Built as St. Monica’s Church Hall in 1931 it became a full-time professional playhouse in 1935 under the guidance of the celebrated actor John Clements.  It soon achieved an enviable reputation thanks to the high standard of acting and production and theatregoers flocked to the theatre from all over London. In the late 1940s the playhouse achieved further fame when the BBC televised no less than 14 plays ‘live’ from the Intimate stage.  Over the years many well-known faces have appeared at the venue including Richard Attenborough, Roger Moore, June Whitfield and Richard Todd.  Later years saw a dip in the fortunes of the theatre but it managed to survive and today, over seventy years after it first became a theatre, it is still home to several amateur drama groups and still in demand by television companies.

Profusely illustrated throughout, Intimate Memories, charts the various fortunes of this delightful theatre through the decades with many personal recollections from actors, backstage workers and members of the audience.

Publication date: 30 November, 2006