The Cremorne Theatre was a theatre in South Brisbane (now part of South Bank), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia that operated, with interruptions, from 1911 to 1954. Although nothing remains of it today, the general location retains its cultural significance from the first half of the twentieth century as a theatre precinct, thanks to the nearby construction of Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in 1985. Its name lives on in the new Cremorne Theatre, one of the venues within QPAC. Location The Cremorne Theatre was located on the river side of Stanley Street, South Brisbane, between Peel and Melbourne Streets, just to the north of where the Victoria Bridge crossed the Brisbane River from the city (). The street alignments were changed with the South Bank development in the 1980s, with Stanley Street removed for much of its length from Vulture Street up to today's Stanley Place. The old Theatre site is under the current Queensland Art Gallery, not far from the 1985 QPAC theatre complex. QPAC's site on Melbourne Street adjoins the Cultural Centre Tunnel which turns under what would have been that street's intersection with Stanley Street and then follows the old street alignment past the Cremorne Theatre site. History Prior to the theatre The theatre when it opened in 1911 was originally called the Cremorne Gardens, taking the name from a previous venue at the Stanley Street site. The name connects Brisbane to a riverside "pleasure garden" tradition from the Cremorne Gardens in London (1845–1877) and its Australian equivalents such as Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne (1853–1863); Sydney (1856–1862); Albany (1896–1910), Kalgoorlie (1907–current) and Perth (1895–1914) WA; and in Queensland: Rockhampton (1863 – 1886), Mackay (1886–1958) and Charters Towers (1902 – 1910?). The current South Bank development itself can be seen as a modern equivalent to the Cremorne Gardens concept, at a scale much closer to the originals in London and Melbourne. These pre-1911 Brisbane Cremorne Gardens, were likely, given the site size, much more modest than their antecedents. The first mention of them is being advertised as a concert venue for a pantomime company and a violin concert in 1902. The venue is also referred to in the Advertisement as O'Connor's Gardens. J.D. O'Connor was the publican of O'Connor's Hotel in Stanley Street in 1902. J.D. O'Connor's father-in-law, John Graham, had owned land in South Brisbane since 1842, and had run hotels in the vicinity from 1866 to 1896. In