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As part of our efforts to reunite the Central Hotel and The Embassy Theatre, we undertook further earthworks in the rear beer garden area located between the two buildings to remove layers of fill from the 1980s or 1990s that were compromising the damp course of the theatre building and partially covering one of the original doorway openings from the theatre into the hotel grounds.
This work uncovered an original concrete ramp and retaining walls leading down to the bricked-in doorway on the side of the theatre building. Even more exciting was the discovery of an ornamental concrete lion buried in the fill. We have since found its original location at the top of the concrete ramp, as shown in some of the photographs accompanying this post.
A lion theme seems to be emerging at the theatre, with two plaster lion heads also discovered above the suspended ceilings in the theatre lobby. We are hoping to reopen the bricked-up doorways in the coming weeks.
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