Goodman's Fields Theatre

Goodman's Fields Theatre, London. There were two theatres of this name, both in Ayliffe Street, Whitechapel. The first opened in 1727 in a converted shop with a performance of Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer; in 1730 Fielding's second play The Temple Beau was produced. Henry Giffard (c.1695–1772) was manager for a time, his last production being seen in 1732. The theatre provided exhibitions of acrobatics and rope-dancing, and a brief return to drama, until it closed in 1751. It then became a warehouse and was burnt down in 1802.

The second theatre was built by Giffard not far from the first, and opened in 1732 with Henry IV, Part One. The passing of the Licensing Act of 1737, for which Giffard was mainly responsible (since he had passed on to Walpole, the Prime Minister, the script of a scurrilous play, The Golden Rump, which gave occasion for legislation), cost him his licence, and the theatre had to close. By various subterfuges Giffard was able to reopen it in 1740, and the following year he put on The Winter's Tale, ‘not seen in London for over 100 years’, with himself as Leontes. It was at this theatre that in the same year Garrick made his first professional appearance in London, as Richard III, and a year later this second theatre finally closed.