Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Tivoli Theatre (Sydney, N.S.W.)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1893-1929
History
There were two venues in Sydney that carried the name of the Tivoli Theatre. This one sited at 79-83A Castlereagh Street started its life as the Olympic Circus in 1851. By 1852 the venue had been converted to a theatre and by 1854 was known as the Royal Albert Theatre. Between the 1860s and the 1890s the building was known as the Scandinavian Music Hall, St James Hall, Sullivans Athletic Hall, Victoria Hall and The Academy of Music. The building was demolished in 1890 and the Garrick Theatre was erected. Harry Rickards took up the lease of the Garrick Theatre in Castlereagh Street on February 18, 1893 and renamed it, The Tivoli Theatre. In early 1899, Rickards bought the freehold title of the site, but in September that year, the Tivoli Theatre burnt to the ground. Rickards immediately rebuilt his theatre. It only took eighteen weeks for architect Backhouse and Backhouse and builder Alexander Stuart to design and build. The new theatre was built out of sandstone and decorated in colours of turquoise, cream, gold, silver and light grey with terracotta tints. A hotel was associated with the theatre with the entrance towards Castlereagh Street. According to Valentine Day who attended the opening of the new theatre on April 12 1900, it was a place of unobstructed views and unrestricted acoustics. Rickards had established the "Tivoli Circuit" company which performed between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Rickards died in 1911 and although managed and leased by firstly HD McIntosh, then JC Williamsons, the theatre was closed as a live venue in 1928 and functioned as a cinema until it ended its days as the Embassy Cinema and was demolished in the 1960s.