Originally planned as a square concert hall to form part of a large development with restaurants and public rooms for Messrs Spiers & Pond, on the site of the old White Bear coaching inn, at Nos 219-221 Piccadilly and 8 & 9 Jermyn Street. The decision was taken to provide a theatre instead while the building was in carcase.
The theatre and restaurant building has a fine classical stone façe to the Circus in Second Empire manner which, ‘despite alterations and disfigurements... may still be regarded as the best surviving work of Thomas Verity'.
This was the first completely subterranean theatre in London, the auditorium volume being entirely below the level of the Circus. In safety terms this was regarded as beneficial, a rush up a staircase being less prone to mishap than a rush down, but the change of design intention during building produced safety deficiencies which led to closure by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883.
After alterations to improve fire separation and ventilation the theatre reopened in 1884. At this time electric light was installed. Relatively minor alterations since then have left the auditorium close to its 1884 form, itself a modification, rather than a reincarnation, of the 1873 design. It is, thus, one of the best preserved of the West End’s few pre-1890 theatres, most others having been built, rebuilt or much altered after the London County Council came into existence in 1889.
It has two balconies supported on slender iron columns. The dress circle is serpentine-fronted, terminating at the curved box fronts, which are at a slightly higher level; the upper circle is in a continuous lyre-shape, meeting the proscenium wall and incorporating boxes. Flat circular ceiling. The recent redecoration, with rich and generous hangings in the boxes, has restored the elegance and warm embrace of this delightful auditorium. There are splendid coloured Minton tile and mirror decorations to vestibule, stairs etc, marred only by a heavy ‘Chippendale’s’ style retouching of figure painting on the entrance hall ceiling. The decoration system has been extended into the new bars, using old tiles (figure designs by A S Coke and possibly W S Coleman) and coloured glass together with new, exactly matched material.
The restaurant suites and Long Bar (all now independent of the Theatre) have also been well restored and adapted, the latter with its striking ‘glistering’ ceiling. The underground location imposes severe limitations on the stage in overall dimensions, height (there is a minimal grid over, with no flying space) and get-in arrangements (formerly through the hinged front of a SL box, with a ramped gangplank down to stage level). Back stage planning, dressing rooms, etc have been improved in the rebuilding of the surrounding property but get-in conditions remain tortured and the opportunity was missed to gain a convenient crossover passage.
This is one of the most important surviving mid-Victorian theatres in Britain, rivalled only by the Old Vic, Royal Opera House, Theatre Royal Margate and Tyne Theatre & Opera House.
1870-74, with the annexe Nos. 222-23 of 1878-79 and its extension to Jermyn Street of 1885 - all by Thomas Verity.
Painted stone, slate roofs. Rich eclectic classicism owing more than a little to Charles Garnier. 3 storeys with lofty 2nd floor and dormered mansard and pavilion roof. Original block with 3-window wide centre slightly recessed from one-window wide pedimented pavilion-wings. Ground floor has channelled and panelled piers with canopies to restaurant and theatre entrances in wings, that to theatre with ornamental iron brackets and enrichments with white glass lettering to valence. 1st floor has square headed windows between pilastered piers rising from dentil corniced entablature to support entablature with enriched frieze, in the wings the windows are tripartite and the flanking piers have aediculed segmental pedimented niches containing statues. The central 3 windows of the 2nd floor, set on an enriched panelled pseudo-pedestal, are arcaded with Ionic half-columns flanking the piers, the spandrels carved with draped female figures, festoons and foliage; the wings on this floor have Ionic columned Venetian windows with fan patterned lunettes and are flanked by pairs of Corinthian pilasters. Deep entablature with pediments over wings set against high pedestalled parapet. The annexe continues the storey height and above the mid C.20 shop front is generally similar in the design of its 3 window bays to the original, the 2nd floor having the same central Venetian window motif as on the pavilion wings. Ornamental iron window guards to 1st floor and stone colonette balustrading to 2nd floor windows bowed out as balconette to centre window of original block.
Of original interior features of the Criterion Restaurant that survive the tunnel vaulted "Long Bar" with its "glistening" gold mosaic decoration and the first floor banqueting room are of note. The Criterion Theatre itself is exceptional in being located in the basement. Approached by foyer corridors and staircase lined with richly polychromed tiles and painted tile panels alternating with large plate mirrors the auditorium is still substantially that of 1874 with the 1884 remodelling. 2 tiers of balconies, lyre shaped above horseshoe, supported on slender wreathed columns and with open work fronts all of cast iron. 2 more substantial columns with superimposed octagonal shafts support the flat circular main ceiling with shallow Rococo relief panels radiating around laylight. Enriched proscenium frame. As the theatre is in the basement scenery can only be moved via the auditorium - hence the openable prompt-side box; likewise there is no fly space and the safety-Curtain slides up in two parts. The Criterion is a unique survival of a Victorian entertainment complex.