1889-1900: New Building and Final Closure
The building was demolished in 1889 and a new, much enlarged theatre was constructed in 1890 by W. G. R. Sprague and Bertie Crewe, whose surviving theatres in London include the Gielgud, Wyndham's Theatre, the Noël Coward Theatre, the Aldwych Theatre, the Novello Theatre and the Shaftesbury Theatre. The new theatre, with a capacity of 2,150, was large enough to accommodate full-scale opera, including the British première of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, conducted by Henry Wood with a cast that included Charles Manners, in 1892.
The last manager of the Olympic was Sir Ben Greet, later manager of the Old Vic. Among his presentations were Hamlet and Macbeth. The film Major Wilson's Last Stand was shown in 1900. The theatre closed permanently in 1900 and was demolished in 1904.
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