Secombe Theatre

The Secombe Theatre — originally the Secombe Centre — on Cheam Road in Sutton, Greater London, began life as a place of worship: it was created in 1983 out of a red-brick former Christian Science church, built in 1937 on a large plot at the junction with Gibson Road that once formed part of a private estate. The Theatres Trust describes the building as commanding "a presence in the landscape" — and for over three decades that presence was theatrical rather than religious, the converted church bearing the name of one of Britain's best-loved entertainers.

The theatre was opened in 1983 by the Welsh comedian and singer Sir Harry Secombe — Goon Show legend and Highway presenter — who lived in Sutton for more than thirty years and gave the venue his name. The conversion turned the 1937 church into a 396-seat auditorium (343 when the orchestra pit was in use), tiered and facing an end-on, flat-floored proscenium stage with adequate wing space and four dressing rooms backstage holding ten to twenty cast members each. A large glass extension on the east side provided a bar and refreshment area open to the general public, and a multi-purpose room at the back later became, under the Sutton Theatres Trust from June 2015, a 120-seat second venue (180 standing) with its own sound and lighting rig and self-contained bar, named "Back Door @ The Secombe" — doubling by day as affordable rehearsal space.

The Secombe operated together with the nearby Charles Cryer Studio Theatre in Carshalton — named after the campaigner who had fought for the Secombe itself — and offered both modern productions and established plays given new twists. Past productions included Steel Magnolias, The Tempest, Journey's End and Accidental Death of an Anarchist, alongside headline comedians, community groups, pantomimes and conferences; the Croydon Advertiser gave the 2009 show Souwest 09 four stars as "visually vibrant". The theatre's most remarkable coup came in 2016, when the world première of Edward Bond's play Dea was staged here. Bond — famous for his uneasy relationship with the theatre establishment — deliberately chose Sutton over the West End, declaring: "I would like to create something here which you couldn't do in the West End, you couldn't do at the Royal Court, you couldn't do at the RSC — and I know because I worked at these places. They are all part of the entertainment industry."

The venue's later history was a struggle for survival. Financial difficulties in 2002 put the theatre in jeopardy until the London Borough of Sutton took it over in 2003 and ran it directly. In 2014, council budget cuts saw the Secombe and the Charles Cryer placed by the Theatres Trust on its "At Risk" register — among thirty-three threatened theatres nationwide — prompting celebrity intervention from the comedian and presenter Tim Vine, who called on Sutton Council to reconsider. Four organisations bid to take over the theatres, and in January 2015 the newly formed Sutton Theatres Trust won approval, taking official charge in June 2015 with a vision of community projects, classical and contemporary theatre, and large-scale dance and comedy. Audience numbers doubled under the new management — but it was not enough: in August 2016 the Trust went into administration and both theatres closed. A petition to save Sutton's theatres gathered 1,350 signatures in late 2016 and was discussed by the council in January 2017, but the Secombe remains closed. In October 2022 Sutton Council announced plans to sell the site: the Civic Centre complex — council offices, Sutton Library, Sutton College, the Gibson Road car park "and the disused Secombe Theatre" — would be sold, potentially for new homes including affordable housing. The 1937 Christian Science church that became Harry Secombe's theatre now awaits its third act — its future, like its stage, dark for the present.