Drury Lane Theatre

Drury Lane Theatre was first opened in 1663. This building was burnt, and another on the same site, built by Wren, opened in 1672. Garrick (q.v.) acted Shakspeare's plays here, and the best period of the theatre was under his management. The building was again burnt in 1809, and reopened with a prologue by Lord Byron. It was this fire that occasioned Rejected Addresses. Macready and Charles Kean (q.v.) were also among its lessees. With Covent Garden, it was opened under a patent from the Crown, and it is owned by a body of "renters," whose rights to adenission have long been a source of friction with the various lessees..