Belgrade Theatre
Exterior Wall - facing Corporation Street
This large relief panel was created and designed
in 1958 by James C Brown, sculpture.
Below is a full description I found in records of the
Public Monuments & Sculptures Association's
website which I quote....
'Sculptured concrete panel over the main entrance to the Belgrade Theatre symbolising the city of Belgrade and is based on a 1684 engraving by Giacomo de Rossi. The relief shows a fortress on a hill above a walled city, surrounded by the river Danube. The city arms and its name in Cyrillic script on a banner are at the top of the relief. The dark colour of the textured panel provides a visual interruption form the smoothness of the surrounding windows. The relief shows a fortress on a hill above a walled city, which is surrounded by a river. At the top left, the city's coat of arms appear and at top right, its name is shown on a banner in Cyrillic script. The city is presumably Belgrade, given the name of the theatre.
James Brown was asked by the city architect to design and make the relief. The Yugoslav Embassy was consulted about the project, and they supplied the Giacomo de Rossi engraving upon which Brown based his design. Brown first made the relief in brick clay and then had it cast in cement fondu with Penmaenware granite chippings for aggregate.
The theatre was named after the Yugoslav city as a gesture of friendship between the two cities and in recognition of a gift of timber to furnish the interior of the building.'
Apologies for a large amount of text, but
I thought it best to quote the full description.
The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance theatre, seating 858 people.
The Belgrade was the first civic theatre to be built after WWII in Britain.
