The Royal Alexandra is also the only ‘royal’ theatre on the continent, having received a patent from King Edward VII together with permission to honour his consort, Queen Alexandra. Illustrious artists have trod these boards, including Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, Humphrey Bogart, Edith Piaf, Pavlova and the Marx Brothers.

Ornately designed in the Beaux-Arts style, and using the city’s first steel-framed structure with cantilevered balconies to avoid internal pillars, the theatre’s orchestra was set over an ice-pit for an air-conditioned effect.

Today it’s an historic monument, and it’s marquee of thousands of light bulbs ushers in audiences for its big musicals and theatre productions.