23-545: The Olympic Theatre , sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre , was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane , Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence. Along with three other Victorian theatres ( Opera Comique , Globe and Gaiety ), the Olympic was eventually demolished in 1904 to make way for
46-436: A more successful decade for the theatre. Dion Boucicault 's Broken Vow was staged in 1851, Planché began writing for the Olympic again, and John Maddison Morton also wrote many plays for the house. Other playwrights featured at the Olympic in the 1850s were Robert B. Brough , Francis Burnand , John Stirling Coyne, John Oxenford , Mrs Alfred Phillips, John Palgrave Simpson , Tom Taylor , and Montagu Williams . The theatre
69-642: Is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London , running between Aldwych and High Holborn . The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster . Drury Lane is part of London's West End Theatreland . The street originated as an early medieval lane referred to in Latin as the Via de Aldwych , which probably connected St. Giles Leper Hospital with
92-529: Is the Gillian Lynne Theatre . 173 Drury Lane was the location of the first J Sainsbury store. The store was opened in 1869 and the company is now one of the UK's largest supermarket chains. 51°30′54″N 0°07′22″W / 51.51500°N 0.12278°W / 51.51500; -0.12278 Montagu Williams Montagu Stephen Williams Q.C. (30 September 1835 – 23 December 1892)
115-623: The Lord Chamberlain . Many were written by J. R. Planché and Charles Dance, featuring Vestris in breeches roles , and the popular comedian of the day, John Liston . The plays often burlesqued classical themes: My Great Aunt – or, Relations and Friends; The Loan of a Lover; The Court Beauties; The Garrick Fever; Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady; Olympic Revels – or Prometheus and Pandora; Olympic Devils – or Orpheus and Eurydice; The Paphian Bower – or Venus and Adonis; Telemachus – or The Island of Calypso . While Vestris' licence only allowed
138-561: The Royalty Theatre . The Olympic of this period was described by Edward Walford, in his book Old and New London (1897), as having shown 'principally melodramas of the superior kind.' From time to time, operas and operettas were also presented, including Quite an Adventure , and Claude Duval or Love and Larceny by Edward Solomon and Henry Pottinger Stephens , and the rival production of H.M.S. Pinafore mounted in 1879 by Richard D'Oyly Carte 's erstwhile partners. The building
161-669: The 1860s included Fair Rosamond – The Maze, The Maid, and The Monarch; Deerfoot; Robin Hood – or, The Forrester's Fate!; Cupid and Psyche – or, Beautiful as a Butterfly; Acis and Galatæa – or, The Nimble Nymph and the Terrible Troglodyte! and King of the Merrows – or, The Prince and the Piper . Morton's plays included Ticklish Times; A Husband to Order; A Regular Fix!; and Gotobed Tom! . In 1870, W. S. Gilbert became another of
184-551: The British première of Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin , conducted by Henry Wood with a cast that included Charles Manners , in 1892. The last manager of the Olympic was Sir Ben Greet , later manager of the Old Vic . Among his presentations were Hamlet and Macbeth . The film Major Wilson's Last Stand was shown in 1900. The theatre closed permanently in 1900 and was demolished in 1904. Drury Lane Drury Lane
207-469: The building gas lighting . In 1830, Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (1787–1856) leased the house, becoming the first female actor-manager in the history of London theatre. She had already made her fortune as a singer, a dancer (of some repute) and an actor. Together with her business partner, Maria Foote , and later with her husband, the actor Charles James Mathews , who joined the company in 1835, Madame Vestris initiated several theatrical innovations, such as
230-659: The development of the Aldwych . Newcastle and Wych streets also vanished. The first Olympic theatre was built in 1806 on the site of Drury House (later Craven House), for the impresario Philip Astley , a retired cavalry officer. The original name of the house was the Olympic Pavilion . It was said to be built from the timbers of the French warship Ville de Paris . It opened on 1 December 1806 as 'a house of public exhibition of horsemanship and droll.' In 1813, Astley sold
253-432: The early 1860s he wrote several farces in partnership with F. C. Burnand , He later went onto the stage and was called to the bar in 1862. In 1879 he was appointed junior Treasury counsel , retiring from the post in 1886 due to a growth on the larynx which seriously affected his voice, being succeeded by Sir Charles Willie Mathews , 1st Baronet. Williams took up a post as metropolitan stipendiary magistrate in 1886 and
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#1732773211875276-629: The family. It became the London house of the Earl of Craven , then a public house under the sign of his reputed mistress, the Queen of Bohemia . Subsequently, the gardens and courtyards of the house were built over with rows of small houses. The remains of the house itself, which had been progressively demolished, were finally cleared in 1809. By this time, Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums in London, dominated by prostitution and gin palaces . The area
299-626: The fields of Aldwych Close, owned by the hospital but traditionally said to have been granted to the Danes as part of a peace treaty with King Alfred the Great in Saxon times. It acquired its name from the Suffolk barrister Sir Robert Drury , who built a mansion called Drury House on the lane around 1500. After the death in 1615 of his great-great-grandson, another Robert Drury, the property passed out of
322-527: The performance of extravaganzas and burlesques, the quality of the performance was paramount, with much time spent on rehearsal and selection of the company. The 1840s were a period of decline for the theatre. Madame Vestris gave her last performance in 1839 and left to join the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden , and the house writers, E. L. Blanchard , John Courtney, Thomas Egerton Wilks, and I. P. Wooler, have not met with posthumous fame. The 1850s were
345-543: The theatre to Robert William Elliston , who refurbished the interior and renamed it the Little Drury Lane , reflecting its proximity to the large Drury Lane Theatre nearby. Elliston had the theatre substantially rebuilt and reopened it with William Thomas Moncrieff 's comedy Rochester – or, King Charles the Second's Merry Days . John Scott purchased the playhouse at Ellison's bankruptcy auction in 1826 and gave
368-597: The theatre's notable authors, producing The Princess . Later Gilbert plays at the Olympic were The Ne'er-do-Weel (1878) and Gretchen (1879). Henry Neville managed the theatre from 1873 to 1879. The 1870s saw the staging of Wilkie Collins 's dramatisations of his own novels, The Woman in White and The Moonstone ; and Charles Collette in his own one-act musical farce with the striking title, Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata , or While it's to be Had! (1875), which had opened with Trial by Jury earlier that year at
391-462: The use of historically correct costumes and more elaborate scenery , including a box set with ceiling, which she is said to have introduced in Britain. Her stewardship began with a programme of four pieces including Olympic Revels , and under her management the theatre continued to feature light comedies including music, which were legally styled burlettas and whose licence she had been granted by
414-724: The work. Nellie Farren spent two productive years at the theatre early in her career. In 1863, the theatre closed for extensive alterations and improvements by C. J. Phipps , who was later the architect of the Savoy Theatre (1881), the Lyric Theatre , Shaftesbury Avenue (1888), Her Majesty's Theatre (1897) and many others. The capacity of the theatre was at this time 889. The Olympic reopened with performances of The Girl I Left Behind Me and The Hidden Hand and My Wife's Bonnet in November 1864. Burnand's contributions in
437-664: Was an English teacher, British Army officer, actor, playwright, barrister and magistrate. Williams was educated at Eton College and started his career as a schoolmaster at Ipswich School . On the outbreak of the Crimean War he joined the Royal South Lincoln Militia , then the 96th Regiment of Foot and finally the 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot , but was too late and never got to fight at Sevastopol . Instead, he spent most of his service in Dublin . In
460-569: Was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1888. His clients included Catherine Wilson , whom he defended twice on murder charges; George Henry Lamson , hanged in 1882 for poisoning his brother-in-law; Percy Lefroy Mapleton , the "railway murderer", hanged in 1881; John Young, acquitted of manslaughter after his opponent in a boxing match died, establishing a legal precedent. He married Louise Keeley, daughter of Robert Keeley in 1858: she died in 1877. He died at Ramsgate in 1892 of uraemia . This United Kingdom law-related biographical article
483-728: Was demolished in 1889 and a new, much enlarged theatre was constructed in 1890 by W. G. R. Sprague and Bertie Crewe , whose surviving theatres in London include the Gielgud , Wyndham's Theatre , the Noël Coward Theatre , the Aldwych Theatre , the Novello Theatre and the Shaftesbury Theatre . The new theatre, with a capacity of 2,150, was large enough to accommodate full-scale opera, including
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#1732773211875506-526: Was eventually cleared to make way for the developments of Kingsway and Aldwych . The Muffin Man resided on Drury Lane, according to the famous nursery rhyme . The term "Drury Lane" is often used to refer to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane , which has in different incarnations been located in the street since the 17th century, even though today the main entrance is on Catherine Street. Also in Drury Lane
529-447: Was managed by the actor-manager Alfred Wigan from 1853 to 1857. The staples of the repertoire in the 1850s and 1860s continued to be comedies, many featuring the great actor and comedian Frederick Robson . A notable exception was Tom Taylor's celebrated 1863 social melodrama , The Ticket-of-Leave Man , based on a French dramatic tale, Le Retour de Melun . It starred Henry Neville , who went on to play in over 2000 performances of
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