Douglas' Trip to Bolton
Did you know that there’s an archive in Bolton filled with stacks of Leith Theatre architectural drawings, blueprints, and sketches from 1927 to 1960? Neither did we—until recently!
Making the journey down and reaching Bolton.
Over the past few years, our search for the original plans for the building by the architects Bradshaw, Gass, and Hope of Bolton had hit a dead end. We had even tried to contact the architects directly but even this yielded no results. Then, in March of this year, we discovered that Bolton Council had retained a portion of the company's original material, no longer stored by the architects themselves.
Thrilled, we reached out and received the news we were hoping for: 14 folders containing plans for the entire Theatre, Library, and Caretakers Cottage complex. We were initially told each folder could hold up to 30 items, but we soon learned that was a very conservative estimate.
First glimpse inside the archive.
Two weeks later, we made the journey down to find ourselves at a storage unit on an industrial estate in Bolton, home to Bolton Library and Museums' archives. We were invited inside and taken upstairs to a room lined with shelves full of fascinating artifacts and countless folders. In the Leith Theatre section there were 10 folders: 6 from 1927-31 and 4 from the post-war restoration period. Unfortunately, years ago, water damage affected some of the storage facilities. Four folders from the Leith Theatre collection were lost, and some of the remaining folders sustained damage too.
In the archives' “Research Room,” we began our exploration. The large A1 folders, tied shut, were packed with far more than the expected 30 items—some closer to 100 pages each, many of them A1 in size. The task of digitizing this collection suddenly seemed much larger, but with that, much more exciting.
It’s hard to describe the thrill of donning gloves and poring over nearly 100-year-old hand-drawn architectural plans. Each drawing, with its intricate lines and markings, transported us back to the architect’s office in the 1920s. There were sketches true to the final building and less familiar ideas marked “rejected.” What an incredible insight into the process of designing a civic complex such as our own.
One by one each item was laid out, checked and photographed. 8 hours later, we have 625 images ready to be processed and filed in our archive, most of which none of the Leith Theatre staff had seen before. From information on foundations, to steelwork, to furniture and rug positioning. So much information on how the architects originally envisaged the building to look. All vital on our journey in restoring the building to its original form.
It was incredible to see the process of items being designed in house at Bradshaw, Gass and Hope, before being sent to local businesses and craftsmen in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and more to be produced for Leith Theatre. We never knew we wanted to know where the urinals were from until now.
We’re not sharing all the images yet (just a small teaser below👀), but keep your eyes peeled for more on the fascinating archive material we have unearthed during our trip.
