The Roundhouse

The Roundhouse is a former goods locomotive shed, now a theatre, built between 1846 and 1847 by Robert B Dockray for the London and North Western Railway. Constructed by Branson & Gwyther, it was originally known as the warehouse of W & A Gilbey Ltd on Chalk Farm Road. The building features yellow stock brick and a low pitched conical slate roof with a central smoke louvre, which is now glazed, and bracketed eaves. It has a circular plan with a diameter of 48 meters, and buttresses with offsets that mark the bays, each containing a shallow, recessed rectangular panel. The former entrances and windows have round-arched heads.

Inside, the roof is supported by 24 cast-iron Doric columns, which define the original locomotive spurs, along with a framework of curved ribs. The interior is believed to retain its original flooring, a turntable, and fragments of early railway lines. A wooden gallery was probably added by Gilbeys in the late 19th century. Historically, the building was not used as an engine shed for long; by the 1860s, locomotives had grown too long to be accommodated, leading to its lease to W & A Gilbey Ltd as a liquor store until its conversion to a theatre in the 1960s.