Saville Theatre

The building you are approaching is the historic Saville Theatre, which opened its doors on Shaftesbury Avenue in nineteen thirty-one. Its most striking feature remains the one-hundred-and-thirty-foot-long sculpted frieze that runs across the facade. Created by the artist Gilbert Bayes, this bas-relief is titled Drama Through The Ages and depicts scenes ranging from medieval mystery plays to figures representing different eras of European performance. Even after the building was repurposed as a cinema in the nineteen seventies, the frieze survived, preserving a significant piece of thirties Art Deco craftsmanship on one of London's busiest streets.