Bloomsbury Theatre
theatre in London, England

The Bloomsbury Theatre is a theatre located on Gordon Street in Bloomsbury, within the London Borough of Camden. It is owned by University College London. The Theatre has a seating capacity of 545 and offers a professional programme of innovative music, drama, comedy and dance throughout the year. It also provides a space for student-led productions.
Funded by a UGC grant and a considerable private donation, the theatre was opened in 1968 under the name Collegiate Theatre and was renamed the Bloomsbury Theatre in 1982. From 2001 to 2008, the theatre was known as The UCL Bloomsbury, to emphasise its connection to UCL, which uses the venue for student productions for 12 weeks a year. The Bloomsbury Theatre recently returned to the logo designed by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, which had been using for nearly twenty years until 2001. The main theatre was closed for renovation in 2015 and reopened in February 2019.
The basement below the Theatre holds the Bloomsbury Studio, a black box performance space with a flexible seating configuration and capacity of up to 70.
The theatre building also provides access to the UCL Union Fitness Centre and the Clubs and Societies Centre on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors.
The public source identifies “Bloomsbury Theatre” as theatre in London, England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bloomsbury, Theatre and theatre.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bloomsbury Theatre”, the useful work is to connect “theatre in London, England” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4928390. Authority coordinates are 51.525, -0.133. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1982, 2001 and 2008.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bloomsbury Theatre”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bloomsbury Theatre primary sources, Bloomsbury Theatre archive and Bloomsbury research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bloomsbury Theatre”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bloomsbury Theatre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.