The redevelopment of the historic Saville Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London may take up to three years to complete.
The former theatre and cinema is set to be transformed into the first permanent European home for Cirque du Soleil.
Kier, the contractor leading the project, has outlined a 38-month construction timeline in a newly submitted management plan as part of updated proposals to Camden Council. The redevelopment will see the former Odeon Covent Garden cinema at 135-149 Shaftesbury Avenue completely reimagined into a state-of-the-art performance space.
Architects SPPARC have completely reworked their initial proposals to transform the Grade II-listed former theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue into a new venue since plans were submitted in March 2023.
Camden Council are now considering the new plans.
Commissioned by Olympia developer Yoo Capital, the ambitious plans aim to restore and enhance the site’s existing Grade II-listed features while integrating a world-class theatre and a luxury hotel operated by Citizen M within a striking rooftop extension. Recent revisions to the design have scaled down the rooftop addition from seven-and-a-half storeys to five, while expanding the theatre’s seating capacity to over 600.
The project brings together a high-profile team, including architect SPPARC, planning and heritage consultants Montagu Evans, structural engineer Elliot Wood, sustainability expert Hoare Lea, landscape designer RPS Group, quantity surveyor Gardiner & Theobald, and transport consultant Momentum.
Once complete, the Saville Theatre will stand as a major cultural landmark in London’s West End, offering Cirque du Soleil a dedicated space to showcase its renowned productions to audiences from around the world.
The venue was recently a four-screen Odeon cinema.
Previous designs for the redeveloped venue (c) SPPARC
News of the scheme with Cirque du Soleil was first announced in September 2023, with Yoo acquiring the building way back in November 2021.
In January this year, developers were asked to justify current plans by Camden Council, which cautioned against designing it purely with Cirque du Soleil in mind, and asked why the proposed new theatre cannot be in the existing theatre building, rather than a vast “excavated basement”.
Cirque du Soleil’s London home has long been the Royal Albert Hall, where the company recently played Cirque du Soleil: Corteo. Eric Grilly, a President at Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, said in a statement last year that, ”we see a unique opportunity to bring back live entertainment to a beloved venue with fresh content and new ideas” and that the venue would “complement Cirque du Soleil’s annual Royal Albert Hall residency and offer theater-goers a more intimate space to enjoy incredible performances all year round.”
In March 2020 the Theatres Trust revealed that the Grade II listed Saville Theatre had been saved from redevelopment. Part of their justification for maintaining the building as an entertainment venue was that there is need and demand for additional large-scale theatre space within the West End, for which the Saville provides the last realistic opportunity to deliver due to its size, internal volume, access and its existing cultural use.
The theatre was originally designed by TP Bennett and Son with input from notable theatre architect Bertie Crewe and opened in 1931 with the play “For the Love of Mike”. The building was originally very opulent, and features a large, 40m frieze that runs across the entire front by Gilbert Bayes, depicting ‘Drama Through the Ages’, and is considered to be one of the most important works of public sculpture of the 1930s. The venue was originally one of the West End’s largest theatres with a capacity of 1,530 seats.
It has also been the venue for a series of famous concerts in the 60’s and 70’s including the Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry; and a West End theatre – with Cameron Mackintosh staging a revival of Anything Goes at the venue in November 1969 (sadly it only ran for 15 performances, with Marian Montgomery as Reno Sweeney, James Kenney as Billy Crocker and Michael Segal as Moonface Martin).
SPPARC is also the architects on Yoo’s £1.3bn redevelopment of Kensington Olympia, working with working with Heatherwick Studio and Haworth Tompkins, which includes the new Olympia Theatre that will be managed by Trafalgar Entertainment, who own the Trafalgar Theatre.
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