Today’s photographs show the ‘Art Deco’ exterior of the ‘Apollo Victoria’ theatre, originally opened as the ‘New Victoria’ cinema on 15 October, 1930, by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, Ltd.

Standing on Wilton Road, S.W.1, directly opposite London Victoria station, with a matching entrance on Vauxhall Bridge Road, the cinema was designed by Ernest Wamsley Lewis (1898-1977), collaborating with William Edward Trent (1874-1978), in the revolutionary new ‘modernist’ style.

As the first such building of its kind in Britain, and with one of the best preserved cinema interiors of the era, the ‘New Victoria’ was listed at Grade II* by Heritage England on 28 June, 1972.

The theatre is currently home to the Broadway musical ‘Wicked’, which has run since 27 September, 2006, and as such the building, with its green neon lights and lavish interior will be familiar to many.

January, 2019.