Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield Theatres)

The requirements

The Lyceum Theatre is a 117 year old, 1068-seat theatre in the City of Sheffield.
Built to a traditional proscenium arch design, the Lyceum is the only surviving theatre outside London designed by the famous theatre architect W.G.R Sprague and the last example of an Edwardian auditorium in Sheffield.

The Lyceum Theatre is part of the Sheffield Theatres complex with the neighbouring Crucible Theatre and the Crucible Studio, offering a huge variety of home-grown and touring productions, as well as a thriving programme of participatory events and activities.

Sheffield Theatres was looking for a professional and experienced contractor to carry out the redecoration of all public areas, the auditorium, back of house areas and external paintwork, as part of their £1.9m refurbishment project, which all had to be completed within a tight shutdown period of seven weeks before the opening night of “This is my Family” on 9th October.

How we helped

After successfully tendering for the original £30k decoration package, we held talks and pre-start meetings with Sheffield Theatres to discuss all programming, health and safety issues, colour schemes and seamlessly working with all other contractors on the project.

There were vast amounts of additional work in the region of £20k which we were able to resource easily with our vast and local workforce, with all works completed within the original timescales and to the high quality standard required.
The client initially wanted the wall areas to be painted in standard matt emulsion, but due to the amount of wear and tear the walls receive from the general public we suggested to change the specification to more durable matt and eggshell finishes.

To complete this project required highly skilled traditional decorating techniques, including specialist paint applications applied by brush, sponge and spray and rag-rolling combined with intricate ‘Fitch’ work to the ornate gold features.

The results

Our decoration works brought this old historic theatre back to life with a fresh colour scheme. We completed all works within the required timescales and with thanks from the Sheffield Theatres for handing back the completed areas finished to a high quality, fresh and clean and with enough time for their cleaning staff to get all the areas ready for their opening night.

Winner of the Premier Trophy Award 2015 from the Painting and Decorating Association

Winner of the Johnstone’s Painter of the Year Award 2015

“I would like to express my sincere thanks for the fabulous work Mitie has done at the Lyceum. It has been a pleasure working with you and I’m proud of what has been achieved. It was a challenging timescale but we got there and to a first-class standard. Please pass on my thanks to the team and especially Tony (a.k.a Picasso) for his tireless efforts and attention to detail – the place looks amazing.”
John Bates, Sheffield Theatres Trust