The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is located near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster.  The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663, making it the oldest of London's theatres. For its first two centuries, Drury Lane could claim to be London's leading theatre and therefore one of the most important theatres in the English-speaking world. During most of this period, it was one of a small handful of patent theatres that were granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London. "Legitimate" meant spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or any play containing music, which tended to be the norm, stretching right back from the earliest forms of Greek theatre.

Drury Lane has a reputation for being one of the world's most haunted theatres. The appearance of almost any one of the handful of ghosts that are said to frequent the theatre, signals good luck for an actor or production. The most famous ghost is the "Man in Grey," who appears dressed as a nobleman of the late 18th century: powdered hair beneath a tricorne hat, a dress jacket and cloak or cape, riding boots and a sword. Legend says that the Man in Grey is the ghost of a man whose skeletal remains were found within a walled-up side passage in 1848. He had apparently died from a knife wound.

The ghosts of actor Charles Macklin and comedian Joe Grimaldi are supposed to haunt the theatre. Macklin appears backstage, wandering the corridor which now stands in the spot where, in 1735, he killed his fellow actor Thomas Hallam in an argument over a wig. ("Goddamn you for a blackguard, scrub, rascal!" he shouted, thrusting a cane into Hallam's face and piercing his left eye.)

Joe Grimaldi has a reputation for being a helpful apparition, purportedly guiding nervous actors about the stage on numerous occasions. Stanley Lupino also claimed to have seen the ghost of Dan Leno in a dressing room. Billed as the greatest comedian of the dancehall era, Dan Leno influenced many early cinema pioneers including Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy and Charlie Chaplin.  (To find out more about Dan Leno - pick up a copy of "Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem", by Peter Ackroyd. Who brings this early music hall theatre period to life.

Catherine St, London, WC2B 5JF
Covent Garden Tube.

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