Blackpool Opera House

The present Opera House in Blackpool's Winter Gardens is actually the third theatre building on the site. The first was constructed in 1889 and it was designed by Frank Matcham who also designed the Blackpool Tower Circus and the Tower Ballroom. When it was built it was called Her Majesty's Opera House Blackpool. It was built at a cost of £9098 which allowing for inflation would be over £40 million today!!!

In 1910 the Blackpool opera House closed for rebuilding, this rebuild only took 9 months. The larger Opera House only lasted 27 years before being demolished to make way for an even bigger theatre.

In 1939 the present Blackpool Opera House was opened to the public, it now had a capacity to seat 3000 people and boosted the biggest stage in the United Kingdom. The first act to play at the new theatre was George Formby with his review called Turned out Nice Again.

In 1955 the first Royal Variety performance to be staged outside London was given to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. A Royal Box was constructed for the honored guests.

During its history many famous people have performed on the stage, these include such legends as : Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and more recently Little Britain, Peter Kay, and The Office's Ricky Gervais.