Tivoli Theatre, Sydney, 1890-1929

Theatre in Castlereagh Street, opened 22 December 1890 as Garrick Theatre, seating about 1000. Architect: E. Weltzel. Renamed Tivoli Theatre 18 February 1893. Destroyed by fire 1899. Rebuilt and opened 12 April 1899, seating 1181. Architect: Backhouse and Backhouse. Closed 28 September 1929. Rebuilt as Embassy cinema. Closed 1977. Demolished in mid-1980s.

The first Tivoli Theatre in Sydney stood on land where there was entertainment for most of 126 years. In September 1851 an American named J. S. Noble established the Olympic Circus behind the Painters' Arms Hotel on the western side of Castlereagh Street, midway between King and Market Streets. For about 40 years thereafter a large yard behind the street-facing buildings was called Circus Court. The circus was converted to a theatre in May 1852. In July 1854 the theatre and the hotel in front were both called the Royal Albert. Both had gone by 1860. 

In 1866 the Scandinavian Hotel was built with the Scandinavian Hall, which was used in the style of a British Music Hall, with tables and chairs and free admission. In December 1869 it saw an Australian burlesque, Formosa by W. Read. In 1870 the hall was renamed the St James Hall, with fixed seating and an entrance charge, and the hotel in front was eliminated. By 1872 it was called the Scandinavian Music Hall, with a Columbia Hotel next door. It was an athletic hall by 1875, and a billiards saloon from 1877 to 1880. About 1881 both hall and hotel were renamed Victoria. In December 1881 an Australian extravaganza, Aladdin and Company Limited, was performed on the hall's small stage-about 8.5 metres feet wide and 9.4 metres deep with a 6.4 metre-wide proscenium. Dion Boucicault's The Shaughraun was also played there. After renovation, the hall was renamed the Academy of Music on 23 September 1882. Its small auditorium - 8.5 metres wide by 24 metres long - officially seated 750 on two levels.

The Colonial Architect criticised the hall as old and dilapidated only a few years later and at the end of the 1880s it and an adjacent boarding house facing into Circus Court were demolished to provide a wider frontage for the new Garrick Theatre, again behind a hotel. The Garrick had a three-level auditorium, 13.7 by 16.8 metres. The stage was 13.8 by 15.2 metres. After a short period of drama, Harry Rickards renamed the theatre Tivoli and devoted it to vaudeville. He redecorated it in gold and crimson plush in 1897, but in 1899 fire destroyed the auditorium and stage. Rickards built a slightly larger theatre behind the original facade. He died in 1911 and Hugh D. Mclntosh acquired control of the Tivoli circuit, but the Rickards estate retained the Sydney Tivoli. It sold the site in September 1928 and the Tivoli closed a year later.