Astley's Amphitheatre

About

Astley's Amphitheatre was a performance venue in London opened by Philip Astley in 1773, considered the first modern circus ring. It was burned and rebuilt several times, and went through many owners and managers. Despite no trace of the theatre remaining today, a memorial plaque was unveiled in 1951 at its site at 225 Westminster Bridge Road.

That wooden plaque, attached to a wall on the Thames Embankment, has long since disappeared. On 14 September 2018, on the initiative of Martin 'Zippo' Burton of Zippo's Circus, a commemorative 'paver' or flagstone was inaugurated in the garden of St Thomas's Hospital, a reminder that Astley's once stood on that spot.