Palace Theater, London — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Palace Theatre is one of the most striking buildings on Cambridge Circus in London's West End, a grand red-brick and terracotta Victorian building that has been a landmark of London's theatre district since 1891.

The theatre was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte, the impresario behind Gilbert and Sullivan, and it opened as the Royal English Opera House on January 31, 1891. D'Oyly Carte intended it as a home for serious English opera, but the venture was commercially disastrous. Within a year, the building was sold and became a music hall.

Over the decades, the Palace Theatre hosted some of the longest-running shows in West End history. "The Sound of Music" played here for 2,385 performances starting in 1961. Anna Pavlova danced on this stage, and the building has hosted everything from variety shows to rock concerts.

In 2016, the Palace became the home of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," which has been playing to packed houses ever since. The building's ornate Victorian interior, with its gilded plasterwork and red velvet, provides a fittingly theatrical setting for the wizarding world.

The facade, designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt, is a Grade II* listed building and one of the finest examples of Victorian theatrical architecture in London.

If you're on a Questo quest through the West End, the Palace Theatre is hard to miss, and its story from failed opera house to Harry Potter's home is one of the best plot twists in London theatre history.