Criterion Theatre

About the Criterion Theatre

The Criterion in Piccadilly Circus was originally commissioned as a concert hall complex but opened as a theatre with restaurant, dining rooms and a top-floor ballroom in 1873. Fresh air had to be pumped in to the underground auditorium for the first 11 years to prevent the audience from choking on the gas used to light it.

When Charles Wyndham took over in 1875, The Criterion became one of the top comedy houses in London. Wyndham went on to open the Wyndham’s Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) in 1899.

John Gielgud appeared in ‘Musical Chairs’ in 1936, and Terence Rattigan’s career took after a three year run of ‘French Without Tears’.

Despite major refurbishment in the surrounding area, The Criterion has remained a wonderful example of a Victorian auditorium and it is where you can now see John Buchan’s Thirty Nine Steps.

OPENED: 21st March 1874
LISTED: Grade II*
SEATS: 585 on 3 levels
ARCHITECT: Thomas Verity