Performance venues

London's stages and concert rooms: the West End houses and the playhouses that make their own shows, the grand halls, the churches with a musical life, the jazz basements, the comedy clubs, the clubs proper, the rooms above pubs where things start, and the booth on Leicester Square that sells off what the West End has not. What is on is listed under each venue, and in What's On.

What is on at them this week is in What's On: Performance

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

Duchess Theatre

The stalls are below street level because the plot was too small and the neighbours had a right to their daylight.

West EndPlayhousesComedy clubWorth it for the building

Ewen Barr opened it in November 1929 on a site barely big enough for a theatre, and solved both his problems at once by digging: putting the stalls below the pavement kept the building low enough not to block the ancient lights of the properties around it. It seats 494 on two levels and is historically protected, which makes it one of the smallest West End houses.

Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit ran 1,997 performances here. The Play That Goes Wrong arrived in 2014 and has now been the longest-running play the building has had since it opened.

Where
3-5 Catherine Street, WC2B 5LA
Nearest station
Covent Garden · 4 min walk

On here now

More in Performance venues

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?