In 1949 Elizabeth Denby, together with the theatre director and playwright Velona Pilcher, the writer Elizabeth Sprigge, and Jane Drew[1] converted a site at 29 Buckingham Gate, originally a Chinese restaurant destroyed in World War II during the Blitz, to create a performing space for their theatre club.
They were inspired by the Gate Theatre which had been forced to close following bombardment of the premises nearby in Villiers Street in the 1940s.
[1] That year also saw the staging and almost runaway success of Pablo Picasso's short play, Desire caught by the Tail in the translation by Roland Penrose.
In 1951 it presented a production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors performed by the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club and directed by John Barton.
[8][9] Given notice that 29 Buckingham Gate was due to be demolished as part of the Strand Improvement Scheme, the New Watergate moved to the Comedy Theatre in Panton Street in 1956.