Imperial London sketches from the history of a great city
Entertainment in 1900 London

London Theatres in 1900

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Arthur H. Beavan made a survey of London's theatres, in Imperial London, published in 1901:

It is often asked, when some new Metropolitan theatre is opened, "Whereabouts is it? Have you not enough theatres and to spare?" The question is pertinent, for there certainly appears to be a sufficient number of these places of entertainment.

London, which at the dawn of the nineteenth century had but eight theatres (including two circuses), now, in 1900, possessed over thirty within the four-mile radius, while there were almost as many distributed about its suburbs, which in the year 1801 were villages and hamlets.

Strangers must be struck not only by the way so many of our older theatres are hemmed-in by buildings - the grand exceptions being Drury Lane and Covent Garden - but by their inconvenient entrances, as instanced at the Adelphi, Strand (although recently entirely reconstructed within), Terriss's, Opera Comique, Globe, Vaudeville, Princess's and Great Queen Street theatres, and even the porticoed Haymarket and St James'.

The enormous value of sites in the localities conventionally devoted to theatres, partly accounts for this; but wherever suitable ground has been secured on reasonable terms, a different order of things prevails, isolation, more or less complete, with corresponding accessibility, being the rule, as at Wyndham's, Daly's, the Shaftesbury, the Comedy, Prince of Wales's, the Avenue, Duke of York's, Her Majesty's and the Court.

Which of all the foregoing is the national and representative theatre, the Theatre Francais of London?

There can be little doubt that, by reason of its age and historical associations, Drury Lane deserves the appellation.

Next: London's Theatrical History, 1900: Drury Lane Theatre

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