Charles John Phipps (25 March 1835 – 25 May 1897) was an English architect known for more than forty theatres he designed in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

He began his own practice in his native Bath in 1857, designing buildings and furniture in the Gothic Revival style. In 1862 he gained his first theatre commission, the Theatre Royal, Bath, which generally retaining the Georgian character of the original theatre on the site. He moved to London in 1868, where he designed a variety of non-theatrical buildings, including the Royal Institute of British Architects’ own premises.

Four of his West End theatres survive: the Vaudeville, the Lyric, the Garrick and Her (now His) Majesty's. Eight others have been rebuilt in the twentieth century (including the Savoy and Sadler's Wells) or demolished (including the Gaiety and Daly's).

In the British provinces Phipps's theatres have fared better, with the prominent exception of the Theatre Royal, Exeter, which burned down in 1887 with large loss of life. Nine others have been destroyed by fire or bombs, rebuilt or demolished, but eight have survived, including the Theatres Royal at Bath, Brighton, Glasgow and Nottingham and theatres in Aberdeen, Eastbourne, Edinburgh and Northampton. Of his surviving theatres, all but one are Listed buildings – officially designated as of particular architectural or historic interest deserving special protection.