This theatre opened in the 1860s as Crowden's Music-Hall, and later became Barnard's Palace and then the Hippo­drome. Between the First and Second World Wars it was used as a cinema and then as a warehouse. In 1962 its present director, Ewan Hooper, began a cam­paign for its restoration and reopening as a community theatre for south-east London, and in Oct. 1969 opened it with a new musical, Martin Luther King, followed by Spithead, a documentary on the Royal Navy mutiny in 1797. Since then a number of new plays have been staged, including Iris Murdoch's The Servants and the Snow and John Morti­mer's A Voyage Round My Father (both 1970). The theatre, in which much of the 1860 structure has been retained, has a hexagonal thrust stage protruding into a steeply-raked auditorium which seats 426 people. Among its front-of-house ameni­ties are Barnard's restaurant, Crowden's coffee bar, and an art gallery. Attached to the theatre is the Bowsprit Company, which tours local schools and at Christ­mas gives matinee performances for chil­dren in the theatre.

In: Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The concise Oxford companion to the theatre. 1st ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.   ISBN 0-19-281102-9. p. 220

Author: Hartnoll Phyllis