Above The Stag Theatre opens

This exciting new venue designed by FORMstudio has now opened.

Located in two interconnecting railway arches, the theatre will form a part of the wider retail and leisure regeneration focused around Vauxhall station in south London.

Our design provides a new home for the local award-winning Above The Stag LGBT+ theatre company, which had outgrown its previous venue in a single, smaller arch further along the railway line.  It comprises a 110-seat main auditorium, a 60-seat studio theatre, a dance/rehearsal space, exhibition facilities and a large café-bar open throughout the day and evening, along with all the necessary back of house areas.

The polished concrete screed, galvanised steel fittings and corrugated grey cladding to the arches, combine with areas of exposed brickwork to create a retro industrial aesthetic that is further enhanced by an eclectic selection of furniture and a 9m long bar clad in reclaimed scaffolding boards.

The new venue has a street presence at both ends of the arches, bringing life to what had previously been the ‘dead’ back end facing the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, as well as providing the theatre with a strong visual identity and sense of place on the Albert Embankment which it previously lacked.

The theatre opened with a new 25th anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey’s landmark play Beautiful Thing, first staged in 1993 at the Bush Theatre.  Above The Stag is the only full-time professional LGBT+ theatre in the UK.