Garrick Theatre

The Garrick Theatre stood in Leman Street, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It opened in 1831 as a small playhouse and closed about fifty years later. The building took its name from the actor David Garrick, who had first appeared on stage nearby at Goodman’s Fields Theatre in 1741. Performances included melodramas such as Marie! and Virginius the Rum’un! in May 1840. The original wooden structure burned down in 1846 and was rebuilt as a larger theatre. Lawrence Levy managed the rebuilt theatre from 1854 to 1864 and again briefly in 1867–68. During rebuilding in the 1850s a neighbouring gun-maker won a court order to limit the height of the new wall so his workshop would still receive daylight. Stage Manager E.B. Gaston oversaw productions in the mid-1850s. The young Barney Barnato is said to have collected discarded theatre passes and sold them on for a halfpenny each. After bankruptcy in 1875 the building stood empty until actress-manageress May Bulmer took it over in 1879. She enjoyed success with the light opera A Cruise to China before the theatre was demolished. The site is now occupied by the old Leman Street Police Station, built in 1891, and the Garrick Pub.