Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, which opened its present building in 1812, stands on the city's oldest continuously operating theatre site dating back to 1663. Established by Thomas Killigrew after the Puritan theatrical ban, the venue launched the career of orange seller Nell Gwyn. Four playhouses have occupied the site, famous for historical ghosts like the Man in Grey whose dagger-pierced skeleton was found in the 1840s.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon's Best-Kept Secrets” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JF

Who built the original Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London in 1663?

Look at the grand cream portico ahead of you. That is the Theatre Royal Drury Lane... and this spot has been home to live performance since sixteen sixty-three. That makes it the oldest continuously operating theatre site in all of London.......... The original playhouse was built by a man named Thomas Killigrew, right after the Puritan Interregnum... eleven years during which All pastimes considered frivolous, including theatre, had been banned. England had lived without plays, without comedy, without applause. When King Charles the Second returned to the throne, he gave just two men permission to form new acting companies. Killigrew held one of those precious permits... and built his theatre right here on Drury Lane.......... Now, here's where the story gets extraordinary. Among the first employees was a young girl selling oranges to audience members... a girl named Nell Gwyn. Her charm and talent caught the eye of the leading actor, Charles Hart, who helped launch her acting career. By the age of fifteen, she'd made her stage debut. The diarist Samuel Pepys called her "pretty, witty Nell." By sixteen sixty-nine, she had become the mistress of King Charles the Second himself.......... And if you look across Catherine Street, you'll see a small pub called the Nell of Old Drury. Legend has it there's a secret tunnel connecting the pub to this very theatre... supposedly used by King Charles the Second to visit Nell Gwyn without attracting attention. It was also apparently used by other theatregoers who were warned to return when intermission was over by a bell inside the pub. The present-day pub cheerfully admits the tunnel cannot actually be found! But the legend endures.......... Now... the ghosts. This theatre is rumoured to be the Most haunted theatre in the world. And the strangest part? There are so many ghosts lurking within these walls that it's considered Good Luck for a play if an apparition is spotted before a production.......... The most famous is the Man in Grey. He appears as a limping young man in a powdered wig, grey riding cloak and three-cornered hat. He invariably appears during daylight... and seldom strays from his timeworn route. He materialises on one side of the upper circle, crosses to the other, and astonishes witnesses by melting into the wall. In nineteen thirty-nine, more than Half the cast of "The Dancing Years," on stage for a photo call, watched his ghost cross the upper circle and vanish.......... But here's the chilling detail. During renovations in the eighteen forties, workmen broke into a hidden room behind the Exact wall where the ghost always vanishes. Inside... they found a skeleton, surrounded by remnants of grey cloth, with a dagger protruding from its rib cage. It has been speculated that the remains belonged to a young man who had won the affections of an actress at the theatre... and was murdered by her actor lover in a fit of jealous rage.......... And he's not alone. The ghost of actor Charles Macklin appears backstage, wandering the corridor that now stands on the spot where, in seventeen thirty-five, he killed fellow actor Thomas Hallam in an argument... over a Wig. Then there's Dan Leno, the first great pantomime dame, said to haunt the corridors still, rapping his walking stick on dressing room doors and trailing the scent of lavender oil.......... Four theatres have stood on this ground. The first burned in sixteen seventy-two. The third burned in eighteen oh nine. The building you see today opened in eighteen twelve... and nearly four centuries of drama, scandal, love, and a ghost or two have seeped into every stone.

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