History: The Building

The Royal Lyceum Theatre opened in September 1883 having been built for theatrical entrepreneurs Howard and Wyndham by C.J. Phipps at an original cost of £17,000. It is a magnificent example of late Victorian theatre architecture with its stage set behind a proscenium arch.

The building underwent major alterations in 1929 and 1977 and the glass foyer was added in 1991. At the same time the administration office moved out of the function rooms now named after Henry Irving and Ellen Terry and into the formwe Heriot Watt University student union building opposite the theatre, where our rehearsal room and education space are also located.

In 1996 and 2001-3, the Lyceum benefited from Scottish Arts Council, National Lottery and City of Edinburgh Council capital grants to refurbish the front of house areas of the theatre, our workshops at Roseburn and the administration building in Grindlay Street fully accessible to people with disabilities; to address health and safety issues and to make working conditions better; to provide a dedicated educationworkshop space for schools and the Lyceum Youth Theatre; to refurbish the rehearsal room; and to purchase new lighting and sound equipment.

The Ghost

No old theatre should be without its own theatrical spook, and the Lyceum is no exception.

Ghosts have been seen as recently as the beginning of 1996, during a performance of Tony Roper's The Steamie. The gallery, the level above the Upper Circle, was closed to the public in 1966 and is deserted most of the time, although the seats are still intact. During The Steamie, the follow-spot operator was alone in the gallery, preparing for the show when she saw someone dressed in pale blue walking towards her.

As she turned to see who it was, the figure disappeared. At exactly the same moment, on stage, one of the actresses was awaiting her entrance. She saw a figure in pale blue standing in the gallery. The figured waved and then was gone.

Could this be the ghost of Ellen Terry, who performed at the Lyceum when the Theatre first opened? Quite possibly. There used to be a chalk statue of her in the foyer of the Theatre. During the war, when chalk was in demand her statue was irreverently smashed up and only the head survived. Rumour has it that her 'head' was still rolling around under the stalls as late as 1965...