Sadler's Wells

Address: Rosebery Avenue, London , EC1R 4TN

Tube: Angel

Architect: RHWL and Nicholas Hare 1998

Opened: 1683

Capacity: 1,560 on three levels including the 200 capacity Lilian Baylis

Rebuilt: 1765 Thomas Rosoman (mgr)

Previous names: The New Spa Skating Rink and Winter Garden

The present theatre is the sixth on the site and it contains the 200 capacity Lilian Baylis Theatre. Although most famous for ballet productions, they also stage contemporary dance and opera, playing host to visiting companies.

Richard Sadler opened a "Musick House" here in 1683 and the name Sadler's Wells originates from a contraction of his name and the rediscovery of monastic springs on the property. The well water was thought to possess medicinal properties, Sadler was prompted to claim that drinking the water from the wells would be effective against "dropsy, jaundice, scurvy, green sickness and other distempers to which females are liable such as ulcers, fits of the mother, virgin's fever and “hypochondriacally distemper".

By the mid-1700s, the existence of two "Theatres Royal" one in Covent Garden and the other in Drury Lane limited the ability of other London theatres to legally perform any drama combined with music, and this contributed to the decline of this house. However there was a gap in the market, the Theatres Royal confined themselves to operating in the autumn and winter.

Sadler's Wells filled the gap in the entertainment market with its summer season, normally launched on Easter Monday. Thomas Rosoman, Manager from 1746 to 1771, established the Wells' pedigree for opera production and oversaw the construction of a new stone built theatre, in an incredible seven week, which opened in April 1765.

The latter half of the 18th century saw patriotic plays and pageants such as "A Fig For The French", which was produced in order to restore national morale after a heavy British defeat in a sea-battle off Grenada at the hands of the French and Spanish fleets. During the early years of the 1800s, many famous actors appeared at the theatre including Edmund Kean and comedians such as Joseph Grimaldi 1778-1837, who is best remembered as the creator of "Joey the Clown".

However, this period in the theatre history was characterized by public drunkenness, and the rural location prompted the management to provide escorts for patrons after dark to conduct them into central London. However, the setting bestowed many advantages. The construction of a large tank, flooded from the nearby New River, created an Aquatic Theatre used to stage extravagant naval melodramas, such as The Siege of Gibraltar.

The passing of the Theatres Act 1843 broke the drama monopoly of the Theatres Royal and the new manager Phelps was able to introduce a Shakespearian programme at the Wells. The acclaimed performance of actress Isabella Glyn as Macbeth was here.

By 1875, the theatre was all but ruined, there were plans to turn the theatre into a bathhouse and skating rink, it was subsequently a skating rink and later a prize fight arena. The theatre was condemned as a dangerous structure in 1878.

After renovation it re-opened as a music hall in 1879 and featured the legendary performers Marie Lloyd and Harry Champion among its stars. Roy Redgrave, founder of the theatrical dynasty also graced the boards.

In December 1896, it became a cinema, patrons were amazed by the moving pictures of the Theatregraph with film of Persimmon winning the Epsom Derby and a saucy vignette entitled "The Soldier and His Sweetheart Spooning on a Seat". However the fortunes of the theatre did not improve down until Lilian Baylis, the manageress of the Old Vic Theatre Company, agreed to help set up a charitable foundation to buy the decrepit Sadler’s Wells.

By 1925, she had invited the Duke of Devonshire to make a public appeal for funds in order to set up a charitable Foundation designed to buy Sadler's Wells for the nation. Since the committee included such diverse and influential figures as Winston Churchill and Stanley Baldwin, G. K. Chesterton and John Galsworthy, Dame Ethel Smyth and Sir Thomas Beecham, it was not long before the committee had sufficient funds to purchase the freehold.

Designed by Matcham, the new theatre opened on January 6, 1931 with an appropriate production of Twelfth Night and a cast headed by Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch and John Gielgud as Malvolio. In the beginning with the prevailing influence of Ms. Baylis’ it was intended that the two theatres should each offer alternating programs of drama and opera. This occurred but commercially it was death to both theatres. Drama flourished at the Old Vic but opera and dance were more popular at Sadler’s Wells.

By the start of the 1933 season, the acting company under Tyrone Guthrie included a formidable range of acting talent in the personages of Charles Laughton, Peggy Ashcroft, Flora Robson, Athene Seyler, Marius Goring and James Mason. By the start of the 1935 season opera and ballet were firmly in the ascendant and Sadler's Wells Ballet with principal dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin became the first truly British ballet company. In 1931 Ninette de Valois was invited to form a ballet company at Sadler's Wells Theatre.

The theatre was closed during the Second World War, and the ballet company toured throughout the country, and upon its return changed its name to the Sadler's Wells Ballet. Similarly, the opera company toured to return as Sadler's Wells Opera Company, and it reopened the theatre with Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes.

In 1946, with the re-opening of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the ballet company was invited to become the resident company there. De Valois therefore decided to begin a second company at the Sadler's Wells Theatre.

By 1977 another name change created The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and, ten years later, in 1987, the Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham City Council invited Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet to re-locate to Birmingham. It did so in 1990 and changes its name to Birmingham Royal Ballet but it was independent of the Royal Opera House by 1996.

The Sadler's Wells Opera Company moved out of Sadler's Wells Theatre to the Coliseum Theatre in 1968 and was later renamed English National Opera. Sadler’s Wells Theatre then became a temporary home for both foreign companies and those within the UK looking for a metropolitan base.

The current theatre opened on 11 October 1998 after being rebuilt with the National Lottery money.