The Cemetery The Castle Union Workhouse General Hospital Holy Trinity Church St Alban's Church Black Boy School Cotswold Playhouse Wesley Chapel/Salvation Army Old Meeting Chapel
GRO Cotswold Playhouse IMG 1341
What: Historic building c1836
Where: GL5 1LW   Parliament Street
Then: The Playhouse theatre was opened in 1957 in a converted chapel, originally built by the Primitive Methodists
Now: A vibrant and well-attended theatre

The Cotswold Players company was formed in Stroud in 1911. They played in the Church Institute and other public buildings until 1957 when they converted a former chapel in Parliament Street as the Playhouse Theatre in 1957. The first production in the new theatre was A Midsummer's Night's Dream.

The chapel was built in 1836 by the Primitive Methodists, who by 1825, were meeting in Stroud and in 1851, had a congregation of around 200. In 1932, the Primitive Methodists and the Wesleyan Methodists united to form Stroud Methodist Church, after which the chapel building was increasingly surplus to requirements.

 From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society

Revised 2018 EMW