Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate

The Mercury Theatre began its life in 1851 as a nondescript Sunday school hall for the neighboring Congregational Chapel. It sat tucked away on Ladbroke Road until 1927, when the playwright Ashley Dukes purchased the building to house his wife Marie Rambert's growing dance school. Six years later, the couple transformed the hall into an intimate, one hundred and fifty seat theater. You can still see a small bronze figure of the god Mercury mounted on the east end of the roof, a decorative nod to the name they chose for their new venture.