Royal Brunswick Theatre

One of the smallest and most easily overlooked of Metropolitan fragments, but of sufficient antiquity and interest to merit inclusion here. The area between Aldgate and Wellclose Square had been a little East London Theatreland since Odell opened his Goodman’s Fields Theatre in 1729 and John Palmer the Royalty in 1787. The Brunswick, built on the same site as the Royalty in 1827-28, was of an unusual neo-classic design by a somewhat eccentric architect, Stedman Whitwell. Three weeks after completion the theatre fell down during a rehearsal. Religious fanatic opponents of the stage moralised over the ruins while the bodies of the victims were still warm. The cause seems to have been overloading by the iron roof (intended to be fire proof) before the walls were properly set.

A row of cast iron bollards, each bearing the monogram ‘RBT’ remains on the pavement edge in Ensign Street (near Wilton’s Music Hall) to define the precise position of the theatre front. Their simple survival, which could never have occurred on a busier highway or alongside a commercially valuable central London site, is quite remarkable.