Gift, 2003
This collection contains scrapbooks, bound scripts, bound volumes of daily bills and business records relating to Howard & Wyndham Ltd.
This collection was appraised in line with the collection management policy.
No further accruals are expected.
This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Blythe House Archive and Library Study Room by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here:
Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.
Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here:
See also the core collections of the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Material relating to Howard & Wyndham Ltd productions, as well as 20th century theatre in general may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.
Please ask for details.
Howard & Wyndham Ltd. operated for over 90 years as a theatre-owning, management and production company, running a number of key theatres, especially in Scotland. They were particularly noted for their pantomimes which were carefully tailored to the tastes and interests of local audiences.
The company was founded in 1895 to extend an existing 1883 partnership between Irish-born John B. Howard (1841-1895) and Edinburgh born Frederick WP Wyndham (1853-1930) which had first formed in order to run the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. The company also owned the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, Theatre Royal, Glasgow and leased the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow. Howard died of a stroke only weeks after the company was formed but it continued to bear his name until it was dissolved in the 1960s.
In 1904 the company built and opened the King's Theatre, Glasgow, and in 1912 took over the Robert Arthur group of six theatres (four in England - the Theatre Royal, Newcastle in Newcastle upon Tyne, the Royal Court in Liverpool, and the Royal Court in Nottingham - and two in Scotland), in Dundee and Aberdeen. Wyndham continued to run the company productions until 1928, when he retired. Howard & Wyndham Ltd bought the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, appointing its builder, A. Stewart Cruikshank, as managing director of the group, and also making C.B. Cochran a director. The company became based at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh. Howard & Wyndham also held shares and directorships in Moss Empires, London West End theatres, and were the major shareholders in H.M. Tennent & Company. They later expanded into television production. On his father's death in 1949, Stewart Cruikshank junior succeeded as managing director, and concentrated the offices and wardrobe in London while continuing the production facilities and stores in Edinburgh.
In the 1960s Howard & Wyndham Ltd. sold its theatres in England and Scotland to the city councils, with one exception, their British flagship out of over 20 theatres, the Alhambra Theatre Glasgow which Glasgow Corporation declined. It closed in 1969 to meet company debts in film and television production. The collection does not constitute a formal, comprehensive archive of the business but does include a wide variety of unique business records and other material reflecting the company’s activities during the twentieth century.
This collection contained 114 scripts, which were separated and integrated to the library collection of the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance.
This series contains a number of volumes relating to the running of Howard & Wyndham Ltd.
This file, a personalised bound red file, contains the costume lists for Howard & Wyndham Ltd shows with particular emphasis on pantomimes between 1913 and 1968.
This file contains casts and salaries for a number of pantomines, summer seasons and Scottish seasons between 1913-1950.
This series contains material relating to the companies Act for several years as well as Howard & Wyndham's reactions to the act through their management rule book.
This file contains a printed manual establishing rules, procedures, forms, local licensing arrangements for all six Howard & Wyndham theatres: Kings Theatre, Edinburgh; Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; King's Theatre, Glasgow; Theatre Royal, Glasgow; Theatre Royal, Newcastle; and Opera House, Manchester.
This file contains a guidance book for Assistant Managers and Cashiers regarding 'method and procedure in accounting records at the Theatre. Indexed. Every second page provides room for 'Additional Notes.' Compiled at Head Office.
This file contains 3 Company Act booklets from 1929, 1947 and 1948.
This file, a personalised bound red file, contains the chairman's speeches for annual meetings between 1929-1949 (numbered from 1-86). The first speech discusses in 1929 the problems of 'the Talking Film' and fears the smaller Theatres 'will feel this opposition most'
This file, a personalised bound red file, contains a record of shows at the Lyceum Edinburgh, with managers' comments.
This file, a personalised bound red file, gives details of all shows at Howard & Wyndham theatres, their venues, dates, costs, reciepts, profits and losses.
This file contains the takings for all shows at Stoll Moss Theatres. Two thirds full.
This file contains correspondence relating to the purchase of shares in Moss Empires Ltd. All letters are typed.
This file contains takings, profits and losses from Associated Theatres London.
This file, a navy blue bound book, contains the takings for the London Hippodrome, Birmingham Empire, Birmingham Royal, Cardiff Empire, Edinburgh Empire, Finsbury Park Empire, Glasgow Empire, Hull Palace, Leeds Empire, Liverpool Empire, Newcastle Empire, New Cross Empire, Nottingham Empire, Nottingham Royal, Sheffield Empire, Southampton Empire, Stratford Empire and Swansea Empire.
This file, a navy blue bound book, contains the addresses of shareholders for the year of 1948.
This file contains the staff salaries at Howard & Wyndham Ltd theatres.
This file contains the weekly record of profit and loss for Howard & Wyndham theatres, compared against the previous year.
This file contains a personalised bound red volume relating to agreements between Howard & Wyndham Ltd and other companies, stating terms for producing specified shows.
This file, an orange book, contains hand written and typed expenses of A. Stewart Cruickshank (Managing Director of Howard & Wyndham Ltd). It largely concerns travel expenses.
This file, a personalised bound red file, contains typed gags and comic scenas.
This file, a personalised bound red file contains typed copies of contracts between Howard & Wyndham Ltd and other companies.
This volume, a personalised bound red file, contains records relating to shows at Theatre Royal Glasgow and Theatre Royal Newcastle.
This file contains a couple of ledgers coving attractions between 1928 and 1969 for all shows at 8 regional Howard & Wyndham Ltd theatres.
This series contains scrapbooks relating to a number of productions of
Contains bound volumes with small photographic copies of daily bills of productions taking place at Howard and Wyndham theatres. These provide a chronological record of what happened at these theatres every day, including closed days or in the case of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, it's destruction on 9 April 1941.