Historic London Theatres

From Nell Gwynn to Oscar Wilde - Worldwide Tourist Attraction

Mar 13, 2007

London's theatres have a long history, from the original Globe Theatre in the 16th-century to the more than fifty theatres in the West End today.

Going to the theatre has been an essential part of London life for over four hundred years. People have gathered to watch dramas unfold in Punch and Judy booths, on trestle stages set up by traveling players, in the basements and back rooms of countless public houses, and in the plush and comfort of today when London theatre has become one of the tourist attractions of the world.

Historic London Theatres - Dancing Bears and Cock Fights

Even before the opening of the first theatre in 1576 entertainment was a balm for Londoners living in a great slum of a city that was overcrowded, poverty-stricken and diseased. Diversion was everywhere. Dancing bears and cock fights filled the streets, hanging was a regular spectacle, and thieves - ears nailed to the pillory - were provided with knives with which to cut themselves loose, watched by cheering audiences. Life was harsh and cruel and the people took their entertainment wherever they could find it, which was usually on the streets and often at the expense of others.

Historic London Theatres - Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Compared with earlier playgoers, today's audiences are remarkably civilized. In the not so good old days of the famous Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, every performance was a free-for-all. No seats were reserved and the moment the doors opened at midday people shoved and pushed their way in to find a place on the pit benches, where they sat until the play started about 3:30 pm.

Orange girls dragged their heavy baskets through the audience, calling "Oranges, apples, bills of the play". The pit was generally crowded and hot and the uproar before the play began was tremendous. Even in the eighteenth century things hadn't improved much; in 1791 a German visitor observed "At Drury Lane I wished to look at the gallery in order to examine the structure, but a heap of orange peels, striking me with great force in the face, robbed me of all curiosity."

It was at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where, in 1664, the fourteen year old Nell Gwynne became an orange girl and a year later made her debut as an actress in a play by the then unknown playwright John Dryden. Pepys wrote of her, "She is very pretty, prettier than I thought." Her appealing beauty soon caught the eye of King Charles II and a relationship began which was to last sixteen years.

Today London's oldest and most historically important theatre echoes to the sounds of Broadway rather than to the words of Shakespeare. For the past forty years the Theatre Royal Drury Lane has become the venue for many American musicals and, in fact, Americans find it less expensive to see a hit show here than on Broadway.

The somewhat eccentric actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree staged spectacular Shakespeare revivals from 1897 to 1907. His emphasis on realism reached its zenith in his production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream’, which had a carpet of real grass, real rabbits, and thickets of real blossom. In 1914 he staged the first production of Shaw's 'Pygmalion'.

Beerbohm Tree himself played the part of Professor Higgins and the story goes that, on the first night, he kept fluffing his lines. When asked by Shaw to try and learn them better, he replied, "But I do know my lines, I do!" To which Shaw responded, "Oh, I don't dispute that for a moment. I willingly concede that you do know your lines. But you certainly don't know mine!"

The Theatre Royal Haymarketis one of the three great London theatres which are protected under the preservation act - reserved for buildings of great architectural or historic importance.

There has been a theatre on this site since 1720 when a carpenter, John Potter, built a small theatre on the site of an old inn called the King's Head in the Hay-market. He did so without obtaining a license and without consulting anyone and called it 'The Little Theatre in the Hay'. From this rather rebellious beginning the theatre has become one of the most traditional in the West End.

The Haymarket is known for the elegance and sophistication of its productions and some of the most famous names in the theatre are threaded through its history. At the premiere of Oscar Wilde's 'A Woman of No Importance' in 1893, a blackmailer waylaid Wilde at the stage door and, for ten pounds, offered him the original of a love letter the playwright had addressed to him. "Ten pounds!" cried Oscar. "You have no appreciation of literature. If you had asked me for fifty pounds, I might have given it to you."

Today, the Theatre Royal Haymarket continues its tradition of attracting the cream of the theatrical world, both in plays and players.

Fortunately for today's audiences most of the great old London theatres remain untouched by contemporary 'progress'. They are protected from the grasping hands of developers and retain all of the glory of yesteryear. They have survived the 'Talkies' and television - not to mention the blitz. Theatre is alive and well in London.

The copyright of the article Historic London Theatres in Historical Travel is owned by Cathy Smith. Permission to republish Historic London Theatres in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.