About the Peacock Theatre
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The Peacock is a modern theatre, opened in 1960 as the Royalty Theatre and built into the basement of a Kingsway office block. Since 1996 the building has belonged to the London School of Economics, which named it after one of its benefactors, Michael Peacock. By day it's an LSE lecture theatre; in the evenings it's Sadler's Wells' West End stage.
What is the Peacock Theatre's history?
The site had a theatre long before this one. The London Opera House opened here in 1911, built by the American impresario Oscar Hammerstein I, and later became the Stoll Theatre, which was demolished in the late 1950s. Its replacement, the Royalty, was designed by E. H. Tietjen and opened in 1960. Over the following decades it spent long spells as a cinema and as a television studio before the LSE bought it.
When Sadler's Wells' own theatre in Islington was rebuilt in the late 1990s, its company moved here while the work was done, and it has programmed the Peacock as its West End theatre ever since. Sadler's Wells now calls it the home of dance and entertainment in the West End, and it's mostly dance, from ballet and flamenco to tap, hip-hop and circus, with musicals and the occasional play in between, and The Snowman most Christmases.
Notable past productions
- My First Ballet: Cinderella (2026), English Youth Ballet's introduction to ballet for young children
- Yamato: Hito no Chikara (to May 2026), the Japanese drumming company
- Chicos Mambo: TUTU (2026), the comic ballet send-up
- 360 ALLSTARS (2026), BMX, basketball and breakdancing
- Ghost Stories (2025), the cult horror play, which closed here in November 2025
- Bat Out of Hell (2025), Jim Steinman's rock musical
- Everybody's Talking About Jamie (2024), on tour, ending its run here in March 2024
- Saturday Night Fever (2022)
- Fame (2019)
- The Snowman, the Christmas staple for decades before this year's new production
Other venues of similar size
- Sadler's Wells Theatre, around 1,500 seats in Islington, the Peacock's parent theatre and London's main dance house
- Novello Theatre, 1,085 seats on Aldwych, a few minutes' walk away
- Gielgud Theatre, 991 seats on Shaftesbury Avenue
About FAQs
Why is it called the Peacock Theatre?
It's named after Michael Peacock, a benefactor of the London School of Economics, which bought the theatre in 1996 and renamed it.
When was the Peacock Theatre built?
It opened in 1960 as the Royalty Theatre, built into the basement of an office block on Kingsway.
Last updated: 6 October 2026