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Orange Tree Theatre

1971 establishments in EnglandArts organizations established in 1971EngvarB from October 2015Fringe theatreProducing house theatres in London
Pub theatres in LondonRichmond, LondonTheatres completed in 1991Theatres in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style. The theatre was founded in 1971 by its first artistic director, Sam Walters, and his actress wife Auriol Smith in a small room above the Orange Tree pub opposite the present building, which opened in 1991.Walters, the UK's longest-serving theatre director, retired from the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014 and was succeeded as artistic director by Paul Miller, previously associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Tom Littler, previously artistic director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, took over from Miller in December 2022.The Orange Tree Theatre specialises in staging new plays and rediscovering classics. It has an education and participation programme that reaches over 10,000 people every year. Since 2014 the theatre has won ten Offies (Off West End Awards), five UK Theatre Awards and the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. It won the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2006 and 2015.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Orange Tree Theatre (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Orange Tree Theatre
Clarence Street, London Southall Green (London Borough of Ealing)

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N 51.5022 ° E -0.3875 °
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Clarence Street

Clarence Street
UB2 5BN London, Southall Green (London Borough of Ealing)
England, United Kingdom
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Tudor Rose, Southall
Tudor Rose, Southall

The Tudor Rose is a nightclub, live music venue and former cinema in Southall, Ealing, London.The premises opened in 1910 as the Southall Electric Theatre, and renamed to the Gem Cinema the following year, with a 500 capacity. A balcony was added in 1929, increasing the capacity to 758. It was renamed Century Cinema in 1955 and closed two years later. It subsequently became a warehouse before reopening as a specialist cinema for Bollywood films, catering for the local British Asian community. This closed in 1980.In 1983, the premises reopened as the Tudor Rose, and became an important venue for local British African-Caribbean people. It was reported to be the only black-owned venue in Southall, and catered for weddings, parties and funerals in addition to live music events. In 2002, two men were shot dead inside the venue, while it was holding an anti-gun event. A man was charged with the murder but later acquitted. In 2014, police revoked the venue's licence after it had gained a reputation for violence and disorder. The decision was reviewed the following year in court, but upheld. Its licence was restored in 2019.In June 2020, Black Lives Matter staged a protest outside the venue after Ealing Borough Council announced it could be demolished as part of refurbishment plans in the area to build new housing. In October, police broke up a wedding reception at the venue with 100 guests, violating local social isolating laws in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesman for the local police said the venue had been reported and could face a £10,000 fine for the incident.

Death of Blair Peach
Death of Blair Peach

Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night. An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest. Celia Stubbs, Peach's partner, campaigned for the Cass report to be released and for a full public inquiry. An inquiry was rejected, but in 1989 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. In 2009 Ian Tomlinson died after he was struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation; the parallels in the deaths proved to be the catalyst in the release of the Cass report to the public. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, released the report and supporting documentation. He also offered an official apology to Peach's family. The policing of the demonstration in Southall damaged community relations in the area. Since Peach's death the Metropolitan Police have been involved in a series of incidents and poorly conducted investigations—the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Tomlinson—all of which tarnished the image of the service. Peach's death has been remembered in the music of The Pop Group, Ralph McTell and Linton Kwesi Johnson; the National Union of Teachers set up the Blair Peach Award for work for equality and diversity issues and a school in Southall is named after him.