Medieval laws about morality and cleanliness meant that many trades were banned from the historic “City”. These rules banned smelly or noisy businesses, such as leather-tanning, beer-brewing or the butchery trade, and prostitution. But they also banned all kinds of theatre, and so the theatres either moved to the south bank of the River Thames – where Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was – or increasingly to the western end of the city, beyond the official city limit – what we now call the West End, the area that's effectively become the modern city center. Here we'd find all the banned trades jumbled together – markets for fruit, meat, and vegetables... and theatres. Lots of theatres, piled next to each other in rows. A short walk up St Martin's Lane here will take you past 7-8 theatres in just 200 meters – and all of them are packed with audiences. But dwarfing all of them is the London Coliseum – the gigantic red-brick theatre with the huge revolving illuminated tower on the top – it's the largest theatre in Europe. Although often just called “English National Opera”, it was never intended as an opera house at all. It was built by the variety-show magnate Oswald Stoll, as the jewel in his crown of variety theatres that run up and down the country. But just as in XVII century, theatre still had a dubious reputation for many people - and Stoll's problem was to convince audiences that nothing shameful or unpleasant took place at his theatres. But how to do it? The answer, of course – would be if the King himself attended performances! And thus Oswald Stoll built the London Coliseum to be A Variety Theatre Fit For A King. Everything was on a gigantic scale. The stage was the biggest in Europe. The entire stage had a rotating mechanism, so that Stoll could stage re-enactments of recent horse-racing events – with real horses on stage, galloping frantically in the opposite direction to the revolving stage. There was something for everyone – Stoll cheerfully mixed up numbers with dancing girls in programs that also included the British premiere of music from Wagner's opera Parsifal – cut-down from 6 hours to just 40 minutes, by Stoll's busy music staff.
Of course, His Majesty would not want to mix with the public. A special electric railway carriage ran inside the theatre, from the front door directly to the Royal Box, ensuring complete Royal seclusion. But Stoll knew that His Majesty was actually not interested in variety shows in the slightest. His real interest was in flirting with loose women, so Stoll had a secret chamber built into the foyer, where the King could enjoy such pleasures as soon as the theatre lights went down. It's still there, in fact – the enormously large pillar through the centre of the auditorium conceals it – the door is still there, although it's kept tightly locked.
During World War One, Stoll made further attempts to make variety respectable, but putting his entire theatre at the disposal of the War Department. Special "recruiting shows" were put on, with dancing girls dressed more alluringly than usual – and offering a King's Shilling to every man who signed up for the Army in the interval. A gruesome legend is connected with these shows, which is verified by the English National Opera staff who now use the theatre building. It's said that the terribly mutilated ghost of a soldier from World War One still walks the Amphitheatre – and even talks to people, saying that he's “come back to look for Lily, the dancing girl, who promised to marry him after the war”. The Coliseum Theatre has another ghost, The Grey Lady – but she's a lot quieter, and just walks around saying nothing.
English National Opera moved to the London Coliseum in the late 1960s, when their former home at Sadler’s Wells Theatre was proving too small. Initially it was just a temporary move, but they've made the place their own – finally purchasing the theatre from the Stoll Theatres Empire with a government grant. Today English National Opera vie with the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in an ongoing tussle for first place for opera performance.
At the right-hand side of the theatre you can see Brydges Place, London's narrowest street. It's only 15 inches wide (40 cm) in some places – the London's narrowest street. Really it only exists at all due to fire regulations – theatres often caught fire in XIX century London, and the law said there had to be a small gap between the theatre, and the next buildings. Unfortunately this little alley is a favorite unofficial outdoor toilet with drinkers and partygoers, so usually it is not recommended for visiting.