Tours and Talks

From footings to opening night, the building of the Kings Theatre in 1906/7 took just thirteen months.

Since its opening in 1907, the Kings Theatre has been an integral part of Portsmouth and Southsea’s cultural landscape, providing over 100 years of entertainment. The Grade II* listed theatre is an important and complete example of an Edwardian playhouse from one of the world’s most renowned architects, Frank Matcham.

The Kings Theatre team have a range of talks from general interest to specialist that can be delivered to your group. We run history tours, giving members of the public the chance to head behind the scenes in our beautiful theatre and to delve deeper into its history. Previous community groups have included University of the Third Age (U3A), Women’s Institute (WI), and other special interest groups.

We also run tech tours, where you’ll be able to look behind the scenes and find out more about special effects, lighting etc. We regularly run evening ghost tours, where you’ll explore the theatre in the dark – are you brave enough? Our toddler tours are a great introduction to the theatre away from the noise of a normal production, and are suitable for the under 5s.

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What people said!

“We learnt so much about the history of the Kings Theatre on the tour; the background to it being built, about famous actors who have performed on the stage and about future plans for the theatre.”