The theatre was built by Jenkins on 5^th December 1898, was to host many actors famous at the time including Impresario Alfred Denville who ran a number of repertory companies through the land and provided training for many of the young actors of the day, who later went on to become household names.

In 1933 the Southampton troupe of the Denville Players claimed that they were one drama company who performed a play every week in the same town without repetition. Denville in fact produced 100 plays in 100 weeks and some of the favourites of his productions were Betty Carterm Edwin Beverley, Harry Richardson, Walter Leybourne .
The manager of the Grand Theatre in 1933 was Charles Lake During those days many people were out of work and the Grand offered light relief for everybody in the town.

A few years later the light was changed to a green colour and this too caused a lot of alarm, but this time it was with train drivers while approaching the town rail tunnel from the Winchester side! Apparently the train drivers thought the light was an “all clear” signal light. So the light was then changed to purple!

The Grand Theatre survived the bombing of WWII and was reopened just after and remained so until the curtain was brought down for the last time in 1959, when a glass fronted office block took its place along with a parade of shops.