In 1912 architect W G R Sprague was granted permission for his "comparatively small theatre" (506 seated, 40 standing) on the condition that the adjacent Tower Court was widened to twenty feet.

[7] A year later, Charles B. Cochran took on the lease and, seeking to offer the public a distraction from the war, introduced to London a series of successful "intimate" revues inspired by those in Paris.

[9] The auditorium was divided into two smaller spaces by the creation of a temporary floor at circle level, to accommodate a residency by the Royal Court Theatre during the reconstruction of their venue.

After its purchase by the Ambassador Theatre Group under producer Sonia Friedman, productions included Some Explicit Polaroids by Mark Ravenhill, Spoonface Steinberg by Lee Hall, Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett and starring John Hurt, and was the West End's first home of Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets and The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

In 2006, the theatre played host to the landmark revival of Peter Hall's production of Waiting for Godot which ran for a strictly limited autumn season.