Tours of the London Palladium

Probably the most famous of the West End’s theatres, thanks to the long-running Sunday Night at the Palladium television shows, is also running a series of summer tours of the building.

The London Palladium opened in 1910, taking its legacy from the music halls and theatres of the Victorian era. It spent most of its life as a variety theatre, although these days, it’s more of a conventional West End theatre putting on long-running plays and musicals.

It was for a time one of the most important stages for aspiring actors and performers seeking to catch the public’s eye, and performances by flagging American stars could often revive a moribund career.

These days, the theatre is particularly busy in the winter months, but during the summer, they now offer tours of the building.

Hosted by an actor turned tour guide, after a history introduction, the tours are very much an hour of name-dropping about the vast array of famous people who have performed at the Palladium over the decades and a lot of anecodetes about their time in London.

A visit to the Hall of Fame room for VIPs, filled with posters from past shows (and air conditioning) then up to the Legends Bar for the VVIPs who are far too V for the mere VIPs downstairs. It’s actually quite a plain room reminding me more of a green room used by performers before going on stage, but do notice the table lamps.

Then, the main act—into the main auditorium for more tales, and—apparently not always possible—a wander around the basement underneath the stage to see a little bit of the back-of-house space and the three plaques where the ashes of Des O’Connor, Bruce Forsyth, and Billy Marsh were interred.

Sadly, the sub-basement was the only backstage area included in the tour – so there was no chance to stand for a few minutes on the stage or see other areas, such as the fly tower or costume spaces.

Another oddity is that photography is permitted up to the point when you walk into the auditorium, and then it is forbidden. Banning photos of the back of stage areas (or the stage itself) makes sense, but no photos of the impressively decorated seating area where the public sit, which has oodles of photos online anyway, seems very odd.

I expect many people would love a selfie of them in the auditorium.

Oh well.

As a tour, it lasts about an hour and ends with tea and cake, but I personally would have preferred less celeb name-dropping and more of the backstage areas. And the price is a bit ouch as well – especially compared to other theatres that offer tours.

The tours cost £29.50 and are available until the middle of September from here.