Leicester SquareTheatre

Leicester Square Theatre stands on Leicester Place, just north of Leicester Square, in a building that started life in 1953 as Notre Dame Hall, attached to the neighbouring church of the same name. After periods as a music venue and cinema, it reopened as a theatre in 2008 under Lesley Ackland and Martin Witts, who continue to run it as an independent venue outside the four large groups that own most West End theatres. The main house and a smaller studio space downstairs host a mix of comedy, cabaret, music and small-scale theatre, often used for shows transferring from the Edinburgh Fringe. Because it sits outside the big theatre-owning groups, programming decisions are made in house rather than dictated by a central booking office, and it remains a single venue rather than part of any wider circuit.