Building    From 8/11/1924 

Fortune Theatre - WC2

Categories: Theatre

Designed by Ernest Schaufelberg, this was the first London theatre to be built after the end of WW1, and one of the first buildings in London to to use ferro-concrete construction. Built on the site of the Albion tavern. Due to a right of way the passage to the Crown Court Church of Scotland is buried in the fabric of the theatre, on the south-west side. One of the smaller theatres in London, it was commissioned by Laurence Cowen who also wrote the opening play, Sinners!, which sadly ran for only 2 weeks. 'Beyond The Fringe' initially ran here.

Originally named the Fortune Thriller Theatre, possibly after the Fortune Theatre in EC1. Some sources give August as the opening month but Arthur Lloyd convincingly gives November.

Sources include: Theatre-Tickets.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Fortune Theatre - WC2

Commemorated ati

Fortune Theatre - WC2

{Above a stylised picture of two performers:} Fortune Theatre. A 'jewel of a ...

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Laurence Cowen

The dates on the plaque indicate the anticipated period of construction, but ...

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Other Subjects

Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl

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1 memorial
Walter Macqueen-Pope

Walter Macqueen-Pope

Theatre manager and historian. Born Walter James Macqueen-Pope in Farnham, Surrey. He was business manager at many London theatres including the Queens, the Duke of York's and the London Palladium....

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1 memorial
Dick Whittington's cat

Dick Whittington's cat

See Dick Whittington. The picture is the charming logo adopted by the Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill.

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1 memorial
Adelphi Theatre

Adelphi Theatre

Founded as the Sans Parail by John Scott, and his daughter Jane, who was an early playwright-actor-manager.  1819 it re-opened as the Adelphi Theatre, named for the Adelphi development opposite.  1...

Group, Theatre

1 memorial
National Theatre

National Theatre

First proposed in 1848, the gestation of the NT is complex (see the NT's own site). The first site for the NT was acquired in 1913, immediately behind the British Museum, at the corner of Gower Str...

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4 memorials

Previously viewed

St Mary Whitechapel parish boundary

St Mary Whitechapel parish boundary

E1, Commercial Street, 40, The Culpeper Public House

Plaque actually around the corner in Wentworth Street.

8 subjects commemorated