William George Robert Sprague (1865 4 December 1933) was a theatre architect. He was apprenticed to Frank Matcham, and later established his own practice, designing at least thirty-five theatres between 1890 and 1929. Of his surviving London theatres, eleven are Listed – officially designated as of particular architectural or historic interest deserving special protection. Ten are listed in the basic category, Grade II, and one – Wyndham's is in the middle category, Grade II*.

The two substantially intact Sprague theatres outside London are the Lyceum, Sheffield, which is Grade II* Listed, and the Théâtre Édouard VII, Paris, designated a .

Life and career

Sprague was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1865, the son of an English actress, Dolores Drummond, and her husband, William Drummond Sprague, a law clerk. The couple were based in Melbourne, Australia, where Drummond had a successful career, sometimes using the stage name Dolly Green. After her husband died she moved to London with the young Sprague and his four sisters in the latter part of the 1870s.

Both in Australia and after moving to England, Sprague was a friend and protégé of the actor-manager Charles Wilmot, who was instrumental in securing for him an apprenticeship to Frank Matcham, the leading theatre architect of the time. Sprague remained with Matcham between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and was then articled to Walter Emden for three years.

He was in a partnership with Bertie Crewe until 1895. According to a 1982 study of Britain's old theatres, once he set up on his own, Sprague, "well trained in the practicalities of theatre architecture, but uninhibited by the pedantries of an academic education", designed numerous theatres including some that remain as "the most elegant smaller houses of the West End". Unlike Matcham and Emden, Sprague studied architectural forms and conventions and used his knowledge in his designs, saying of himself that he "liked the Italian Renaissance" as a style for his frontages, but would take liberties when needed "to get the best effects". He told an interviewer in 1897 that in his view there was nothing more foolish than to make a theatre too large:

Sprague often had to convince his clients that traditional theatre layouts of three or four tiers did not in reality accommodate a larger audience than his preferred two-tier auditorium: "Used with a proper ingenuity the two tiers can be made to accommodate the same number of people as three tiers, making them ever so much more comfortable and dividing the classes of playgoers quite as effectually". Sprague hated obstructive pillars in the construction of a theatre, and considered it the responsibility of the architect to ensure that every occupant of a seat had a clear view of the entire stage. The theatrical newspaper The Era commented in 1902:

Sprague married twice. His first marriage was in November 1890 to Mary Jane Beer; they had a daughter, Maud. They divorced in 1898 and in April 1900 he married Isabella Katherine Bennett; they had a daughter and two sons. Sprague died from heart failure at his home in Maidenhead on 4 December 1933, aged 68.

Theatres

In London, except where stated. Of Sprague's surviving theatres, thirteen are Listed – officially designated as of particular architectural or historic interest deserving special protection. Eleven are listed in the lowest category, Grade II, and two – the Lyceum, Sheffield and Wyndham's, London are in the middle category, Grade II*.

1. Source: Mackintosh and Sell, and Arthur Lloyd website.

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