London’s west End has been the home of famous theatres from the time of William Shakespeare, arguably the father of English theatre. Shakespeare was involved with founding The Theatre in 1576, but is more famous for The Globe, which was built in 1597, and was the scene of many of his plays.

These early theatres were not designed to be comfortable, and patrons braved the fickle English weather in unroofed, circular theatres, the cheapest places going to the groundlings who watched from standing room in the pit of the theatre. The plays were superb entertainment, witnessed by their continued success today, and dealt with contemporary themes which are still relevant more than four hundred years after The Theatre was built.

The actors were all men, the women’s parts being taken by boys. This tradition continued, and for many years acting was considered to be an unsuitable profession for a woman. One of the principal forces to change this was Mrs Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), who brought respectability to the stage. By Mrs Siddons’ time the design of the theatre had been changed and the auditorium was horseshoe-shaped, the stage flanked by richly decorated tiered boxes. Opulent design is still to be seen in some of the London theaters of today. Thick velvet curtains, ornate stonework and gilt decoration endure in some of the older theaters like The Dury Lane Theater Royal, which opened in 1812, the fourth theater of the name to occupy the same site. For sheer sumptuousness, however, it is hard to surpass the interior of the Theater Royal in Haymarket, which is designed in the style of Louis XIV of France, with heavily carved embellishments and a great deal of gift.

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