Derek Kendall, one of English Heritage's photographers, has assembled an amazing portfolio of photos that he has taken of London's unsurpassed collection of major theatres, from the oldest to the newest.
The images are, as you would expect, of the theatres' impressive exteriors, but also of their inside, working parts — front-of-house scenes and backstage activity.
Kendal took some 2,000 photographs between February 2001 and August 2002, and they can be seen at the National Monuments Record Office in London.
About 50 of these, poster-sized, are on display in an exhibition, Scene-Unseen: A celebration of London's West End along the outside walls of the Albery and Wyndham's Theatre, until Nov. 16 2002.
—By Theatrenow