Saville Theatre redevelopment gets the go-ahead for Cirque du Soleil venue

A former theatre and cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in the heart of the West End has been granted planning permission for redevelopment.

The Saville Theatre is set to be transformed into the first permanent UK home for Cirque du Soleil, following a decision by Camden Council’s Planning Committee to approve the scheme last night, 28 April 2025.

The redeveloped building will see the former Odeon Covent Garden cinema at 135-149 Shaftesbury Avenue completely reimagined into a state-of-the-art performance space, alongside a citizenM Hotel and food and drink offerings.

Camden’s approval comes following a number of objections, including from Theatres Trust, the national advice and advocacy body for the UK’s theatres, who objected to seeing the theatre space reduced and relocated to subterranean levels, with the majority of the Grade II listed building converted to hotel use.

Other objections came from Historic England, the 20th Century Society, the Covent Garden Community Association, the Covent Garden Area Trust, the Bloomsbury Association, The Seven Dials Trust and Phoenix Gardens.

Phoenix Gardens, which is a community garden behind the Saville Theatre, will receive £50,000 compensation for the scheme going ahead, for loss of sunlight and to help the gardens meet the cost of re-designing and replanting the communal space. The compensation was ordered by Camden Council to developers Yoo Capital.

Development of the site into the new theatre and hotel may take up to three years to complete, according to building contractors Kier.

The Planners at Camden Council based their decision on land use, design and heritage, and economic benefits, with the Saville bringing cultural benefits to the area, Cirque du Soleil being a major cultural attraction, adding another mid-scale venue to the West End, saving a building that is deteriorating badly, and bringing jobs and economic benefits to the area.

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.

Architects SPPARC had already 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.

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 theatre and a hotel operated by citizenM within a rooftop extension. 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 622.

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.

Previous designs for the redeveloped venue before adjustments were made (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”.

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 60s and 70s 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).

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Main photo: The Saville Theatre - Artists impression of the new venue by SPPARC