A Bold Theatrical Experiment
The Greyhound is fondly remembered as Croydon's smallest theatre and as the borough's one and only theatre in a pub.
Part of the Greyhound pub and hotel in Croydon High Street, the theatre was launched as a "bold theatrical experiment" using the stage in the venue's ballroom, which was only used in the winter.
Image: The run down facade before it was demolished.
It was created by the pub's landlord in May 1926, who believed the hotel's ballroom was something of a white elephant during the summer.
Plays were produced weekly during the summer months and were usually already West End successes, featuring acclaimed actors and boasting quality performances at reasonable prices.
Admission ranged from one shilling two pence to three shillings sixpence. Productions were deliberately chosen for their "violent contrast", as one programme put it, to vary the range of performances.
These included The Rising Generation, described in an old programme as a "most hilarious farce". The Silver Cord was billed as a "most interesting and challenging study of character" and Conflict as a "master work, it deals with a great problem and is not without much humour".
The Greyhound Theatre Players were also proud of the calibre of their actors, many of them going on to become successful West End stage performers.
In a commemorative souvenir programme to mark the 100th production at the theatre, a passage reads: "The Greyhound Theatre has provided more star actors for the West End than any other little theatre in the country. Among many others are Oswald D Roberts, Zena Howard, Kay Beynon, Edith Sharpe, Roy Findlay, Eric Roland and Evelyn Moore."
Image: The road outside around the 1900's.
The Greyhound has been fondly remembered by Guardian readers. Thornton Heath resident Wally Plummer says: "My mother and father took me to a ball once held at the Greyhound. My mother and father did like to dance but 1 always had two left feet.
"Once there was a magician. We all had to crowd around him on the ballroom floor. What a place the Greyhound was, with a long passage way to the street and to the right of the passage a large bar and grill."
And Croydon resident Maureen Bunn recalls: "The Old Girls Association of Old Palace School used to hold successful annual dances there in the 1960s.
"The shop opposite was Grants. How that is missed. Coffee there on a Saturday morning was a highlight of the week. Then there was Hammond and Hussey, a wonderful hardware shop which had overhead rails to transmit money to unseen back offices. I remember sawdust on the floor."
The site of the Greyhound had a history that could be traced back to the 17th century before its demolition hi 1963. An inn of the same name was referred to as early as 1493. In the 1800s, the Greyhound had a ballroom where monthly dances were held after every full moon. The St George's Walk shopping precinct was to eventually replace the old Greyhound, although a pub of the same name was a reminder until the 1980s.