Percy Rogers Cooke

Percy Rogers Cooke (1880-1958) was an architect and amateur thespian who designed a number of theatres and cinemas in South Africa.

BEING EDITED

Biography

Born in Bristol in England on 26 March, 1880, the son of the Reverend James Surmon Cooke. He was educated at the Wesley Methodist Colleges in Bristol and in Sheffield, going on to attended the Crystal Palace School of Engineering and training as an engineer.

He came to South Africa circa 1903 and was employed as an engineering assistant by the Town Engineer in Johannesburg. By 1906 he had been appointed second engineer with Germiston Municipality where he remained until 1909.

In 1910 he left the public service to open his own practice in Germiston in 1911, while living at Littlethorpe House in Malvern in Johannesburg. By 1945 Cooke had founded the company Cooke and Dreyer in Johannesburg, in partnership with F.L. Dreyer.

Cooke was twice married and had one daughter. He died at St James's Mission in Magaliesburg near Krugersdorp in 1958.

His contribution to South African theatre and film

Besides his general work as an architect of churches, halls, schools, public buildings and the like, he would become one of the pioneers of cinema and theatre design in South Africa (along with his contemporaries, like the company Kallenbach, Kennedy and Furner, though their approaches differed considerably).

His theatre involvement

He appears to have been an enthusiastic amateur thespian, and in 1914 he formed the Germiston Players, an amateur theatrical company and in 1916 contacted I.W. Schlesinger, the Director of African Consolidated Theatres, in an attempt to secure the Globe Theatre in Germiston for the players. This may have been the beginning of Cooke's association with Schlesinger and his comapnies.

Theatre and cinema design

He next won a competition to redesign the Grand Theatre in Benoni, which led to his also designing small theatres for the towns of Brakpan, Springs and Witbank circa 1915.

In 1920 he moved to Johannesburg, where Schlesinger commissioned him to design a synagogue in Doornfontein and a new wing for the Jewish Home for the Aged next to the synagogue.

In 1926 Schlesinger commissioned Cooke to design a cinema-de-luxe in Smith Street in Durban. This was to be popularly known as the Prince's Theatre (built 1932-33). Cooke was thereafter appointed architect to the African Consolidated Theatres and in 1927 was sent to Europe and to the United States of America by Schlesinger to investigate modern theatre design. In New York he met Thomas Lamb who taught Cooke how to design an atmospheric theatre, with its illusion of sky and stars. He paid a further visit to the United States in 1930 to consult the acoustics authority, Professor Sabine prior to designing the Colosseum Theatre in Johannesburg. He was elected a member of the Acoustical Society of America at this time.

His association with Schlesinger led to further work, designing some remarkable theatres and cinemas in South Africa in association with an accomplished team that included H.W. Spicer, W.M. Timlin and A.S. Konya, among others. The atmospheric theatres in South Africa, in particular The Colosseum, Johannesburg, were amongst the few examples of this type of interior in the world and are now rare.

Some theatres and cinemas designed by Cooke

The venues designed by Cooke are listed alphabetically:

African Broadcasting Transmitting Station (1928). Maraisburg, Gauteng

Alhambra Theatre (1929-1930). Cape Town

Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, (renovated: 1930)

Capitol Theatre, Pretoria (1931)

Cinema in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town (1927).

Cinema de Luxe, proposed: 1927. Cape Town

Colosseum Theatre. East London, 1936

Colosseum Theatre Central Johannesburg (1931)

Empire Cinema, Kroonstad (1940).

Gaiety Theatre Braamfontein, Johannesburg (1928).

Grand Theatre, Benoni (1916)., Gauteng - Architect

Grand Theatre, Pietermaritzburg (1931)

Opera House Cape Grand Parade, Town (reconstruction 1930).

Orpheum Theatre, Johannesburg (1931).

Playhouse, Durban (1927).

Plaza Kinema, Pretoria (1928).

He also designed a theatre for Mayfair, Johannesburg (1931).

Sources

https://artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=292