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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
Matcham's variety palace on Argyll Street, and the stage the Royal Variety Performance has used more than any other.
West EndPlayhousesComedy clubWorth it for the building
Frank Matcham built it in 1910 on a site that had been the Corinthian Bazaar and then the National Skating Palace, a rink with real ice. It seats 2,286 and is protected at the higher grade, and it was made for variety - which means the sightlines are worked out for one person alone at the front of a very large stage, and that is still what it does best.
The Royal Variety Performance has been held here forty-three times, more than anywhere else. The programme now is resident musicals, concerts, one-off television recordings and a pantomime at Christmas, and the house is big enough that a singer with nothing but a microphone can fill it.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.