Tucked away on Flitcroft Street, between Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden in London stands an enormous green door.
Standing almost the full height of the two-storey red-brick building, the door is considerably taller than any ordinary entrance. But its unusual proportions are not an architectural whim: they were dictated by the practical demands of the theatre industry.
The door belongs to the former Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, established in 1904. The studio specialised in producing large, hand-painted theatrical backdrops for productions across London’s West End. With scenery sometimes stretching many metres in height, getting it out of the building was a challenge.
The oversized opening provided a route for these vast painted canvases to be manoeuvred from the studio and transported to theatres across the
capital.
As theatre technology and production methods evolved, the demand for traditional hand-painted scenery
declined and the painting rooms eventually fell out of regular use.
The building was subsequently renovated and repurposed as a contemporary art gallery in the 1980s, preserving its connection with London’s creative heritage.
Now Grade II listed, the former painting rooms retain their distinctive character –
including the extraordinary green door.
What might initially look like one of London’s more eccentric architectural curiosities is, in fact, a surviving piece of practical theatre history.
