Bradburn's Opera House

The very first entertainment palace for Peterborough launched on November 13, 1876, known as Bradburn’s Opera House, which comes several decades after the city had seen its fair share of attractions following the town council passing a by-law to regulate certain commercial events in 1850.

The Bradburn’s Opera House had a capacity of 1,000 seats, with according to a description, said the capacity includes 400 in the reserved portion, and about 500 in the remainder of the floor space. The width of the Bradburn’s proscenium opening was on the small side (compared to other opera houses of the time in towns of roughly the same size), at 22ft, with a height of 17ft. From the footlights to the back wall of the stage was a distance of 28ft; from side to side the stage was 44ft. It was that cramped space which led to problems for the hall.

A very notable moment occurred when on May 26, 1897, the Bradburn attracted the popular band of John Philip Sousa, the U.S. composer and conductor known for his rousing patriotic and military marches, as well as a return on November 22, 1910. He was later inspired decades later for the 1952 Clifton Webb film “Stars And Stripes Forever”, distributed by 20th Century Fox. A then-younger wrote a little documentary about her moment, when his parents took her to the nearby Odeon Theatre in March 1953 to see the movie and the film that inspired by Sousa got her thinking on what his life is all about.

The Bradburn’s Opera House closed around 1907 but was still used in several sporting events that year. It was demolished in 1973 to make way for Marathon Realty’s then-new Peterborough Square development.

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