King's Theatre

How Theatres Trust's support helped a theatre undertake a major capital development project 

Theatres Trust welcomed the recent reopening of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh following its ambitious three-year multi-million-pound redevelopment project.

Category A listed King’s Theatre is one of Scotland’s oldest theatres and one of the most complete and important surviving Edwardian theatres in the UK. The theatre is a key venue for the Edinburgh Festival, as well as hosting the city’s major pantomime. Until it closed in 2023 for the major works, it had been in continuous operation since it first opened in 1906.

Theatres Trust has provided ongoing support to the King’s Theatre’s operator Capital Theatres around the project, which includes improvements to the historic fabric to bring it in line with current regulations, essential plant and machinery upgrades, and improvements to access and front-of-house space to meet modern audience and artists’ expectations.

Our support included convening an Advisory Review of theatre, architecture and heritage experts in 2019 to appraise the pre-planning design proposals. The review supported Capital Theatres’ planning and listed building consent applications, as well as funding bids. In the face of such a complex project that needed to balance heritage with benefits to theatre operations, the review also helped guide Capital Theatres’ thinking on prioritisation and managing risk.

The pandemic and rising costs created a few bumps in the road for the project, so it is all the more satisfying to see the revamped King’s reopened.

This case study was produced as part of our Fifty@50 campaign to mark our 50th anniversary in 2026.