Founded in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, the Old Vic is one of the oldest theatres in London and among its most storied. Built south of the Thames near Waterloo, it was established by a group of managers who secured the patronage of Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, after whom it was first named, and it opened in May 1818 with a capacity of some 3,800. Renamed the Royal Victoria Theatre in 1833 and rebuilt in 1871, the house acquired its enduring nickname during the later nineteenth century, when Emma Cons took it over in 1880 and ran it as the Royal Victoria Hall, a temperance music hall where no alcohol was served. Its early Boxing Day performances were so popular and so dangerously overcrowded that a series of fatal crushes on the gallery stairs marked its history. The theatre's artistic reputation was forged in the twentieth century. Cons's niece Lilian Baylis took over management in 1898 and from 1914 instituted a celebrated programme of Shakespeare productions that established the Old Vic as a leading home for classical drama. The building was damaged by air raids in 1940, forcing the company to tour and find temporary homes before it reopened in 1950, and it was listed Grade II* in 1951. Today the Old Vic is a roughly 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre, with a horseshoe-shaped auditorium of stalls, dress circle and balcony seating around 1,067. Despite repeated rebuilding over two centuries, the basic structure remains that of the 1818 playhouse, and it continues to mount a full programme of drama under an independent trust. Its blend of deep history, architectural survival and continuing artistic ambition has kept the Old Vic at the centre of British theatre. Marking its bicentenary in 2018, the theatre remains a working producing house rather than a museum piece, staging new work and revivals for contemporary audiences from its long-standing home near Waterloo.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: Waterloo Road, London, United Kingdom, SE1 8NB

Website: https://www.oldvictheatre.com

Capacity: 1067

Opening Date: 11/05/1818