The Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, is a Victorian Grade II* listed theatre in the heart of Portsmouth, England, with a capacity of 500. The theatre building was constructed in 1854 as Landport Hall.

Venue: New Theatre Royal
Address: 20-24 Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2DD, England
Town: Portsmouth, GB
Capacity: 667

The Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, is a Victorian Grade II* listed theatre in the heart of Portsmouth, England, with a capacity of 500. The theatre building was constructed in 1854 as Landport Hall. It was converted to a theatre two years later. It was rebuilt in 1884 by Charles J. Phipps and again in 1900 by Frank Matcham. The Theatre reopened in October 2015 after a £4.7M refurbishment project. The present site was built to replace a theatre located in the High Street (now designated Old Portsmouth). The theatre features in Charles Dickens' novel Nicholas Nickleby. A popular music hall, it hosted performances by Niccolò Paganini and Franz Liszt and Mr Kean the leading actor manager of the early nineteenth century. It closed in 1854 and was demolished in 1856 with a number of other buildings to allow for the construction of a military establishment, the Cambridge Barracks. This building now houses Portsmouth Grammar School, a fee paying independent school. The three-arch entrance to the school occupies the location of the theatre. The city archives contain an 1824 poster/playbill of a performance of The Merchant of Venice starring Kean and paintings of the exterior and interior of the theatre. These show the theatre to have been a low building with no windows and a door with a Grecian portico typical of larger houses of the era. The interior was rectangular with two tiers of boxes along each wall and standing in the pit. It would have had a smaller audience capacity than the theatre which replaced it. The illustration of the Portsmouth Theatre by Phiz in Nicholas Nickleby is true to reality though not to scale. "They groped their way through a dark passage, and, descending a step or two, threaded a little maze of canvas screens and paintpots, and emerged upon the stage of the Portsmouth Theatre. 'Here we are,' said Mr Crummles. It was not very light, but Nicholas found himself close to the first entrance on the prompt side, among bare walls, dusty scenes, mildewed clou