The first opened on 31 October 1727 in a small shop by Thomas Odell, deputy Licenser of Plays.
Upon retirement, Odell passed the management on to Henry Giffard, after a sermon was preached against the theatre at St Botolph's, Aldgate.
The same year David Garrick made his successful début as Richard III.
It was pulled down in 1746, and a further theatre built on the site,[1] this briefly showed drama before it was converted to a warehouse and burned down in 1809.
During its heyday, the poet Gray noted in a letter to a friend, that "there are a dozen dukes of a night at Goodman's Fields sometimes".