Venue: Shanklin Theatre
Address: Prospect Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight, PO37 6AJ, England
Town: Shanklin, GB

The Shanklin Theatre is an entertainment venue in Prospect Road in Shanklin, a town on the Isle of Wight in England. The building, which incorporates the former Shanklin Town Hall, is a Grade II listed building. The oldest part of the complex was commissioned as The Shanklin Literary & Scientific Institute. The site selected, which was a prominent location at the top of Steephill Road, was dominated by a windmill in the early 17th century. It was donated to the institute by the lord of the manor, Francis White-Popham of Shanklin Manor. The foundation stone was laid by the local member of parliament, Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, on 6 August 1878. The new building was designed by a local architect, E. G. Cooper, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1879. The design of the building, which was originally single-storey, involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing down Steephill Road. It featured a hexastyle portico formed by six Corinthian order columns supporting an entablature, a cornice and, across the central three bays, a pediment with the word "Institute" inscribed in the tympanum. In 1884, the building was extended in the Gothic Revival style, with a reading room and an amusement room being added. In 1913, the extension was converted for municipal use by Shanklin Urban District Council, although the main part of the building was used for concerts and theatrical performances. Performers at that time included operatic baritone, Powis Pinder, who took part in an evening of entertainment in 1915. In 1925, the complex was badly damaged in a fire, and the council subsequently decided to remodel it. The foundation stone for a new three-storey main façade was laid by the then local member of parliament, Peter Macdonald, on 28 February 1933. Meanwhile, the new combined Sandown-Shanklin Urban District Council was formed at Sandown Town Hall later in 1933. The reconstruction of Shanklin Town Hall was carried out to a design by Coo