Grand Theatre
A Victorian horsehoe shaped theatre, it was housed in the Grand Hotel in Hanger Street, near the Bloemfontein station. The theatre had long facade in modern French Renaissance style, 3 storeys high and crowned with 3 domes. Inside there was a 170 foot lobby, sliding roof, 900 seats and one of largest stages in SA. It opened on Monday, 19 February 1906 with The Mikado (Gilbert & Sullivan). For 50 years world renowned artists appeared here, also local groups and travelling companies with musicals and other shows. For example Paul de Groot's groundbreaking Afrikaans production of Oorskotjie was done there in 1926, Viennese tenor Richard Tauber performed there in 1939, *****. Converted into cinema during 20s, it doubled as theatre and bioscope for the next 30 years. By the 1950s it had basically become a delapidated a venue for films and was sold to SA Breweries in 1953. It stood empty for the next few years, till it was condemned and demolished in 1956. (AW)
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