The Tower Theatre Company is a performing non-professional acting group based in a building in Northwold Road, Stoke Newington, having moved there in April 2018 from the St Bride Institute [1] (on the site of the former Bridewell Palace), in the City of London.
The group presents about 18 productions each year in London, either at their base theatre, or at other small theatres in the London area. During the summer months they also perform touring productions, with regular appearances at the open-air Théâtre de Verdure, which is in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, and at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.
The acting company was founded as the Tavistock Repertory Company in 1932, at the Tavistock Little Theatre in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury. In 1952 it moved to its own premises in Islington at Canonbury Tower which included a 156-seat theatre known as the Tower Theatre. Over the years it has mounted nearly 1600 productions. The Tower Theatre's productions have always been mounted in publicly licensed theatres with tickets sold to the general public rather than simply to members. The company mounted early productions of Endgame by Samuel Beckett (1961, the first ever production to be designed by William Dudley) [2] and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (May 1959). [3] Both playwrights became major supporters of the Tower Theatre Company in later life. Actors to have worked with the company include Michael Gambon, Sian Phillips, Tom Courtenay and Alfred Molina. [4]
The lease in Canonbury expired in 2003 and the company spent 15 years hiring theatre space at a number of venues, particularly the Bridewell Theatre, while searching for suitable new premises. It commissioned a new theatre at a site just off Curtain Road in Shoreditch, but due to funding difficulties it abandoned plans to proceed with that project. On 6 August 2008 archaeologists from the Museum of London excavating the site, prior to construction, announced that they had found the footings of a polygonal structure which they believe to be the remains of the north-eastern corner of the foundations of the first permanent theatre ever built in England. [5] [6]
In 2018, the Tower Theatre Company found and purchased a building in Stoke Newington, formerly known as Sunstone House, and is now based there. The space was turned into "a performance space and production base for the company" thanks to a fundraising campaign.[ citation needed ]
A former Methodist chapel built in 1875, the building was damaged during World War II. In 1953, it was repaired and renovated by the congregation Beth Hamedrash Ohel Yisroel and consecrated as the Northwold Road Synagogue on 18 December 1955. [7] It closed again in 1989. [8]
The building was refitted in 1992 and became the Sunstone Women Only Health and Leisure Club, which closed in 2014. [9] The fitting of a swimming pool in the basement, sauna cabins, a gym and a mezzanine level led to significant works required from the Tower Theatre Company to transform the space: the swimming pool was boarded over and is now used for storage; the saunas removed; and the mezzanine was removed to make space for dressing room facilities.
The new Tower Theatre opened in the building in September 2018 with a production of Shakespeare's Henry V , [10] and most Tower Theatre Company productions are now staged there.
Like all theatres in the UK the Tower Theatre closed in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. However, activities continued in the form of "Virtual Tower" on zoom and a series of podcasts. With the easing of restrictions, productions were resumed in June 2021. [11]
Canonbury is an area in London, forming part of the London Borough of Islington. It is located within the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road in North London.
Islington is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy High Street, Upper Street, Essex Road, and Southgate Road to the east.
Elephant and Castle is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The name is derived from a local coaching inn.
The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577), and the theatre at Newington Butts – and the first of several playhouses to be situated in Bankside, Southwark, in a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the City of London's civic authorities. Its remains were excavated by archaeologists in 1989 and are listed by Historic England as a Scheduled Monument.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) is a Grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is located in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon – Shakespeare's birthplace – in the English Midlands, beside the River Avon. The building incorporates the smaller Swan Theatre. The Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres re-opened in November 2010 after undergoing a major renovation known as the Transformation Project.
The New River is an artificial waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water taken from Chadwell and Amwell Springs near Ware in Hertfordshire, and later the River Lea and other sources. Originally conceived by Edmund Colthurst and completed by Hugh Myddelton, it was operated by the New River Company for nearly 300 years until London's water supply was taken over by the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch, just outside the City of London. Built in 1576, after the Red Lion, it was the first permanent theatre built exclusively for the showing of theatrical productions in England, and its first successful one. Actor-manager James Burbage built it near the family home in Holywell Street. The Theatre's history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which employed Shakespeare as actor and playwright. After a dispute with the landlord, the theatre was dismantled and the timbers used in the construction of the Globe Theatre on Bankside.
Newington Green is an open space in North London between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and Matthias Road to the north, and Boleyn Road to the east. The Green is in N16 and the area is covered by the N16, N1 and N5 postcodes. Newington Green Meeting House is situated near the park.
The London Borough of Islington is short of large parks and open spaces, given its status in recent decades as a desirable place of residence. In fact, Islington has the lowest ratio of open space to built-up areas of any London borough. The largest continuous open space in the borough, at 11.75 hectares, is Highbury Fields.
Stoke Newington Common is an open space in the London Borough of Hackney. It lies between Brooke Road to the south and Northwold Road to the north, straddling a railway line and the busy Rectory Road. The common is 2.15 hectares in area.
The Newington Butts Theatre was one of the earliest Elizabethan theatres, possibly predating even The Theatre of 1576 and the Curtain Theatre, which are usually regarded as the first playhouses built around London. William Ingram believes it was probably the first of the three to begin construction, and may have been the first completed.
Beth Hamedrash Hagodol is an Orthodox Jewish congregation that for over 120 years was located in a historic building at 60–64 Norfolk Street between Grand and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was the first Eastern European congregation founded in New York City and the oldest Russian Jewish Orthodox congregation in the United States.
Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London, located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations.
Theatre Deli is an arts organisation founded by Jessica Brewster, Frances Loy, Mauricio Preciado Awad and Roland Smith in 2007. Theatre Deli operates to expand opportunities for people to make and experience art. The main way in which Theatre Deli does this is by taking over empty buildings and using them to provide the space, support and resources to develop and share in art & performance.
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is an indoor theatre forming part of the Shakespeare's Globe complex, along with the recreated Globe Theatre on Bankside in Southwark, London. Built by making use of 17th-century plans for an indoor English theatre, the playhouse recalls the layout and style of the Blackfriars Theatre, although it is not an exact reconstruction. Unlike the Globe, the original Blackfriars was not in Southwark but rather across the river.
Bridewell Theatre is a theatre in Blackfriars, London, operated as part of the St Bride Foundation Institute, named after nearby St Bride's Church on Fleet Street. Established in 1994 by Carol Metcalfe after being converted from a disused swimming pool, it became a venue and company hosting fringe theatre productions in central London. Formerly occupied by the Bridewell Theatre's own theatre company, it became involved in the development and introduction of Stephen Sondheim's works in the UK, facilitating the world premiere of his production Saturday Night in 1997.
Highpoint is a 142-metre, 46-storey, 458-apartment residential tower in Elephant and Castle in the London Borough of Southwark in London on the site of the London Park Hotel.
West Hackney is a district in the London Borough of Hackney, situated on the eastern side of Ermine Street, the major Roman Road better known as the A10.
Canonbury Square is a garden square in Canonbury, North London. It is bounded by terraces of mostly Georgian houses, many of which are listed buildings. The central public gardens contain attractive flower beds and several London plane trees of great age. The Evening Standard newspaper described it in 1956 as “London’s most beautiful square”. Many significant figures from the arts and literary worlds have lived in the square, including George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, Samuel Phelps, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.
Canonbury House is the name given to several buildings in the Canonbury area of Islington, North London which once formed the manor house of Canonbury, erected for the Canons of St Bartholomew's Priory between 1509 and 1532. The remains today consist of Canonbury Tower and several buildings from the 1790s, some of which incorporate parts of the late 16th-century manor house. Today, the Tower and the other buildings, including a 1790s building today also named "Canonbury House", are arranged around the road named Canonbury Place.