St. James Theatre, Wellington
St. James Theatre on Courtenay Place after 2007 facelift
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| Address | 77 - 87 Courtenay Place Wellington  New Zealand
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| Coordinates | 41°17′36″S 174°46′48″E / 41.293213°S 174.779912°E |
| Capacity | seats 1550, has space for a cocktail function of 500 and hospitality areas for banquets of up to 400. |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1912 |
| Architect | Henry Eli White |
| Website | |
| www.stjames.co.nz/ | |
| Designated | 27-Jun-1985 |
| Reference no. | 3639 |
The St. James Theatre, (previously known as His Majesty's Theatre, and the Westpac St. James Theatre from 1997–2007) (usually referred to simply as "The St. James") is a stage theatre located in the heart of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. The present theatre was designed in 1912 by New Zealand theatre designer Henry Eli White. The theatre currently faces on to Courtenay Place, the main street of Wellington's entertainment district, opposite the Reading Cinema complex. The building is number 83.
The building is classified as a "Category I" ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") historic place by Heritage New Zealand.
The St. James has had a long history, with its success in its early years, a near demolition in the 1980s and to its return to the city's cultural light in the late 1990s.
The theatre's land had been used as a church and volunteer hall prior to it being bought by the famous entertainer John Fuller on 23 December 1899. The St. James was made famous by Fuller, who had also built over 60 other theatres in New Zealand. He revamped the hall in 1903 and named it "His Majesty's Theatre", or nicknamed "Fuller's". During its use, the hall was host to pantomimes and a Cleopatra act, which involved the first and last import of snakes into New Zealand. However, opera of any kind was seldom allowed by Fuller, who usually directed any opera show to Wellington's Opera House down the road. Fuller used the old hall until November 1911, when it was eventually declared a fire hazard and demolished.
After this demolition, Fuller vowed the new theatre he was going to build would be the best in New Zealand. Fuller enlisted the help of Henry Eli White, who had already designed other theatres around the country for Fuller. White, fresh from building theatres in Timaru and Auckland, set out to plan the St. James. The St. James was the first entirely steel frame and reinforced concrete theatre in the world and plans made sure over 650 people could escape the auditorium in the event of a fire. Pillars in the auditorium were also kept at a minimum to allow perfect viewing, and seating was arranged in the arc of a circle to view the stage. The St. James was then adorned with marble pieces, carved face masks and cherubs to be placed on the ceiling and coloured glass. The plaster work was made by William Leslie Morrison, who reinforced the lime plaster with cow hair. Morrison used his grandson as a model for the plaster cherubs and modelled the full figured seen near the stage after Bacchus and Apollo. The wooden floors of the St. James were made of rimu and jarrah, along with totara for window frames and for doors. After the plans had been set, construction began on the theatre in March 1912. To speed progress, White himself designed two electric cranes to lift the in excess of 500 tonnes of steel. In all, the St. James cost £32,000 to build and took 9 months to build.
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