Royal Theatre

The Royal Theatre opened its doors by Greek tobacco merchant Mike Pappas on December 19, 1908. It originally housed around 500 seats but later expanded to around 600 around less than a year later. Pappas would later take over the space of a former barber shop and added an additional 100+ more seats, bringing an estimate total of at approximately 751 seats.

The Royal Theatre once suffered destruction from a January 26, 1918 fire, which broke out next door in the Robert Neill Boots and Shoes store, rapidly spreading north to the Matthews-Blackwell produce store and then to the Dominion Bank on the corner of George and Simcoe, and would move south to the Royal Theatre. A boiler had exploded in the basement of the Neill store. For the ground floors of the Dominion Bank, Matthews-Blackwell, and Royal it was not so much fire but water damage that did the harm. Water had been poured incessantly into the properties for about twelve hours.

By the end of February 1918, Pappas was making plans to renovate his old fire-battered space. He was contemplating a “pit” with 600 seats and a balcony with 400. By July 1918, he had made an additional investment, buying a gold fiber screen and two new Simplex projection machines”. Originally, he hoped that the Royal Theatre would be ready by August. But it was much later, around Christmas Day 1918, when the doors of the New Royal Theatre were finally “reopened”.

The Royal Theatre closed for the final time on December 12, 1925 with Reginald Denny in “I’ll Show You The Town” (unknown if extras added) for improvements but never reopened. It was demolished in 1974 to make way for Peterborough Square.

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