Orange Tree Theatre

The Orange Tree Theatre stands in Richmond, southwest London, in a converted 1867 primary school built in Victorian Gothic style. It is a small theatre-in-the-round with 180 seats, designed to keep the intimacy of its first home above a local pub. The building once housed the assembly hall and playground, now turned into the playing space. Foyers and dressing rooms occupy the former headmaster’s house beside the stage. The theatre’s design, led by Iain Mackintosh, keeps sightlines clear with shallow raked seating and a single gallery row. The Orange Tree was founded in 1971 by Sam Walters and his wife Auriol Smith in a room above the Orange Tree pub. Walters, Britain’s longest-serving theatre director, led the company until 2014 and was succeeded by Paul Miller and later Tom Littler. The theatre specialises in new plays and rediscovered classics, reaching over 10,000 people each year through its education programme. It has won ten Offies, five UK Theatre Awards and the Alfred Fagon Audience Award since 2014. The Empty Space Peter Brook Award came in 2006 and 2015. Visitors find a warm, close-up atmosphere with no seat far from the action. The stage sits where the school’s playground once lay, surrounded by three shallow rows of seating on each side. A single timber-clad gallery runs above one row, giving extra places while keeping sightlines open. The foyers and bars are arranged in the rebuilt headmaster’s house, adding to the sense of a community space. The theatre’s 2026 renovations improved access, tripling wheelchair spaces and allowing stage access for the first time. Nearby Richmond station makes the venue easy to reach, while the building’s Gothic brickwork adds quiet character.