Her mother was a successful singer and pianist, and Baylis's education was grounded in the arts; she began performing and teaching music at an early age.

Baylis returned to London to recuperate and her aunt Emma Cons offered her a job at The Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern (known as "The Old Vic"), which she managed.

Following Cons' death in 1912, Baylis became lessee and obtained a theatre licence for the Royal Victoria Hall to begin staging theatrical performances.

Plays were introduced to the Old Vic by Rosina Filippi, husband and wife team, Matheson Lang and Hutin Britton, and Sir Philip Ben Greet.

The tradition of doing Shakespeare at the Old Vic continued for many years and performers such as John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier were willing to work for low wages if they could play the great Shakespearean roles.

[6][7][8][9][10] In 1925, Baylis began a campaign to re-open the derelict Sadler's Wells Theatre, something she finally achieved with a gala opening on 6 January 1931 of a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night starring John Gielgud as Malvolio and Ralph Richardson as Toby Belch.

[12] The Vic-Wells nurtured the careers of stars such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, Alec Guinness, Marius Goring, Michael Redgrave, Maurice Evans and Ralph Richardson, and became famous for stylish productions under the artistic directorship of Tyrone Guthrie during the 1930s.

Baylis scored a casting coup in 1933 by featuring Charles Laughton at the theatre after he had become a worldwide name in the film The Private Life of Henry VIII.

After a long illness, Baylis died of a heart attack on 25 November 1937, aged 63 in Lambeth, South London,[14] the night before the Old Vic was to open a production of Macbeth starring Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson.

It involves around 12,000 people every year in a wide range of projects, events, courses and performances, with a goal of developing creative responses to opera and music theatre; making new work with communities and exploring individual creativity as a means of providing access to ENO's productions; and encouraging learning and development through participation of artists and collaboration of resources.