The Shaftesbury, formerly the Prince's, opened as a blood-and-thunder house on 26 December 1911. The dynamic is still fiery and consistent. The side boxes, within their French Renaissance frontispiece, tie up beautifully with the two balconies; the plasterwork, although cheaply constructed, is deeper and richer than ever; the statuary is flamboyant and well-scaled -a suitable environment for the melodramas that were to fill the stage and thrill the popular audiences, who paid between sixpence and five shillings for the pleasure.

In: Glasstone, Victor: Victorian and Edwardian Theatres: An Architectural and Social Survey. Harvard 1975 p. 130

Author: Victor Glasstone