In the tiny Mermaid Theatre , one of its founders , Josephine Wilson , rehearses with Peter Sallis on the Elizabethan style stage . The private theatre is situated within a few yards of actor Bernard Miles's home in St John's Wood . He is the other founder . Formerly a hall used for music by St John's Wood School the theatre was born in 1949 , and in its tiny auditorium are staged Shakespeare and other leading works of the British theatre . September 1952