Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 31 October 1836 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
3 items, paper
Context area
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letter from Mr Hayward advising that there was nothing in Mrs Sparrow's lease of 1829 to prevent her using the livery stables as a theatre.
Also 2 letters from 1994 enquiring about evidence that there had once been a theatre in the livery stables.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
The letter enquiring about the theatre says that it contained two tiers of boxes a good pit, its stage was forty foot in depth with a proscenium. It was funded by undergraduates who financed Andrew J. Tempany to build and run the theatre which was used by University members as well as town and county. The site was known as Sparrow's Yard.
Mrs Eleanor Prior Sparrow, widow, was granted a lease dated 6 may 1829 of Nos. 27-31 Jesus Lane described as 5 messuages or tenements together with yards, gardens, stables, gighouses, buildings, easements etc. No evidence the College took legal action against Mrs Sparrow but might have put pressure on her to stop using it as a theatre before they renewed the lease in 1843.
Note
Originally in a box called "Cambridge All Saints Parish 2. Jesus Lane North Side 1 1633-1907", in a folder titled "1836. Jesus Lane (Nos. 27-31). Objections to Use as a Private Theatre".