This site acts as a virtual museum of the history of the building currently known as Cheltenham Playhouse but which has also been a salts laboratory, a swimming bath (which still exists under the auditorium), slipper baths, medical spa, a steam mill and bakery, an indoor cycling school, and much more! The museum is not a finished entity but a work in progress with further articles to be added over time – you can check for updates here. There is also a search facility here.
Reflecting the building’s current theatrical use, the museum is divided (at present) into four acts and a cast of characters. Each act covers a specific period of time relating to particular owners or tenants. The front/home page for each act features a brief summary of that time while the drop down menu for each act will contain articles relating to the various uses of the building during that same period. You will encounter links within the articles to other pages of the site (or external websites where appropriate); these are indicated by underlined text.
Comments and feedback are very much welcomed, especially if you have additional information on any aspect of this unique building’s history. Please contact us using the email link at the foot of this page.
Copyright of the text rests with the author and you must not reproduce without obtaining permission using the email below.
Photographs with no credits belong to the Cheltenham Playhouse. Where copyright/sources of illustrations are known these are quoted; where we do not know or have been unable to trace copyright captions will read ‘source unknown’. We will happily correct this on receipt of the information.
The list of people to thank for their help and support with this project over the years is too long to acknowledge here individually but it would be remiss not to mention local historians Jill Waller and Neela Mann, Christopher Rainey of the Cheltenham Local Studies Library, and all current and former members, trustees and staff of the Playhouse.
PAUL SCOTT (Text & Additional Research) & ALLEN MILLER (Primary Research)
Recent Updates
17 January 2024: NEW: Early rehearsal venue / UPDATED: The new wash baths of 1900 / UPDATED: The reception or waiting room
28 June 2023: NEW: Missing statue number two
13 April 2023: NEW: Kenneth Tynan’s Hamlet (1948)
23 Feb 2023: NEW: Emperor Haile Selassie visits the Baths / UPDATED: Missing statue number one / UPDATED: The wash baths of 1900
January 2023: Site published