Qualla: Sadler's Wells Theatre https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sadler's Wells Theatre https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre: Introduction https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre/ Photo credit RichH, CC BY-SA 4.0. In February 1914, a drama critic wrote of Sadler's Wells: "Poor wounded old playhouse! Here it stands even now, shabby and disconsolate, its once familiar frontage half hidden with glaring posters." The theatre had been closed the previous year, used intermittently as a cinema, and was well on its way to being forgotten. Then the First World War ended any plan to save it, and the building fell further into dereliction. It would stay closed for sixteen years. What happened next is one of the more extraordinary stories in British theatre history.

Read more: Sadler's Wells Theatre on Qualla

Image: RichH | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/gcpv-sadlers-wells-theatre-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sadler's Wells Theatre: What Baylis Built https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre/ Photo credit Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0. Lilian Baylis had been running drama and opera at the Old Vic in south London since 1914, charging prices that working-class audiences could actually afford. In 1925 she began campaigning to reopen the derelict Sadler's Wells on the same basis. She raised the money. She commissio...

Read more: Sadler's Wells Theatre on Qualla

Image: Anthony O'Neil | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/gcpv-sadlers-wells-theatre-what-baylis-built.mp3 0:06 2 full Sadler's Wells Theatre: Centuries on the Same Site https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre/ Photo credit Mike Quinn, CC BY-SA 2.0. The current Sadler's Wells building dates to 1998, but the theatre's presence on the Rosebery Avenue site in Islington traces back to 1683, when a music room was established near a medicinal well owned by Richard Sadler. There have been five separate theatres on or near this spot...

Read more: Sadler's Wells Theatre on Qualla

Image: Mike Quinn | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/gcpv-sadlers-wells-theatre-centuries-on-the-same-site.mp3 0:06 3 full Sadler's Wells Theatre: The Roller Rink Years https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre/ Photo credit Nisaschette, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between the third and fourth theatres lies a period of institutional humiliation that says something about how precarious performing arts have always been. After the theatre closed in 1874, plans were drawn up to convert it into public baths and washhouses. Those plans fell throu...

Read more: Sadler's Wells Theatre on Qualla

Image: Nisaschette | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/gcpv-sadlers-wells-theatre-the-roller-rink-years.mp3 0:06 4 full Sadler's Wells Theatre: A Home for Dance https://qualla.com/sadler-s-wells-theatre/ Photo credit Paul Sandby, Public domain. The current building — the sixth on this site if you count the original music room — opened in 1998. It is Grade II listed. As a producing house for dance, it occupies a position in British dance culture that has no real parallel: not just a presenter of work but an institution t...

Read more: Sadler's Wells Theatre on Qualla

Image: Paul Sandby | Public domain

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/sadler-s-wells-theatre-wp/gcpv-sadlers-wells-theatre-a-home-for-dance.mp3 0:06 5 full