London’s Pocket Parks: The Red Lion Playhouse, E1

Just around the corner from Whitechapel station, the site of what could be London’s oldest purpose built theatre stage has been opened up as a new pocket park.The Red Lion was an Elizabethan playhouse built in 1567. It was possibly the first purpose-built venue in the city since Roman times. Although it seemed to be commercially successful at first, its location outside London (in modern-day Whitechapel) was a problem, and it lasted barely a year or two before closing.
The venture was soon