As a part of my research, I have restored to working condition the 60-way Light Console built in 1946 for the Theatre Royal, Bristol, UK. The console is owned by Jim Laws, and is currently housed at Rose Bruford College. The restoration project has been sponsored by a grant from the Society for Theatre Research and sponsorship by Electronic Theatre Controls.
I have collated some information on each of the 17 Light Consoles made in the table below – click the links for details of each one. Some additional general information and links to other resources appear below.
Dates of Manufacture, Removal and Preservation:
Console | Installed | Last Known Date | Preservation |
---|---|---|---|
Original | 1935 | Removed from Palladium in 1949 | V&A Theatre Museum collection, London. |
S’Carlos Opera House, Lisbon | 1940 | ||
South Shore Icedrome, Blackpool | 1946 | ||
Theatre Royal, Bristol | 1946 | Replaced by PR control c.1962 | Owned by Jim Laws. At Rose Bruford College. |
Palladium Theatre, London | 1949 | Replaced c.1969 | V&A Theatre Museum collection, London. |
National Opera House, Ankara | 1949 | ||
Palace Theatre, Manchester | 1949 | Replaced by Light Palette in 1981 | Preserved at Gerriets, in their Vogelsheim factory in south-east France. |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London | 1950 | Replaced in 1975 | Jim Laws. |
Empress Hall, Earl’s Court, London | 1950 | ||
Stoll Theatre, Kingsway, London | 1950 | Moved to ‘Talk of the Town’ (old London Hippodrome) in 1958 | |
Festival Hall, London | 1951 | Removed by Jim Laws c.1975 | DHA Lighting, London. |
Coliseum, London | 1952 | ||
Aula Magna, Caracas | 1954 | ||
Adelphi Theatre, London | 1954 | Converted to something equivalent to a CD in 1962 | |
Her Majesty’s Theatre, London | 1954 | Removed by Greg Hamlin in 1978. | Greg Hamlin private collection. |
Plaza Cinema, Caracas | 1954 | ||
Theatre Polski, Warsaw | 1955 | Reported as ‘recently removed’ in 1983 |
Other Light Console Resources:
- The Strand Archive
- A student dissertation on the Light Console.
Miscellaneous Light Console Documentation:
- A scanned copy of a Light Console manual, in PDF format.