Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London

Opening night for this theatre was 24th September 1888. Designed by Walter Emden and Bertie Crewe, it was originally called the New Court Theatre, as it replaced the earlier Court Theatre nearby. It's in free Italianate style. The plays were only moderately successful, and it was eventually converted in to a cinema in 1935. It closed in 1940 after it was bombed.

It reopened in 1952 after a rebuild designed by the mighty Robert Cromie.

The new artistic director, George Devine formed a new resident company - the English Stage Company - to particularly put on new British plays. Devine encouraged new writers to submit plays, and in 1956 John Osborne's Look Back in Anger was shown to great acclaim, followed by Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer; again a huge success.

Devine did not shy away from controversy and the theatre had to temporarily register itself as a private members to club to avoid censorship of Saved by Edward Bond in 1965. The Rocky Horror Show was performed here for the first time in 1973.

The building was in a bad state of repair by the early 1990s, but it received a Lottery Grant for a rebuild, and reopened in 2000 as two theatres: the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs and the smaller Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

It still encourages new and young writers, and has a renewed international role, working with small theatres throughout the world to encourage play writing and performance.