how theatres worked. Moss Empires and Oswald Stoll From 1898 to 1910 Oswald Stoll had been the managing director of Moss Empires, a theatrical entertainment circuit headed by the impresario Edward Moss, which at its height was responsible for 33 theatres around Great Britain. Matcham first worked for Moss Empires in 1892 on the Empire Palace, Edinburgh. Moss was so impressed with Matcham's work that he commissioned him to design other provincial theatres over the next seven years. Matcham's work in London under the impresarios included the Empire in Hackney, and the Coliseum and Hippodrome theatres, both in Westminster. In total, Matcham was responsible for designing 21 theatres for Moss and Stoll over a 20-year period which ended with the Wood Green Empire, in 1912. Stoll intended the Hackney Empire to be his London headquarters, but the plan changed midway through construction when he decided to locate his offices further into central London: this caused a drastic reduction in the Empire's budget to allow extra finances for the new headquarters at the Coliseum. Matcham rushed together a secondary, cheaper design of the Empire's façade and presented it to Stoll on a piece of scrap tracing paper. The exterior of the Empire was a design that Matcham always loathed but was one, according to the historian Michael Sell, that demonstrated the architect's "seemingly endless powers of invention" and one that will "forever remain a landmark". The auditorium is noted by Historic England as being "one of the most exuberant Matcham interiors in Britain", while the historian Brian Walker called the Empire's interior "the most perfect Matcham interior in Greater London". Pevsner considered the Empire to be "splendidly confident" and "among the best-surviving Edwardian variety theatres". For the Coliseum, Matcham encountered a problem; Stoll wanted the theatre to be the largest and most lavish in London. Matcham was concerned that the vast size would cause a reduction in sound quality and view to the stage; accordingly, he gave particular attention to the theatre's acoustics and designed the balconies so that they sloped towards the auditorium sides, rather than the more traditional method of being supported by pilotis; Matcham pioneered the use of cantilevered steel in his designs, and took out patents to protect his work. The theatre featured a revolving stage, the first of its kind in London, which allowed for imaginative ideas, including the theatre's extravagant celebrations of Derby Day, featuring