Royalty Theatre

The Royalty Theatre was a small London playhouse in Soho, first opened in 1840 by actress Frances Maria Kelly as Miss Kelly’s Theatre and Dramatic School. The architect Samuel Beazley designed the building, which originally seated two hundred. Early plans included stage machinery powered by a horse, but the system proved unworkable and had to be removed. After a difficult start, the theatre changed names several times and hosted French plays and amateur productions. By the 1860s it had become the New Royalty Theatre, enlarged to hold about six hundred and fifty spectators.

The theatre is remembered for landmark performances and management by notable figures. In 1875, under Selina Dolaro, it presented the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Trial by Jury, alongside Offenbach’s La Périchole. Kate Santley ran the house for nearly thirty years from 1877, rebuilding it in 1883 to improve safety. The rebuilt theatre became a favoured venue for French opera-bouffe and plays, attracting leading actors from the Comédie-Française. Later seasons featured modern drama, including the London première of Ibsen’s Ghosts in 1891.

Visitors would have found a compact auditorium with painted panels, blue satin drapes and cut-glass chandeliers after Santley’s renovation. The stage hosted French seasons, burlesques by W. S. Gilbert and long-running comedies such as Charley’s Aunt. In the early 20th century Sarah Bernhardt led her own season, and Arnold Bennett’s Milestones played for more than six hundred performances. The theatre closed in 1938 and was demolished in the 1950s, leaving only its place in theatrical history.