The Architecture (and stories) of London Theatres

I thought this would be a really cool thread as it's always interested me and I hope it does with others too (who want to talk about it!).

The architecture of the London theatres is simply stunning and what makes them even more interesting is that there are so many styles and examples with a concentrated radius...some even have contrasting examples next door to each other. In short, my experience of going to the theatre is that you are often visiting a piece of artwork in itself before the production has even started.

We all have our favoured styles and venues i'm sure and it will be great to share them here, as well as famous stories or even our own personal stories in visiting these venues. Trust me, they all have quirks and funny features, but above all so much history. As tempting as it would have been to create a separate thread for each theatre venue in London...don't worry admin we will keep it into this topic. To all who share their comments/experiences please be clear which venue you are discussing though!   Note we are here to discuss the performing spaces, so could I politely ask that any specific discussion of the shows be kept to the show threads on other pages...thanks 

Finally...if you have not already found it, I could not recommend more this website here which is an incredible wealth of free knowledge on theatre architecture not only in London, but countrywide. 

I'd like to start with Her Majesty's Theatre which has been home to Phantom since 1986 and sits on The Haymarket and this building has been there since 1897


This "Gothic as Hell" theatre was built for Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (a rather cool name if I may say!) who was a famous actor. Look he even has a plaque on the corner of the building (on Charles II Street):

Imagine how cool it must be having a theatre built for you?! As the plaque says, he was a very famous and respected actor who was knighted for his efforts.

So...I was in London yesterday admiring the amazing dome and I remembered that this was where Herbert had his office. He actually lived and worked in this theatre! One thing i've never been able to find is if any early photographs exist of what this dome office/living space looked like. I'm also intrigued as to what it looks like today. Is it storage, is it a private office still, a function room?

I look forward to sharing our experiences here.