Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 01:42:00

Designed by Frank Matcham and opened on 24 December 1904, the London Coliseum on St Martin's Lane was built for the impresario Oswald Stoll as the largest and most lavish variety theatre in London -- a self-styled 'people's palace of entertainment'. It remains the largest theatre in the West End, and since the early 2000s has been the home of English National Opera, which restored the building between 2000 and 2004. Matcham gave the theatre a number of firsts: a triple revolving stage, an early use of electric lighting and the widest proscenium arch in London, with cantilevered steel balconies that improved sightlines. The Edwardian Free Baroque interior, topped by a tower with a (formerly rotating) globe, is a Grade II* listed survival. Originally seating 2,939 across four levels, the auditorium now holds 2,359, still the highest capacity of any West End theatre. As well as the ENO opera season, the venue hosts visiting ballet and other large-scale productions, and stands at the edge of the West End between Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden.