Beresford Street

About

Stoke Repertory Theatre

In 1920 a group of young men and women from North Staffordshire launched the Stoke-on-Trent Dramatic Society with a production of Caste at the Empire Theatre, Longton. By 1923 they had changed the name of their group to The Repertory Players, the name by which it has been known ever since.

In 1932 the opportunity arose for the Players to rent St. Jude’s Parish Hall at the corner of Beresford Street and Victoria Road (now College Road) in Shelton. Within three months the hall was transformed into a performance space with around 200 seats. Sir Percival Heywood performed the official opening ceremony of the Stoke Repertory Theatre and the first production was ‘Lean Harvest’ by Ronald Jeans which opened on Monday 27th March 1933. The company continued to present shows in this building for the next 64 years until July 1997 when the Players moved to their brand new home on Leek Road.

The building is now home to the Makki Masjid Mosque.