Promotional postcard of The Shakespeare Theatre, Clapham Junction. The theatre was built by Charles Gray Hill to the designs of the prolific theatre Architect W. G. Sprague on a site next to the Battersea Town Hall (which is still standing today) on Lavender Hill, and was separated from it by Theatre Street. The Theatre opened under the management of William Bennett on the 16th of November 1896 and was mainly used as a 'legitimate theatre' showing drama and plays, but was also put into use as a pantomime house at Christmas time.