'When the whole was illuminated, there then appeared one of the finest Scenes Imagination can conceive; the rich Paintings, together with the Brilliancy of the Ladies, formed so complete a View, that Malice herself, had she been there, must (for that Night at least) have put on a Smile of Approbation'.

From a letter, Sarah Farley's Bristol Journal, 1766.

The Theatre Royal is Britain's oldest surviving and continuously used theatre auditorium in the country.

The Bristol Theatre, as it was called then, opened in 1766 after two years of planning and building. Fifty philanthropic merchants, lawyers and politicians had each paid a £50 subscription towards the costs of building of the first theatre within the City of Bristol.

It was designed by Bristol architect Thomas Paty and he loosely based it on Drury Lane Theatre London. The shape of the auditorium was, however, significantly different and for the first time in Britain, the 'horseshoe' layout that is now found in theatres around the world, replaced the traditional 'rectangle'. Two circles of seating were provided and the whole space lit by candlelight. Its interior was green and gold with 'rich paintings' by Michael Edkins.

The theatre operated illegally for twelve years as it had no Royal licence until 1778 and had to describe its performances as 'Concerts of Music and Specimens of Rhetorick'.

The present theatre complex uses the Coopers' Hall, built in 1743, as a foyer. It has been home to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company since 1946.