Edinburgh · Leith Walk
Edinburgh Playhouse
The largest working theatre in Britain by seat count, and the fringe's biggest room
Three thousand seats in a 1929 cinema auditorium that was nearly demolished twice
Built in 1929 as a cinema for three thousand people, saved from demolition in the 1970s by a campaign and now the biggest theatre auditorium in the United Kingdom. It handles the touring musicals for most of the year and becomes one of the largest fringe and international festival venues each August.
The building is a period piece: a vast single sweep of stalls and circle with no boxes, which means the cheap seats are genuinely usable and the acoustics are surprisingly even.
The detail
Good to know
- Opened
- 1929 as a cinema
- Capacity
- About 3 000, the largest in the UK
- August
- A main festival and fringe venue
- Best value
- Upper circle
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