Talk:Crouch End Hippodrome

Latest comment: 1 year ago by HughJLF in topic Athenaeum

Athenaeum edit

The other day, I edited the article to remove mention of the building formerly having been the Crouch End Athenaeum. Today, I have realised where this misinformation originated. In the first place, it is likely to have come from the Arthur Lloyd website. However, to be fair to them, they seem to have got it from an 1897 copy of the Era newspaper. I've checked and the Era did misleadingly say "The building recently known as the Crouch-end Athenaum has now been reconstructed and renamed the Queen's Theatre". Whilst this is not inaccurate, you can see why Lloyd's may have taken it to mean that a building called the Athenaeum used to operate on the site. There are a number of articles in the local newspapers from 1895 to 1897, reporting a new building was being erected in the centre of Edmonson's Topsfield Parade. It had been conceived as a glorified public hall to be called the Crouch End Athenaeum, but plans were changed and during construction, Frank Matcham was called in and the building was redesigned as an opera house/theatre. At the end of 1896 The Era had reported on the building of the Athenaeum as being in progress. So they did know what was going on. HughJLF (talk) 23:50, 18 February 2023 (UTC)Reply