Sitting right in the heart of Sloane Square is the 135 year old Royal Court Theatre, and they offer tours of the building and the backstage areas.

The current building, the second on the site, opened in 1888 as the New Court Theatre but was converted into a cinema in 1935 until it was closed by WWII bomb damage. Rebuilt as a theatre after the war, it reopened in 1952 with a mission to present plays by young and experimental dramatists and “the best contemporary plays from abroad”

In the 1990s the theatre was threatened with closure due to the state of the building, but a rebuilding programme saved it with most of the backstage areas rebuilt, leaving the frontage and auditorium as they were.

Today, it’s a mix of Victorian and modern inside, and you can very obviously see which is which as the architects slipped a contemporary shell around the old theatre space and also added in the basement that runs underneath Sloane Square itself.

They started tours last year, and new dates are now available for more tours.

Tickets are on sale from here for the following dates:

  • Fri 1st March 2.15pm

  • Wed 6th March 10.30am

  • Thu 11th April at 11am

  • Sat 13th April at 11am

  • Fri 24th May at 3pm

  • Sat 22nd June at 10.30am

Prices

  • £12.50 – Backstage Tour
  • £18.00 – Backstage Tour with Cream Tea
  • £25.00 – Backstage Tour with Cream Tea and Prosecco
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3 comments
  1. Maureen Ruparel says:
    25 February 2024 at 11:47 am

    I would like to book for the tour on 11th April please

    Reply
  2. Col says:
    27 February 2024 at 9:47 pm

    When the theatre was rebuilt as one of the first buildings to take advantage of national lottery grant funding, almost the entirety of the building was reconstructed. All of the stage and auditorium were rebuilt with the architects Haworth Tompkins remodelling the balconies and stalls to improve sight lines. Pretty much everything from the proscenium arch to the upstage wall of the theatre, fly tower and all of the sub stage were replaced with new improved versions. I’m not sure it’s strictly true to say the auditorium was left as it was.. https://www.haworthtompkins.com/work/royal-court

    Reply

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