Scagliola and Chips
With an extensive back-catalogue of theatre architecture blog posts under my belt, every now and then I get an email enquiry from someone I don’t know about stuff I’m very interested in. A few weeks ago, I had an enquiry from Hayles and Howe who specialise in decorative plasterwork. Their interest was because a substantial number of their website hits came via my URL and they were curious why. (The answer is the Gaiety, Isle of Man).
They very kindly sent me a photo of a project they knew I would love to see. On first sight, it looks like some sort of tent structure with an inverted fountain as the centrepiece. Putting it into context though, this is actually a scaffolding birdcage structure in order to provide a working platform for a high ceiling. When you look more closely at the picture, the scale starts to become apparent.
Those scaffolding platforms look small but they are twice the height of the Artisans. Also notice in the far right, what looks like a large tilted lantern and the top of some form of ornamental column. These reminded me of a similar decorative feature in the London Playhouse but a trip to Google showed that these were the capitals of two enormous tent type poles supposedly supporting a massive canopy above the proscenium. The picture is from the wonderfully evocative Beacon theatre in New York, an escapist Movie House apparently built for the legendary showman Sam “Roxy” Rothafel in 1926. (Never actually operated by him, however, according to Wikipedia).
Take a look at these various restoration shots, here, here and here.
By the way, Scagliola isn’t a type of pasta, it is a decorative finish designed to look like marble.
