London Theatre The Adelphi
The Strand W.C.2
Originally called The Sans Pareil and founded by a merchant named John Scott, John was something of an inventor for discovering
"Old True Blue," a blue dye for stockings, linen and cotton. John Scott is also credited for being the producer of an early magic lantern.
Turning his dying and magic lantern warehouse in The Strand, into a makeshift theatre, so his daughter Jane M. Scott might indulge her fantasies for the stage. With the magic lanterns giving an unexpected heighten to the plays, “the source of light was a magic lantern placed at a distance behind a semitransparent screen.... a movable carriage and adjustable lenses enabled the images to be increased or decreased as the effect (the illusion of ominously advancing or retreating figures) required. The ghostly figures were painted on glass 'sliders,' the extraneous parts of which were blacked out so as to concentrate the light, and the audience's fearful attention, on the luminous images"
After a couple of years becoming somewhat of a success it was decided in 1804 to pull the warehouse down and build a purpose-built theatre opening its doors for the first time on 17 November 1806. By 1819 the Sans Pareil had changed its name to the Adelphi so called from the Adams brothers Adelphi development opposite. The theatre we see today was designed by Ernest Schaufelberg in 1930.
London Time
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