Whitefriars Theatre

The Whitefriars Theatre was a Jacobean playhouse in the City of London, operating between 1608 and the 1620s. It stood in the Whitefriars district, once home to a Carmelite priory whose monks wore white robes. The area lay outside the medieval city walls, beyond the Lord Mayor’s control, and attracted people who resisted authority. Before the theatre, the site housed a mansion that had belonged to Lord Buckhurst. The playhouse was built inside the old priory’s refectory, making it one of London’s smaller, indoor venues. The theatre became a stage for two children’s companies: the King’s Revels Children and later the Children of the Queen’s Revels. They performed plays by Nathan Field, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, John Marston, and Robert Daborne. In 1613 the Lady Elizabeth’s Men joined them, though the partnership ended when the lease was lost in 1614. By 1616 the building was described as poorly furnished and damaged by rain. Sir Anthony Ashley removed the players in 1621, ending the theatre’s early history. The Whitefriars site was replaced in 1629 by the Salisbury Court Theatre across Water Lane. The old priory cellars survive beneath Freshfields offices and can be viewed from Magpie Alley. Samuel Pepys later called the new theatre the Whitefriars in his diary, adding to the confusion. The district’s name still recalls the white-robed friars who once lived there.