John Fuller employed architect Edward Bartley, who was nearing the end of a distinguished career during which he had designed many of the city’s prominent buildings including Fuller’s Opera house in 1882. Edward Bartley was concerned with safety and insisted on building with fire resistant materials. The walls were lined with asbestos sheets and the asbestos drop curtain was the latest of its time, an innovation which was to cause enormous problems for later owners. Brick was used for load bearing walls and the stairs were built of concrete rather than timber. Until this time films had been shown in existing halls and theatres with the equipment set up in the middle of the audience. However, the film was highly flammable this practice was not considered safe. In April 1910 the Weekly Graphic & NZ Mail reported:

"King’s Theatre now in the course of erection for Messrs Fuller & Sons will be the largest building of its class seating many more people than His Majesty’s through the very favourable configuration of the land and other special circumstances the architect has been enabled to plan the fire escapes and exits from the dress circle, the stalls and pit all opening on the level ground."

The King’s Theatre was a popular cinema for the next six years showing such films as Tweedledum Misses the Train, Mazeppa and the Girl of Triple X. In 1916 the theatre was leased to an Australian theatre company who provided a diet of sentimental plays: No Mother to Guide Her, How Hearts Are Broken, From Mill Girl to Millionairess, and Her Road To Ruin.9 Undoubtedly, these morally uplifting fantasies provided solace for the war weary Auckland audiences.

Reverting to cinema after the fourteen-month run, the equipment was upgraded to show talkies. After their father’s death in 1922 the older brothers moved the headquarters of the company to Sydney leaving the New Zealand affairs to youngest brother, Walter. His main interest was the theatres in Dunedin and Wellington and so he leased King’s Theatre to New Zealand Picture Supplies (owned by Hayward) as a cinema.

By the mid-1920s Karangahape Road had become a main thoroughfare and shopping centre. On either side of Upper Pitt St were the large department stores of John Court’s and Hallenstein Bros., and further along Karangahape Road were Rendells, Lewis Eady, Maple Furnishing and Hugh Wright’s Menswear. Bud Atkinson, an American impresario suggested that the theatre would be better served by an entrance from the main street rather than the existing side street entrance.

At the same time the theatre itself was renovated. The seating was reduced by 300 and every seat now had an uninterrupted view. Mr George Tarr designed a new stage and cinema screen. “The screen stands in an artistic framing of white Grecian pillars and low, white steps with two great bowls at the foot, at either side.”

The theatre’s life as a cinema, however, was to be short lived. In December 1926 Fuller’s Opera House in Wellesley Street West was burnt and the stage programmes booked for that season were transferred to the Prince Edward. The Fuller Company was energetic in rectifying this situation and in December 1927 the St James Theatre opened in Queen Street and became Fuller’s principal venue for live theatre. The Prince Edward reverted to a cinema once again.

Throughout the Depression and the ensuing World War II, the Prince Edward remained a cinema. Little was done to maintain the building and furnishings, owing to the poor economic times. The old theatre was shabby and run down and in September 1947 it closed.

On to the scene came the young entrepreneur, Robert Kerridge. He bought the ailing FullerHayward Theatre Corporation including all the theatres. With the energy and enthusiasm which was to build him an empire, Kerridge set about renovating and upgrading the building for live theatre. It opened with the name The Playhouse, with a resident company called the West End Players. The season began with a play ‘Fools Rush In’. When this company moved south, an American group, The Pasadena Players, presented four plays before they too moved on. Throughout the fifties plays, musicals and reviews were performed interspersed with films.

In 1956 the Karangahape Rd entrance was closed off and sold to Lum Joe Ng. Norman Ng Building was emblazoned across the front of this narrow building and he ran a greengrocer shop in the long entrance for many years. The Upper Pitt Street entrance, now known as France Street, was re-opened. The dome room and the foyer beneath were retained in the theatre.

In 1966 The Auckland Theatre Trust Board was formed for the purpose of ‘providing Auckland with a permanent professional company in its own theatre’. After looking at many other properties The Playhouse was bought for $110,000 from Sir Robert Kerridge in 1967. Plans were drawn up for the conversion and upgrade. The France Street foyer was to be renovated and a 75-seat restaurant introduced by cutting into the rear stalls area. The rear of the circle was closed off to form a theatre workshop for rehearsals and an intimate venue for smaller plays. Seating was reduced to 630 in the main theatre to improve audibility and sight lines. ‘Our primary aim is to establish a satisfactory relationship between actor and audience’.

The theatre opened on 1 May 1968 after renovations of around $250,000 under the name Mercury Theatre. The first production was The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie.

‍The old Playhouse has been transformed. In place of the old 1300 seater cinema is now a modern 700 seater auditorium, with colourful décor, widely spaced seating, a smaller workshop theatre and a spacious restaurant and foyer.

In 1970 the Garrick Bar was built on the first floor above the foyer. It utilised the original first floor windows and the pressed steel ceiling. It was the first liquor license to be granted to a theatre in New Zealand. The Garrick Bar was opened by the Hon. Robert Muldoon, a sometime thespian.

Mrs Worthington’s Bar took on the art deco theme of the ground floor lobby of the old Karangahape Road entrance where it was built in 1973. Keeping to the 1920s style, architect Don McRae installed genuine light fittings of the period and had art deco wallpaper printed in Wellington. The specially made chrome framed tables and chairs were upholstered in black and orange. The opening was planned to coincide with Noel Coward’s play Hay Fever. With its two bars and two theatres running plays, musicals and opera the aim was to make Mercury Theatre a complete social centre for Auckland.

The Mercury Theatre celebrated twenty years in 1988 and the Auckland Sun ran a story. Actors reported there were three ghosts in the building: an old caretaker who had been beaten to death by people who had broken in one night; a young boy who was said to have died in the building of the theatre, and a woman who stands in the dress circle. They also commented on the shocking acoustics and the size of the rats, one of which ran across the stage during a performance.

By the late 1980s the structure was in dire need of repair. Throughout its 80-year history and renovations nothing had been done to the structural fabric of the building. It needed re-roofing, new guttering, and the brick walls required strengthening to bring the building up to current earthquake regulations. The asbestos was an enormous problem and it was not licensed as a public hall due to the absence of a sprinkler system. Stinking water regularly flooded the green rooms. To restore all this, an estimated $4 million was required. The Mercury Restoration Project Committee was brought together in May 1989 and commissioned architects JASMAX to prepare specifications and drawings for the restoration. It was envisioned to eventually buy back the Norman Ng building and restore the Karangahape Road entrance.

With an initial grant of $40,000 from the ASB Community Trust and various fund-raising events which accumulated $85,000, the committee started off positively. It was, however, to prove too difficult to raise the required funds. A proposition to offer the theatre as a third theatre for the Aotea Centre was also rejected. With debts of over $300,000 the liquidators moved in and in October 1992 and it was decided to sell the theatre.

By now the building was in danger of being demolished. In 1990, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust registered the building as Category C under the then Historic Places Act 1980 (December Board Meeting 1990). It subsequently became a Category II building under the 1993 Act. Although it had been valued at $900,000 some years previously it was now difficult to find a buyer willing to invest in the repairs. It was sold first to an unknown identity and then to Symon Peters and John Zam for an undisclosed sum in February 1993.

‍We plan to build it back up to what it was in the past which will retain the live theatre production skills in Auckland. I would encourage young people to go into the theatre profession and keep them in Auckland.
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‍Unfortunately, that partnership broke up and the grand old theatre was again on the market. In 1994 it was purchased by the Apostolic Church (known as Auckland City Church).

Auckland City Church later renamed to Equippers Auckland Church. In 2014 ownership of the Theatre was updated to the Equippers Church Trust Board. In 2018 ownership of the Mercury Theatre was legally transferred into the Equippers Property Trust – a Charitable Property Trust. The Theatre continued to be used for venue hire, church gatherings and events. Equippers Property Trust is now about to embark on an ambitious project to structurally upgrade and refurbish the building