Jon Richardson: The Knitwit

There has been a theatre on George Street for almost 185 years. The first theatre was built in 1836, and a second in 1886. In 1908, the Dorrill family took over the venue and finally in 1934, the third Theatre opened; the ‘New Theatre’. Stanley Dorrill masterminded the rebuilding of the theatre as we know it today. He commissioned a new building from the well-known theatre architects William and T.R. Milburn of Sunderland. The Milburns developed the decadent art-deco interior with T.P Bennett and Sons, who also designed the Saville Theatre in London.