The Royal Opera House lies less than a mile to the west of Londlnlum, which fell Into serious decline with the cqllapse of the Roman Empire In the late 4th century ad. Superseding the city at the end of the 6th century ad, Saxon Lundenwic flourished In the area of Aldwych, the Strand and Covent Garden. It was with the aid of Royal Opera House monies that the Museum of London carried out an exhaustive and rewarding archaeological excavation on part of Its two-acre site In 1996, prior to the commencement of rebuilding works, which revealed an Important centre of International trade and commerce.
During the medieval period the land reverted to partially enclosed pasture, owned by the great Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, Westminster - hence the name Covent Garden, which derives from ‘convent garden'. In the mid-17th century the flower and vegetable market arrived to occupy the piazza created in the 1630s by Inigo Jones.
Theatrical performances were suppressed during the Commonwealth (1649-60), but at the restoration of the monarchy Charles II granted two letters patent licensing the recipients to operate theatrical companies. The first was granted to the Poet Laureate William D’Avenant and his Duke’s Company (named for D’Avenant's patron, the Duke of York), on 15 January 1662, and the second to Thomas Kllllgrew and his King’s Company, on 25 April 1662. Thus was created a virtual joint monopoly on dramatic performances in London. D’Avenant's patent was obviously of immense value, and by 1714, after being sold on, was in the ownership of the famous harlequin and virtual Inventor of pantomime, John Rich, who opened his Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre that same year. Having struggled to make ends meet over the inten/enlng 14 years, by extreme good fortune Rich found financial success with his first staging of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera In 1728, and with his new-found wealth decided to build a grand theatre to upstage Drury Lane, on a plot he leased In Covent Garden In 1731.
The site occupied the northeast angle of Jones’s piazza, which was by this time somewhat less than socially desirable and hemmed in by houses and shops. Edward Shepherd, Rich’s architect at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and creator of Shepherd Market in Mayfair, was commissioned to build the new theatre, which he did in the stock Georgian tradition, utilizing a rectangular fanned auditorium with pit benches, three tiers of boxes to the sides, and boxes and two galleries to the rear. John Rich saw his theatre open, but died in 1761, whereupon control passed to the superlative administrator Thomas Harris, who in 1791 engaged Henry Holland (the partner of Capability Brown) to remodel the auditorium incorporating a proscenium stage.
On 20 September 1808 the building burnt down, and a replacement, entered from Bow Street through a solid Grecian portico, was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum. To finance the expensive new building, admission prices were raised by 6d and 1s, sparking off 67 days of what became known as the ‘Old Price’ riots. In the 1840s opera was established in the theatre following the arrival of Michael Costa and his company of singers from Her Majesty's Theatre, which they had left after a row. As a result the building had to be brought Into line with European opera houses, and for this task the slightly dubious figure of Mr Benedict Albano was hired to remodel the auditorium once more, providing six tiers of boxes. The duly reconfigured theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera House in 1847; but the fates were again unkind, and it burnt down on 5 March 1856.
The architect commissioned to rebuild the theatre yet again was 26-year-old Edward M. Barry, son of Sir Charles Barry, the designer of the Palace of Westminster (1835-60), and he rose to the occasion with a very beautiful neo-Palladian fireproof structure which opened on 15 May 1858. Designed on a horseshoe plan, boxes - pit, grand and first tier - enclosed the pit and pit stalls, above which were amphitheatre stalls and side galleries. It was a layout especially advantageous for those who wanted to see and to be seen. Adjacent to the new building, Barry provided a graceful Itallanate cast-iron Winter Garden annex for his opera house. Although the so- called Floral Hall was badly damaged by fire in 1956, it has been carefully restored to enhance the present-day renovated complex with additional circulation space. A new, uncompromising block to the south of the Floral Hall has been visually disengaged by the Introduction of a fully glazed escalator enclosure, an architectural manoeuvre common in restoration work on historic buildings.
In 1900 Edwin O. Sachs, an authority on safe theatre design, Installed an Asphaleia system of five hydraullcally operated Iron bridges, which formed a permanent stage floor. Above this the stage was counterweighted with a cyclorama and thunder run, in situ in the 1970s. All have since been removed, a serious loss in terms of theatre history, but fully justified In terms of the 21st-century site redevelopment, which has created a wonderful self-contained theatre village that incorporates elements ranging from ballet studios and craft departments to run-of-the-mill administration and finance departments. Two studio theatres, the Linbury (seating 420) and the Clore (seating 200), have been designed into the complex. The architects for this scheme were Jeremy Dixon,
Edward Jones and Charles Broughton, and to find fault with their work would be pernickety in the extreme. Nothing can be said in a short piece that will do adequate justice to their achievement, but Marcus Blnney found the appropriate phrase when he wrote, ‘From the moment you step through the doors you will be enthralled.’

1731. First theatre designed by Edward Shepherd for John Rich / 1791. Theatre modernized by Henry Holland for Thomas Harris / 1808. Building burnt down. Sir Robert Smirke designs new theatre / 1847. Theatre reopens following its remodelling by Benedict Albano / 1856. Building burnt down. Rebuilt by architect Edward M. Barry to reopen 1858 / 1900. Edwin O. Sachs modernizes and rebuilds the backstage area / 1999. Following complete restoration of historic fabric and partial rebuilding, the Royal Opera House reopens on 4 December / Statutorily Listed Historic Building: Grade I. Floral Hall Listed Grade II

The premier opera house in Great Britain. Architecturally distinguished both as an historic building and as a world-class arts venue.