58 others, between 1879 and 1910; Matcham's biographer Brian Walker lists him ahead of his contemporaries and counts 92 designs, with the closest to him being Charles J. Phipps, with 72. According to the theatre historians John Earl and Michael Sell, Matcham was the original architect for half of the 48 surviving theatres associated with him, and the rest he restored, altered or remodelled from existing buildings. A further 111 of his theatres were either bombed during the wars, destroyed by fire, or demolished as part of area regeneration, mostly during the 1960s. From the start of the 1900s Crewe and W. G. R. Sprague had started to make names for themselves in architectural circles. It has been suggested by various architectural journals that Crewe and Sprague were pupils of Matcham, and although Glasstone was sceptical of this in his 1975 book Victorian and Edwardian Theatres, the author Iain Mackintosh noted a clear Matcham influence in Sprague and Crewe's designs; he describes the former as being suaver compared to Matcham, whilst Crewe, although sharing a lot of Matcham's exuberance, was "more polished" because of his earlier training in Paris. Sir Alfred Butt, writing in The Era, considered: "Frank Matcham lived for his work, and unquestionably was pre-eminent as a theatrical and music hall architect." According to the historians, Roger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius, Matcham was "the most consistent and prolific architect of the later music halls ... his buildings, mostly in the provinces and the suburbs of London, [were] equal or exceed in splendour [compared to] the metropolitan theatres and opera houses." On 22 November 2007 Matcham was commemorated by English Heritage when a blue plaque was unveiled at his former London home, 10 Haslemere Road, Hornsey, by the actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales. Notes and references Notes References Sources External links Frank Matcham Society Theatres built by Frank Matcham Frank Matcham page Frank Matcham and Company at the Victoria and Albert Museum. People from Newton Abbot English theatre architects 1854 births 1920 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People from Hornsey