London, 1, 3, 5, 7 Ladbroke Road, Playhouse For The Royal Shakespeare Company And The Mercury Theatre Trust

Building Notes

In July 1963 Sir Basil Spence OM RA accepted an invitation from the governors of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Mercury Theatre Trust (the governing body of the Ballet Rambert) to design the London theatre that they were jointly planning. The chosen site was at Notting Hill Gate in west London, on land which had been bequeathed to the Trust by the late playwright Ashley Dukes.

The planned 1,600-seat theatre was to be built using vertically ribbed concrete with exposed aggregate, copper and glass. The entrance elevation was to take the form of a sweeping, convex curve with a glazed lower storey consisting of tall slits of thick, coloured glass, cast in concrete. Although never realized, the concept for the interior, designed in consultation with Sean Kenny, was to influence thinking for the National Theatre.

In 1965 the Royal Shakespeare Company decided to transfer their interest to a tailor-built theatre, which was being erected as part of the Barbican Scheme in North London. Consequently, by September of the following year it was apparent that because of uncertainty about the future of the Ballet Rambert, along with a lack of sufficient financial resources or satisfactory partnership with any other organisation, the theatre project would never reach completion.

Archive Details

Manuscript material in the Sir Basil Spence Archive explains that the theatre was designed to cater for both drama and ballet in order to meet the needs of its two clients. Spence felt that the role of the Theatre was of most importance to the design and he wanted 'a theatre that was functional and strong with a happy atmosphere; a building that didn’t shout or make you conscious of its architecture, but focused attention on the actors and the stage'.

A journal article in the Archive shows that Spence’s proposed designs for the theatre were shown at the Royal Academy's annual exhibition of architectural designs in June 1964. The author of the article singled them out for their originality of form and texture.

Archive Summary

The Archive holds six manuscript files for this project that include correspondence, location plans, press releases, and schedules of accommodation, and which provide detailed information about the challenges met by the project as it struggled to reach fruition. There is also a framed perspective design, 13 photographs and 100 drawings including site plans, plans, sections and elevations for two different schemes.

This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.

English Heritage pastscape reference TQ28SE 531