Theatre on the east side of Sloane Square. The current 1888 building, designed by Walter Emden and Bertie Crewe, opened as the New Court Theatre. Many of George Bernard Shaw's early plays were produced here. It ceased to be a theatre in 1932, and was a cinema from 1935 until it was bombed in 1940. The interior was reconstructed and it re-opened in 1952. The English Stage Company was formed here in 1956, and the staging of John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' was seen as the starting point of modern drama.
The theatre actually started in Ranelagh Chapel, in Lower George Street. This shows Lower George Street to have been the name of the street on the east side of Sloane Square, continuing southwards to be also what is now Sloane Gardens. The chapel, built 1818, is shown on the west side of the street, about where no.4 Sloane Gardens now is. It had a short spell as a dancing saloon (or academy) then from c.1870 it housed what became the Royal Court Theatre. The chapel was demolished c.1887, coinciding with the creation of the new theatre on Sloane Square.
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Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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