Award-winning London architecture studio SPPARC is set to return the West End’s Grade II listed Saville Theatre to its original use after more than half a century following planning permission and listed building consent granted by the London Borough of Camden.

Designed on behalf of Yoo Capital, the SPPARC scheme will restore live performance to the Art Deco venue while also introducing a new boutique hotel operated by citizenM.

Set to host two shows a night, the revived Saville Theatre sits prominently within London’s West End, whose theatres contribute nearly £1 billion to the UK’s economy every year. Key to London’s cultural offering, Theatreland welcomed a record 17.3 million visitors from across the world in 2023.

Originally designed by English architect Sir Thomas Bennett, the Saville Theatre first opened its doors at 135-149 Shaftesbury Avenue in 1931. One of the largest West End theatres of its day, the Saville hosted regular plays and musicals throughout the 1930s to 1960s. Surviving Blitz damage, the theatre doubled as a live music venue from 1966 onwards under the direction of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, hosting acts at the forefront of London’s Swinging Sixties scene including Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton and The Who.

Its original interiors were lost by the time it was transformed into a two-screen cinema in 1970, with two further screens added after it became an Odeon in 2001.

SPPARC’s proposals seek to ensure the Saville Theatre is once again a world-class live performance venue. The studio will re-introduce a flexible up to 622-capacity theatre with seating arranged across three levels, accessed via the reimagined historic entrance on Shaftesbury Avenue. The revived theatre draws inspiration from its lost 1930s predecessor, while reimagined to meet the expectations of contemporary audiences with its greater comfort, enhanced front of house experience across each level of the auditorium and unrestricted sightlines from every seat.

Given modern audiences’ hunger for variety in the way performing arts are experienced, the Saville has been designed for maximum flexibility. The internal arrangement of the auditorium can be re-configured into a range of formats, including theatre in the round, a thrust stage or traditional proscenium arch, to adapt to occupiers’ requirements for decades to come.

Complementing the theatre with much-needed high-quality accommodation for West End visitors, SPPARC will introduce additional floors for a new boutique citizenM hotel, the affordable luxury operator’s fifth London location. The hotel’s architectural design celebrates both the Saville’s rich history and its future by balancing heritage with a bold modernity. Adopting a soft sculptural masonry façade with perforated woven brick inspired by a stage curtain, the upper-level additions arch around the original Shaftesbury Avenue theatre entrance, folding and curving to celebrate the retained position of New Compton Street’s original fly tower.

SPPARC’s transformation of the Grade II listed building will see the much-needed restoration of its deteriorating exterior, acclaimed for its Art Deco simplicity and restrained use of red and brown brick. The careful restoration will include repair and cleaning of its original 40-metre-long frieze by British sculptor Gilbert Bayes, Drama Through the Ages, described by Historic England as one of the most important sculptural works of its age. The original 1930s glazed arched window above the theatre’s main entrance will also be brought into practical use for the first time, dappling natural light into the four-storey high foyer. This publicly accessible, enlarged entrance seeks to return street level activity to this prominent position on Shaftesbury Avenue, encouraging footfall between Cambridge Circus, St Giles and Seven Dials.

Both the theatre and hotel are targeting a BREEAM Excellent rating.

Trevor Morriss, Principal at SPPARC, said: “Our ambitious vision will return the Saville Theatre to its rightful position as a cultural landmark at the heart of London’s West End, a key part of the UK’s cultural offering and rivalled only by New York’s Broadway when it comes to global theatre destinations. The addition of a hotel not only supports visitor experience with suitable accommodation, but is also historically relevant, reflected in buildings of a similar age like The Savoy.

“With the design inspired by the building’s fascinating history, the Saville’s long-awaited revival will meet the needs of contemporary theatre goers to allow it to once again host world class live performance for the next 100 years and beyond.”

SPPARC’s extensive experience with the culture-led revival of Britain’s heritage architecture includes the £1.3 billion transformation of London’s Olympia into a wider cultural destination. Set to open in phases from the second half of this year, Olympia marks 2025’s biggest European regeneration project. Its new purpose-built theatre, the 1,575-seat Olympia Theatre, marks the UK’s largest since the National Theatre in 1976. SPPARC is also appointed on the masterplan for Camden Film Quarter, also on behalf of Yoo Capital, set to house the inner city’s most significant film studio complex. In 2021, the studio completed the RIBA Award-winning mixed-use Borough Yards district, which links London’s famous Borough Market to the Thames by reviving a lost medieval street pattern.