page_title: Frank Matcham
section_title: Retirement and death
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Matcham / Retirement and death
caption_attribution_description: English: 28 Westcliff Parade, Westcliff-on-sea, Southend, Essex, the final residence of Matcham
context_page_description: Francis Matcham was an English architect who specialised in the design of theatres and music halls. He was best known for his work in London under Moss Empires, which included the designs of the Hippodrome, Hackney Empire, Coliseum, Palladium and the Victoria Palace. During his 40-year career, he was responsible for the design and construction of over 90 theatres and the redesign and refurbishment of a further 80 throughout the United Kingdom. According to the dramatist Alan Bennett, there was a Matcham theatre in every corner of the UK.
  Matcham was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, where he became apprenticed at the age of 14 to the architect George Soudon Bridgman. Matcham moved to London, aged 21, where he joined the architectural practice of J. T. Robinson, who was to become his father-in-law. Under Robinson, Matcham completed his first solo design, the Elephant and Castle Theatre, which opened in June 1879. He took over the business on Robinson's death and continued the designs of various provincial theatres. He formed his own practice, Matcham & Co., in the 1880s and enlisted skilled craftsmen.
context_section_description: In 1910 the London Palladium was completed and opened on 26 December. Designs for the Victoria Palace Theatre were already under way; it opened the following November. During the design stage of the Palace, Matcham was also working alongside Bertie Crewe for a new Hippodrome in Bristol which was to become Matcham's last major design. The inter-war period was slow for theatrical architects and builders, mainly because of the introduction of cinema, and many of the theatres that had been designed in Matcham's office were now becoming picture houses. Matcham & Co.'s projects had started to slow down by 1913; that year, the only theatrical venture was the Palace Theatre, in Leicester.
  Matcham retired to Westcliff-on-Sea with his wife shortly before the First World War and left the running of the business to Chancellor and Briggs. He died at his house, 28 Westcliff Parade, on 17 May 1920. His death was attributed to blood poisoning, brought about from cutting his finger nails too short. The funeral took place at St. Paul's Church, Finchley, before his interment in the family vault in Highgate Cemetery. He left an estate worth £86,389 (£3,500,000 in 2019 adjusted for inflation). Matcham bequeathed his company, equally, to Briggs and Chancellor. A journalist for The Architect newspaper predicted that the business would continue, which it did, although it never achieved the same success as it did under Matcham. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Chancellor retired and moved to the countryside, where he died in 1941. Briggs held the business in a dormant state until after the war when it was sold to a property agency in Covent Garden. It continued, on a small scale, until it was eventually wound up in the late 1970s.
caption: Matcham's house in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 6", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "9.3.2", "Image DateTime": "2016:07:01 14:16:58", "Image ExifOffset": "180", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[51, 32, 669/100]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0, 41, 2829/50]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "11959/504", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[13, 16, 58]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "15246/47", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "15246/47", "GPS GPSDate": "2016:07:01", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "5", "Image GPSInfo": "1572", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2083", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:07:01 14:16:58", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:07:01 14:16:58", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "10275/932", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7801/3429", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "9231/872", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1631, 1223, 1795, 1077]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "316", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "316", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "578", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "326", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2"}