Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells,theatre in Islington, north London. A wooden building for musical entertainment existed from 1683 close to the Wells which were the source of Mr Sadler's mineral waters. A stone theatre, erected in 1765, mounted spectacular and acrobatic shows; the great clown Joseph Grimaldi appeared in its pantomimes. For eighteen years from 1844 the actor-manager Samuel Phelps presented 116 plays including (a record long unbroken) 31 of Shakespeare's. Less accomplished stock companies followed. Their history is recalled in Arthur Wing Pinero's sentimental comedy Trelawney of ‘The Wells’ (1898). The theatre, long in decline, was acquired by Lilian Baylis and rebuilt in 1931 as an outreach venture for the Old Vic's seasons of Shakespeare, opera, and ballet. Her three Vic-Wells companies alternated between Islington and Lambeth—an awkward arrangement discontinued in 1937. After wartime exile on tour and in the West End, the drama company returned to...
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