Curtain up: London’s Theatreland, the back story

About Curtain up: London’s Theatreland, the back story

By the ULTIMATE London Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

London’s West End has some forty theatres within walking distance of one another, and its stages have premiered many of the plays and musicals the world knows.

Drury Lane

Theatre returned to London after the Restoration of 1660, and a playhouse has stood at Drury Lane since the 1660s. The present Theatre Royal dates from 1812.

Shaftesbury Avenue

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a wave of new theatres rose along Shaftesbury Avenue, the Strand and Charing Cross Road, among them the Queen’s, now the Sondheim, and the Phoenix of 1930.

In the West End, the show starts before the curtain: in the lanes and pubs of Covent Garden.

Beyond the West End

The National Theatre on the South Bank, Shakespeare’s Globe on Bankside, the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells extend London’s stage far beyond Theatreland, with opera at the Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum.

Tickets

Book direct with the theatre or its owning group, or at the Official London Theatre Ticket Booth in Leicester Square; see our guide to buying theatre tickets.

Our advice: eat early in Covent Garden or Soho, arrive twenty minutes before curtain up, and stay for a nightcap at a Theatreland bar afterwards.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Curtain up: London’s Theatreland, the back story before you go.