Theatre and 2 shops. Built 1920 for Miss Emily Blagg. (1)

The Palace Theatre was built after WWI, on a site that had been occupied by the Chantry House from the 14th c. onwards. P.3 The Chantry House was bought in 1918 by local businesswoman Emily Blagg, who had it demolished in 1919 and had the Palace Theatre built on the site, re-using much of the 17th c. building material from the Chantry House. A major renovation took place in 1953, and it became a bingo hall in 1968. In the 1970s the Newark and Sherwood Distric Council took it over and converted it to a theatre. The theatre was Grade II listed in 1992. P. 5 The theatre building is of brick with an ornate stone and stucco front and a hipped mansard roof of slate and artificial slate; its frontage is ornamented by round towers with cupolas and onion domes. P.4 (2)

Former cinema which opened in 1920. It was built on the site of Chantry House, a house which had apparently been constructed on the site of one of the medieval chantries. The building itself is of a striking design, with a Byzantine influence in the onion domes topping the round towers at either side of the building’s principal elevation and on its southern corner. Classical detailing is also included, with swags executed in relief plaster decorating the walls between the windows of the first floor. The swags and decorative architraves continue on to the south-west elevation which also features a pair of shopfronts at the ground floor. The main auditorium of the theatre extends back from Appleton Gate. The whole building was constructed in brick produced by the firm of Blagg and Johnson. Emily Blagg was the driving force behind the construction of the Palace Theatre. Known as Newark’s ‘Lady Builder’ she moved to Newark in 1883 from Cheshire. Originally working as a dressmaker, in 1903 Emily invested in a brickworks in Sheffield and another on Clay Lane, Newark. Over the next few decades Blagg built a n umber of properties including housing estates at The Park (1905) and at Lime Grove (1912) as well as Newark’s first cinema, the Kinema on Balderton Gate (1913). Having purchased the Chantry House in 1919, Blagg demolished the old house and began construction of the Palace. The cinema opened in 1920, by which time Blagg had already sold her shares in the Kinema and the Palace to a firm in Sheffield. Emily Blagg is notable as a female builder who played an important role in the history of Newark. (3)

Listed buildings slides, 2 slides (Photograph). SNT2648.

<1> DOE, Listed Building Description (Published document). SNT228.

<2> R. Mandeville, 2015, Palace Theatre, No. 16, Appleton Gate, Newark on Trent, Nottinghamshire: Specification for a Scheme of Archaeological Monitoring and Recording (Unpublished document). SNT5173.

<3> Historic England, 2024, Newark on Trent, Historic Area Assessment by Historic England (Unpublished document). SNT6029.