Complicated and highly unusual understage design at the Palace Theatre is no longer used but still in place, this system allowed flats to be raised through traps in the stage floor for its whole depth instead of the usual method of flying in from above the stage. How this process was managed, or indeed looked, is hard to imagine.

Far below the stage its own current was manufactured; 'with its 2,ooo-odd lights it has the largest theatrical installation in the world'. The 'electro-motors' also supplied the house with 'fresh air, passed over ice in summer and hot-water pipes in winter. Stale air was electrically extracted', a very early use of full air-conditioning.