Broadway. The Gran Via. The world is littered with glitzy, glamorous theatre districts. Yet few hold the appeal of London’s West End, which has around 40 designated theatres in its vicinity. This proliferation did not occur overnight either, with the area having been a hub of the arts for hundreds of years. Yet there have been periods of boom and bust in the tale of how the West End was finally won.
The West End of Old
The story of the West End really began after the Civil War, when the monarchy was restored in 1660. Two theatres were given royal warrants to perform drama. One of these was the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, which remains operational, though in a newer building.
Around this hub, underground drama and performance flourished. Londoners would put on their own music and bawdy events, all unsanctioned and in secret. It may have been this which sowed the seeds for the UK’s thirst for popular culture later down the line, making clear divisions between the culture of the upper classes and that of the working classes. This continued until the Royal Patent period ended in 1843.
The Victorian Period
Once the patent era ended, the gloves were off. Theatres appeared in Shaftesbury Avenue, Covent Garden and the Strand. All of this coincided with a time of great change, when much of London was being demolished to make way for railways. This not only tore down many of the once most affluent areas, but rebuilt poorer areas around the West End.
Notable at this time were some of the people who were involved in the new ventures; Lewis Carroll was present in the first stage adaptation of his Alice books at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1886. Oscar Wilde premiered his second comedy, A Woman of No Importance, at the Haymarket Theatre in 1893. This boom continued until the start of the First World War.
The Post War West End
Between the wars, entertainment continued, though it did so with censorship once again taking its aim. This was finally abolished in 1968, leading to another boom, right at the height of London’s swinging sixties. This was when what is now known as ‘Theatreland’ really came into being.
The influx of new theatre groups and plays that occurred in Britain in the 1960s bled into other forms of media, leading to many film adaptations of then-modern plays such as Billy Liar (which was in turn adapted from a 1959 novel), Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer. Nowadays, adaptations make up a huge proportion of the films and TV series that come out each year, along with other particularly modern innovations like branded online bingo games and slot titles like The Walking Dead: Cash Collect and The Goonies: Jackpot King.
It’s always interesting to see fresh takes on familiar stories, whether it be a small 5×3 grid on a mobile device or a huge silver IMAX screen showing The Odyssey, but this is hardly a new phenomenon. Were it not for the great deluge of original creations that changes in the West End allowed to happen in the mid-20th century, whole dynasties of adaptational storytelling might never have come to be.
Today, many of the theatres from this period are still functioning and booming due to global tourism. However, many are ageing and have serious renovation bills at hand. The Apollo Theatre had one incident in 2013 where patrons were hurt due to falling brickwork. Yet repairs were swift, and many of these have since staged shows for a long time without incident. From long-running shows like The Mousetrap to modern musicals like Chicago, the West End has something for everyone.
