George Inn

Not a purpose-built theatre but has occasional performances in the yard. The George Inn, Southwark stands on the site of a much older inn of the same name. Until the 1880s it was enclosed on three sides of the yard. It is London’s only remaining galleried inn. Inn yards were fitted up before the first public theatres were built and this is one of the best known examples, close to the Elizabethan Bankside theatreland. Only the South wing is left standing, and it is against the heavy balustrades that performances of Elizabethan plays take place annually.

Now a National Trust property, the George stands back from the High Street, and the part cobbled courtyard is entered through an archway of wrought iron. A plaque on the High Street entrance records the fact that Dickens used the Inn as a background in his novel Little Dorrit.