Soho Poly

The Soho Poly’s Story 

The Soho Theatre (now based in London’s Dean Street) was founded in 1968 by Fred Proud and Verity Bargate. In 1972, it moved to a basement on Riding House Street owned by the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster). Here it became known as the Soho Poly and, for twenty years, it was to have a hugely important role on the fringe and alternative theatre scene.

Hanif Kureishi, Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Nigel Hawthorne and Simon Callow are just some of those who passed through its doors. The Soho Poly was a pioneer of ‘lunchtime theatre’, which was part of an attempt to make theatre more inclusive by bringing arts and culture into the heart of the ordinary working day. Lunchtime theatre also offered opportunities to many artists who found themselves excluded from mainstream theatre. 

Sadly, the Riding House basement was abandoned in 1990, but the University of Westminster is leading a fundraising project to fully restore and revive it. In the meantime, the new artistic team has been producing a host of pop-up gigs, poetry readings and theatre workshops, many supported by the AHRC and British Academy through the Being Human Festival. 

In May 2021, the Soho Poly was awarded £88,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a major oral history and schools’ outreach programme. See here for an accompanying fundraising project to fully restore the original venue: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/soho-poly