St. James's Theatre, King Street, London

St. James’s Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre in King Street, St. James’s, City of Westminster, in London’s West End. The theatre opened on 14 December 1835 with a mixed program of comic operas, Shakespearian readings, and foreign plays. The theatre underwent changes in 1900 when the building that adjoined it was rebuilt and included into the Theatre to provide more space and a new stage door. The Theatre closed and was demolished in 1957.

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.506366849128
Longitude: -0.137672424316

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Timeline of Events Associated with St. James's Theatre, King Street, London

Date Event Manage
Aug 1857

Christy Minstrels performed at St. James’s Theater

photo of minstrel show performersOn 3 August 1857, Christy Minstrels perform at St. James’s Theater, where they entertained audiences for the next twelve months with song, dance, and comic dialogue. Images of the minstrels and their stock characters circulated throughout print culture that year in multiple forms, from wood-engraved prints to photographs. Image: Photograph, Minstrel Show Performers Rollin Howard (in wench costume) and George Griffin, circa 1855. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”
1 Feb 1900 to 1 Feb 1900

St. James’s Theatre refurbished

An excited audience filled the St James’s Theatre (King Street, London) on the first night following its complete refurbishment. The theatre's new telegraphic address, “Ruritania”, was a tribute to the play that paid for the lavish remodelling: George Alexander’s adaption of The Prisoner of Zenda (January 1896). Other plays staged at St. James’s included Arthur Wing Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray (May 1893) and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (February 1895).

Articles

Nicholas Daly, "Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (April, 1894) and the Rise of Ruritanian Fiction"

Related Articles

Renata Kobetts Miller, “The Cultural Work of Drama Criticism in the Early 1890s”