The Big Smoke

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9 London Pavilion Theatre
Start from Piccadilly Circus tube station. Nearby, on the corner of Coventry Street and Great Windmill Street, you’ll see a plaque commemorating the site of the London Pavilion Theatre, which stood here from 1885 to 1934. What theatrical innovation was the Pavilion the first to introduce?

10 Palace Theatre
Turn right into Shaftesbury Avenue and eventually you reach the Palace Theatre (currently showing ‘Spamalot’). Turn left on to Greek Street and you’ll come to the theatre’s stage door on your right. Above the door is an inscription that must have cheered generations of ambitious thespians. What is it?

11 Equity
Cross Cambridge Circus and turn right into West Street, where you’ll find the world’s longest running play, ‘The Mousetrap', opposite favourite showbiz haunt, The Ivy. On the corner of West Street is another crucial location for actors, the offices of Equity. Which actor has the honour of being remembered on a memorial on Equity’s wall?

12 Seven Dials
Turn left onto Monmouth Street and up to Seven Dials. The Cambridge Theatre, showing ‘Chicago’, is on the corner of Earlham Street. Go into the porch and look up above the main doors – you’ll see a frieze of acrobatic figures. How many of them are kneeling down?

13 Royal Opera House
Cut down Neal Street towards Covent Garden tube, cross Long Acre and turn left into Floral Street, where you’ll see the beautiful, twisting glass bridge – the Bridge of Aspiration – which joins the Royal Ballet School to the Royal Opera House. There’s a sign nearby listing the main donors who put up the money for the bridge. Which names are third on the list?

14 Masonic Lodge
Turn right on to Bow Street, left into Russell Street and right into Catherine Street. There you’ll find the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, currently showing ‘The Lord of the Rings’. But this building is not just a theatre – it is also used as the meeting place for the Drury Lane Lodge of Freemasons, whose members are drawn mainly from the acting profession (though Scott of the Antarctic was also permitted to join). A bust of the Lodge’s founder, complete with Masonic symbols, can be seen above a drinking fountain outside the theatre. What was his name?

15 Theatreland
Continue down Catherine Street; when you reach Aldwych, double back on yourself by turning down Exeter Street. Here, within staggering distance of a number of theatres, is the traditional haunt of thirsty actors: Joe Allen’s. The discreet entrance to this basement venue leads you down some stairs and theatrical posters are naturally the first thing you see. Which Arthur Miller play at the Donmar is among the posters directly in front of you at the bottom of the staircase?

16 National Portrait Gallery
Cut down Burleigh Street and take Tavistock Street and Maiden Lane west to Bedford Street. Turn into Chandos Street and follow your nose towards Trafalgar Square. You’re heading for the Ondaatje Wing of the National Portrait Gallery, where, on the ground floor in the ‘People of Today’ section, you’ll come to room 41, which is full of theatrical luminaries. Harold Pinter and David Hare are both in residence, and the room is dominated by Alessandro Raho’s striking portrait of Dame Judi Dench. But which thespian is depicted drinking a can of lager?

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While you're there
EAT
Food for Thought
This charming takeaway is a veggie hotspot. You can grab a meal here for less than six quid. Options change daily and might include moussaka or hotpot. There are also super soups and salads.
Food for Thought, 31 Neal St, WC2 (020 7836 9072)

DRINK
De Hems
An ever-reliable, endearingly scruffy Dutch boozer on the edge of Chinatown. Slip upstairs and sample the wonderfully named Benelux bottled beers – including Westmalle, Orval and Kwak.
De Hems, 11 Macclesfield St, W1 (020 7437 2494)

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