Terry's Theatre

Terry’s Theatre stood in the Strand, Westminster, on the site of a former public house called the Old Coal Hole. Built in 1887 by Walter Emden for Charles Wilmot and Dr Web, it seated eight hundred in pit, stalls, balcony and dress circle. Fountain’s Court nearby was named for the Fountain Club, where Robert Walpole’s opponents met and Edmund Kean founded a late-night supper club. The Wolf Club ran until the 1850s, offering entertainments like those at Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms in Covent Garden. The theatre opened on 17 October 1887 with two farces, The Churchwarden and The Woman Hater. Edward Terry, a leading comedian from the Royal Strand and Gaiety theatres, managed the house and scored a major success with Arthur Wing Pinero’s Sweet Lavender. Opening on 21 March 1888, the play ran for 683 performances and made £20,000 profit. Thomas Hardy’s The Three Wayfarers premièred there on 3 June 1893 as part of an evening of three or four one-act plays. Pinero also wrote In Chancery and The Times for the theatre, while Law’s farce The New Boy played in 1894. Edward Laurillard took over in 1894 and produced King Kodak with music by Alfred Plumpton and a score by Walter Slaughter. Frederick Mouillot became manager and saw My Lady Molly run for 342 performances between March 1903 and January 1904. The building was remodelled by Frank Matcham in 1905 and reopened in 1910 as the Grand Casino cinema. It closed and was demolished in 1923 for a road-widening scheme. Today an office block called Norman House occupies the site, with shops below, while the modern Coal Hole public house stands nearby.