Theatre Architects

Born: 1880 (Bristol, England)

Died: 1958 (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Cooke was born in Bristol, England, on 26th March 1880. He was educated in Bristol and Sheffield before attending the Crystal Palace School of Engineering and Training.

Not long after the turn of the century, Cooke moved to South Africa and was employed as an engineering assistant by the Town Engineer in Johannesburg. He opened his own practice in 1910, based in Germiston.

In 1917 Cooke was appointed representative of the Association of Transvaal Architects Practice Committee in Germiston and moved to Johannesburg in 1920.

Cooke was later appointed architect to the African Consolidated Theatres, and in 1927 was sent to Europe and to the United States of America to investigate modern theatre design. In New York he met Thomas Lamb who taught Cooke “the secrets of atmospheric theatre with an illusion of sky and stars”. Cooke stated that he designed the Alhambra Theatre in Cape Town in Lamb’s office. Cooke also designed the Colosseum Theatre in Johannesburg.

After the death of his first wife, Cooke married Mabel (nee Cecil) in February 1942, and in October 1944 had a daughter Gillian, Cooke’s only child. Cooke’s second wife died in June 1950 and he looked after his daughter until his own death in 1958.

Information in part sourced from Artefacts .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Capitol Theatre, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Colosseum Theatre, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa