'Green Man' Grotesque Head, Wood Green Empire (I)* c.1912
Frank Matcham (1854–1920)
Bruce Castle Museum (Haringey Archive and Museum Service)
Frank Matcham was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, England on 22 November 1854. From c.1868 he trained with George Soudon Bridgman (1839-1925), an architect with a practice in Torquay, Devon. In c.1875 he moved to London and began working in the office of Jethro Thomas Robinson (1829-1878), an architect who specialised in theatre design. Following the death of Robinson in 1878 Matcham took over his practice and subsequently renamed the business Matcham & Co. Over the next three decades, Matcham and his firm were responsible for the design, redesign and refurbishment of over 150 theatres and entertainment venues throughout Britain. Much of this work was undertaken between the years 1892 and 1912 when he was closely associated with the Edinburgh-based theatre chain Moss Empires.
Shortly before World War One, Matcham retired to Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex where he died on 18 May 1920.
A biographical file on Frank Matcham is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
