Photograph of William Lambert, c. 1903

Photograph of William Lambert, c. 1903

1903

Photograph of William Lambert, who together with his brother John Lambert, was responsible for the building of the New Theatre Royal Nottingham in 1865.

John and William Lambert were local lace dressers and councillors in Nottingham who funded the building of the New Theatre Royal before seeking to create a joint stock company, the Nottingham Theatre Royal Company Limited, in 1866. The prospectus for that venture noted: 'In embarking originally on this undertaking the Messrs. Lambert were actuated by a desire to elevate the popular taste, and erect a Theatre worthy of their native town. They believed that they should best accomplish this by accepting, in the first instance, the entire responsibility, and they accepted it accordingly – relying on their fellow townsmen, when the building should be finished to join them in the undertaking, and to assist them in their endeavours to make the Theatre, what they are satisfied it may be made, a place of innocent recreation and of moral and intellectual culture'.

The people of Nottingham seem to have appreciated the gesture. On Boxing Night, 1865, the New Theatre Royal staged its first pantomime, ‘The House that Jack Built’. The Nottingham Journal noted next day that ‘The house was filled in all parts to overflowing, more than 2000 being present’. John and William Lambert were praised from the stage, receiving ‘a perfect furore of applause, which both men graciously responded to by bowing their acknowledgements from the box’.

Photograph

Nottingham City Council and www.picturethepast.org.uk

Researcher: Jo Robinson