County Theatre

[Admin (Matt)]

c1912 before this it was a square form Tabernacle Chapel c1850 closed as such c1911. Renovated by a James Hare, and in 1914 listings indicate that it had 846 seats with a 40ft deep, 30ft wide stage with 6 dressing rooms and with the ability to show films.

James Pennyfather HARE - lived at Roscrea, Friars Avenue and died 5th Dec 1952 (he had retired by this point) his wife Lucy later dying in 1960.

The BBC used it as a studio during the war years and in 1945 it was put up for sale and once again became a theatre/cinema.

In the 1960s it turned to Bingo and the 1980s after several other uses it turned into the Octagon nightclub.

[Admin (Matt)]

[Admin (Matt)]

The County Theatre (Octagon)

Former Tabernacle chapel of c.1850, converted to a theatre in 1912. This was done by adding a brick fly-tower to one side of the square-shaped stone chapel and a small stuccoed foyer on another side. The auditorium (approximately 800 seats in 1970) was square on plan and had an unusual five-sided balcony which may have survived from the chapel, with six steeply raked rows of seating. A short central section faced the stage linked by canted sections to side arms at right angles to the proscenium. The proscenium was an elliptically shaped arch with a cartouche above the centre. Original flat chapel ceiling. Between October 1940 and August 1943, the BBC's Light Entertainment department transferred to Bangor to avoid the Second World War bombs falling on London. The BBC requisitioned the County in 1941 and it was often used to broadcast recitals using a large cinema organ. After some time as a cinema and later a bingo hall, The County was converted to ‘The Octagon’ nightclub in 1987 which specialised in such spectacular lighting effects that it was necessary to install a separate generator housed in an extension at the right side of the facade, extending across the forecourt. The Octagon was converted to Peep Nightclub in 2012.