The Streatham Festival team approached the current owners Ruach City Church through the auspices of local MP Steve Reed’s office to ask for access to the theatre for this year’s (2025) Streatham Festival. There was the possibility for a concert, a comedy event and guided tours.
After a period of negotiations regarding content, costs and arrangements, only the tour is able to go ahead. Organised by our local open-access, volunteer-run, non-profit Streatham Theatre Company, there will be two tours on Thursday 16th October. Tours are free, but tickets are required from STC as numbers are limited.
We greatly thank the Norbury Knitters of Knitting Norbury Together for creating this banner to publicise our campaign to save Streatham Hill Theatre.
The banner will be put on public display around Streatham, moving from place to place. Please keep a lookout for it, and if you see it, please post a photo on your socials and @ us in!
Knitting Norbury Together (2015-Present) is a community collective known for creating eye-catching knitted displays for their local South London community. Their knitting and crochet brings colour and joy to the area, marking special occasions, publicising community activities, and raising money for charity.
Save Our Streatham Hill Theatre (2025) features brightly coloured knitted letters and theatrical motifs, such as masks, top hats, and ballet shoes, interwoven across a white crocheted net. This binding structure symbolises South London neighbourhoods “coming together” at a moment when the theatre’s future was deeply uncertain, united in their shared ambitions for creativity and opportunity. The softness of the yarn mirrors the vulnerability of the theatre, with their shared delicacy and malleable properties becoming a metaphor for the theatre’s fate: at risk of irreversible change, yet also capable of being protected, repaired, and reimagined for a wider audience.
A tribute to one of South London’s most significant cultural landmarks, Save Our Streatham Hill Theatre (2025) draws attention to the Grade II listed building’s fragility and enduring potential. With a capacity of 2,800, similar in size to the London Palladium, the theatre stands as an emblem of the area’s great artistic heritage. Once renowned as the “West End of South London,” Streatham could be revitalised with a vibrant, thriving commercial venue, nurturing both community life and artistic endeavour, re-establishing its place as a major cultural destination.
Please save the date, and register online via our Events page.
NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting ofThe Friends of Streatham Hill Theatre will be heldat 8pm on Thursday 9th October 2025to transact the following business.
The meeting is open to all, however only voting Members may speak or vote. Others may speak at the discretion of the chairman.
Online joining instructions will follow.
Agenda
Apologies and Declarations (see Note a)
Minutes of last AGM held 6th September 2024 (c) Matters arising and acceptance
Receive reports from Trustees (c)
Receive financial statements and report from the Treasurer (c)
In 2024 our theatre attracted the attention of French architecture student Sixtine Compin from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon. She and her tutor met with some of The Friends on a visit to the UK where we provided information on the theatre and our campaign, and presented her with a copy of the John Cresswell book about the theatre.
Her thesis “Theatres as a Heritage, Protecting Theatres in the Face of Modern Challenges (1880-1930)” (currently in French, translation pending) covers a number of UK theatres, including Streatham Hill. She has developed a vision and design for a future Streatham Hill Theatre, and made models of the proposals. She focused on rehabilitating the theatre as a cultural centre connected to its local community. The cultural centre she designed included a music school, a media library, as well as a rooftop café and garden. Thanks to this work, Sixtine has been able to successfully complete her Master’s degree in architecture!
The V&A museum has nine boxes of material relating to Streatham Hill Theatre in its former theatre museum archives. We have been trying to see these for a while but were delayed by COVID and the V&A archive’s move to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
However, today we visited the new V&A East Storehouse where many of the museum’s items are stored and had a chance to see the boxes in their Study Centre. It turns out that the nine boxes contain programmes and some flyers for the whole period SHT was operating as a theatre. It looks like a full set, but we didn’t have time to check them all off against the programme list!
Samira is a journalist, broadcaster and writer whose work explores the intersection of popular culture, heritage, art, science, politics and social change. She presents the BBC’s flagship arts and culture show ‘Front Row’ on Radio 4 and ‘Newswatch’ on BBC1.
Samira is an Ambassador for the Theatres Trust, and a member of Historic England’s National Blue Plaques Panel.
Urbandoned, a group of “urban explorers” took a sneaky look at Streatham Hill Theatre in 2023 and have today published this video. While we can’t condone trespassing, it does provide a good record of the theatre at the time, after bingo moved out and before Ruach moved in.
“In today’s Urbandoned video, we head inside the abandoned Streatham Hill Theatre in London. Described as one of the most ‘lavish’ theatres in the capital, it remains an incredible example of a British interwar theatre, after reconstruction following a WW2 airstrike mirroring the original 1929 structure.“
“Easily the best theatre I’ve ever done! Unbelievable!“
The Friends’ David Harvey and Liz Burton gave a talk about Streatham Hill Theatre to the Streatham Society, entitled “Streatham’s Sleeping Beauty”, as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival.
1st July 2025, 7.30pm at St. Leonard’s Church. More details here.
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