Last week I wished Shakespeare a Happy Birthday with a photo of the pop-up Shakespeare’s Rose theatre in York in 2018. Friends in Kingston will know the significance of that picture, and it is not simply because York is my favourite city in the UK (and I went to University there).

Soon after I was elected to Kingston Council in 1997 I was asked to represent the Council on Kingston Theatre Trust. Our chair was the broadcaster David Jacobs, who was the Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the Borough and who took a keen interest in the cultural life of the area.

Our mission was to build a theatre in Kingston, and at that stage we were planning a traditional proscenium stage with a fly tower. St George’s plc was being encouraged to bring new life to the river front by building luxury flats and improving the access. The Council owned some of the land in the development parcel, which became a useful bargaining ploy. As part of the planning agreement St George’s was to construct the shell of a theatre, and we eventually got outline planning permission for it.

The Theatre Trust had applied to the Arts Council for capital funding and it was a huge blow when the application was refused. At one stage it looked as though the project would have to be shelved, but, in 1997, with Lib Dems in control, Council decided to go ahead with a feasibility study. The challenge was to see whether we could create a low budget “warehouse-style” theatre.

I clearly remember the meeting of the Theatre Trust when we were presented with the results of that feasibility, which included a proposed new design for the building. A gasp went round, because the main auditorium was based exactly on the floor plan of the recently excavated Rose Theatre in Southwark. That theatre was built in 1587, some 12 years before the better known Globe Theatre was constructed nearby.

The Globe Theatre had already been brought back to life at its original location with Sam Wanamaker’s replica Shakespeare’s Globe.

The film Shakespeare in Love, which had been released in 1998, featured a set which depicted the original Rose. Although it captured the three stacked galleries it wasn’t a very accurate reconstruction of the stage itself. In Shakespeare’s time the Rose had a wide almond shaped stage, with no pillars, rather than the square thrust stage in the film, which is more like the one at the Globe.

Our theatre was to be a modern interpretation of the Southwark Rose, so not surprisingly it became known as the Rose Theatre, Kingston.

The current layout of the main auditorium is pretty much as you see in the ground floor plan. It has thirteen sides, which help the acoustic, and a pit area. In a space that seats over 800 people the actors are always close to the audience. However the spaces outside the auditorium were redesigned several times before they arrived at their final form.

The Rose Theatre Kingston finally opened in January 2008 – it had taken a long time to get there, but it is still thriving as a fairly unique joint enterprise of the Kingston Theatre Trust, Kingston Council and Kingston University.

Please note

We have been in full self-isolation since 16th March to protect my husband whose immune system is compromised.

If you are in self-isolation then join the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group.

You can find my previous Isolation diaries here.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.