Rose Baillie

An ordinary guided tour it wasn't. The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is the oldest English theatre still in use and the most haunted. Nonetheless, it took COLAS members by surprise that we were shown around by reincarnations of David Garrick, Margaret the 300 year-old cleaning lady, Richard Sheridan and Nell Gwyn.

Built four times on the same site, progressively enlarging, the Theatre Royal has the distinction (with Covent Garden) of being the first licensed theatre after the Restoration. Its first incarnation was built by Thomas Killigrew in 1663 after a Royal Charter of Charles II, but it was in the Wren designed second theatre that the actor/manager David Garrick (1717-79) established theatre as a serious and respectable profession and ensured that Shakespeare remained in the repertoire

As London's leading venue, Drury Lane saw a number of theatrical "firsts", from ground-breaking musical productions to the Safety Curtain, along with the some notable flops -like the French ballet on the eve of the Napoleonic war. With a seating capacity of 2,200 and a staff of 1,000, it was described in our introduction as an "entertainment factory" which became understandable after a view back-stage. 

But first the gilt! The plush!  The mirrors!  The chandeliers! of the Grand Staircase and Royal Withdrawing Room and box. This was only the King's suite. Since George III and Prinny nearly came to blows in the Foyer the Prince of Wales has had his own entrance, staircase and box.  

Dublin born Richard Brinsley Sheridan met us on the staircase, somewhat hung-over after an evening in Parliament and a night with Charles Fox. The highlight of his early theatrical career was The  Rivals, which was a flop on its first night.   (Those actors, moaning about only getting the script the night before!)  In 1776 he joined his father-in-law in purchasing Drury Lane and in the following year produced his most successful comedy The School forScandal.  A radical parliamentary career followed with government appointments alongside controversial support for the rebel American colonies, the French revolution, Catholic emancipation and freedom of the press. In debt, out of favour and out of Parliament, in February 1809 Sheridan sat in a coffee-house and watched his precious theatre burn down. "A man may warm his hands at his own fire side" was his only comment.

Then what a contrast.  Through an inconspicuous door and suddenly we were in somewhere that felt like an old factory basement. A brief glance from the wings at the set of The Producers  and the wig maker's studio, then  along narrow passages and stairs  with pipes and wires along the  ceilings, past roughly painted brick walls, down to a vaulted passage in-the basement, the sole remnant of the earlier theatres.

Here heard about the ghosts.  The man in old-fashioned grey clothes who appears in the audience when the show is going to be a hit. The kindly hands of Joe Grimaldi that guide faltering performers on stage, contrasted with the rough shoves and knocks from bad-tempered actor Charles Macklin who murdered fellow artist Thomas Hallam in 1735. And that floral smell someone noticed? Was it the archetype pantomime dame Dan Leno, whose personal hygiene problem was masked by lavish use of lavender water?

Legend maintains that there were passages from the theatre to the Strand for the greater convenience of patrons, who may well  have  been  to  the "gentlemen's club" kept by Nell Gwyn's mother. So here on cue, was pretty witty Nell, who sold oranges at Drury Lane in her early teens, but soon went on to success as a comic actress and mistress of Charles II.   That libidinous monarch had many mistresses, but Nell enjoyed popular acclaim for her lack of greed and good humour. "Pray good people, be civil. I am the Protestant whore", was her retort to the crowd around her carriage who mistook her for Louise de Keroualle.

Then down more passages and iron stairs to our final surprise.  Some seriously large 19th century"  industrial engineering under the stage to move heavy scenery and  power stage spectacles, such as The Whip that featured a running of the Epsom Derby,  prior to powerful electrical motors, power for .London's theatres was often supplied by hydraulic pressure via special pipes from the London Hydraulic Company's pumping station at Shadwell Dock.  Drury Lane's very impressive machinery is now in the care of English Heritage. So it was a historical tour after all.