Sans Souci Theatre
Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°7′49″W / 51.51111°N 0.13028°W
The Sans Souci Theatre was a 500-seat theatre located on Leicester Place, just off Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1796 by Charles Dibdin, and replaced eponymous former music rooms he had leased for performances, off the Strand.
Charles Dibdin, a dramatist, musician and painter, had leased rooms near Southampton Street, off the Strand for musical recitals. The lease on these premises came due, and Dibdin found a location on a newly built street near Leicester Square that better suited his purposes. This location was surrounded by three structures that were immediately able to fulfil the part of walls for his theatre; and the interior of his existing rooms filled the space between perfectly. This enabled the new theatre to be built in only twelve weeks, to his personal design and supervision, at a cost of £6,000. The opening night was on 8 October 1796. The theatre was simple but elegant, with some of the interior decoration by Dibdin himself.
From 1796 to 1804, Dibdin gave three performances a week, playing and singing his songs and performing in his plays and other entertainments (especially his entertainment, The Whim of the Moment). He wrote about 1,000 songs for the theatre, especially patriotic songs that inspired naval personnel during the naval war with France. Frederick Schirmer obtained a licence for the performance of 'Musical and Dramatical Interludes in the German Language' for one year from 22 June 1805. Schirmer called the theatre The German Theatre. Henry Francis Greville obtained another one-year licence for 'Plays and Entertainments performed by Children' in March 1806. He called the theatre The Academical Theatre.
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