The Roundhouse was built as a
turntable engine shed (or
roundhouse) for the
London & Birmingham Railway. Known as the Great Circular Engine House, or the Luggage Engine House, it was built by Branson & Gwyther, using designs by architects Robert B. Dockray and
Robert Stephenson. Construction started in 1846 and the building opened in 1847. Within ten years locomotives became too long for the building to accommodate, and the Roundhouse was used for various other purposes. The longest period of use (50 years, beginning in 1871) was as a bonded warehouse for gin distillers W & A Gilbey Ltd. In 1964 the premises were transferred to Centre 42, which prepared a scheme to convert the building into "a permanent cultural centre with a theatre, cinema, art gallery and workshops, committee rooms for local organisations, library, youth club and restaurant dance-hall". This was estimated to cost between £300,000 and £600,000 (£–£ in worth), and was supported by "well-known actors, playwrights, authors, musicians and others". The first major concert took place on New Year's Eve 1966, when a night called Psychadelicamania was headlined by
The Who. During the next decade the building became a significant venue for
UK Underground music events
Middle Earth and
Implosion. Many of these were hosted and promoted by
Jeff Dexter. Other bands playing at the Roundhouse during this period included
Gass,
The Rolling Stones,
Jeff Beck,
The Yardbirds,
Zoot Money's
Dantalian's Chariot,
David Bowie,
Jimi Hendrix,
Pink Floyd, While lying in a state of general abandonment in the 1980s, the Roundhouse was used as the main location for the
science fiction horror film
Hardware by
Richard Stanley.
Sets were built inside the structure, although the lack of proper
soundproofing meant all of the dialogues had to be
re-recorded. The building was used again in 1996 to film the promotional video for the
Manic Street Preachers' single "
A Design for Life" prior to the start of redevelopment. Promotional videos for the singles "
No Matter What" by
Boyzone (1998) and "
Handbags & Gladrags" by
Stereophonics (2001) were also filmed there. A scene from the comedy film
Smashing Time set in the revolving restaurant at the top of the
GPO Tower was filmed there in 1967. In July that year the Roundhouse hosted the "Dialectics of Liberation" with (among others)
R. D. Laing,
Herbert Marcuse and
Allen Ginsberg. The Roundhouse has also been used for theatre, and has had two periods of theatrical glory, with musicals such as
Catch My Soul (1969). Under administrator George Hoskins, the first phase also featured experimental theatre productions, such as the
Living Theatre production of
1776 and other plays directed by
Peter Brook. The once controversial nude revue
Oh! Calcutta! opened in July 1970, During this time, on New Year's Eve 1991/92,
Spiral Tribe held a week-long party in the venue. During the party the generators cut out, so power had to be sourced from nearby
British Rail train lines.
Restoration The building lay largely empty until it was purchased for £6m in 1996 by the Norman Trust led by the philanthropist
Torquil Norman. In 1998 he set up the
Roundhouse Trust and led its redevelopment, with a board of trustees which included musicians
Bob Geldof and
Suggs, and filmmaker
Terry Gilliam. The venue opened for a two-year period to raise awareness and funds for a redevelopment scheme, with former
Battersea Arts Centre director
Paul Blackman as its director. Shows promoted at this time included the
Royal National Theatre's
Oh, What a Lovely War!, dancer
Michael Clark's comeback performance, percussion extravaganza
Stomp,
Ken Campbell's 24-hour-long show
The Warp and the
Argentine De La Guarda's
Villa Villa performing at Roundhouse, 17 May 2007 In 2008,
Michael Boyd, artistic director of the
Royal Shakespeare Company, transferred his RSC Histories Cycle to the Roundhouse, rearranging the performing space to match the Courtyard Theatre in
Stratford upon Avon, where the cycle had first been staged. On 31 March 2009, the charitable circus group
NoFit State began presenting
Tabu, On 26 April 2009,
Bob Dylan and his band performed at the Roundhouse as part of his 2009 UK tour, and in July 2009 the
iTunes Music Festival (supported by
Apple Computer) was held at the venue. In January 2010, the Roundhouse introduced
contemporary classical music to its events repertoire when it hosted the
Reverb festival, which included performances by the
London Contemporary Orchestra, the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment,
The Magnets,
Nico Muhly,
Sam Amidon and the
Britten Sinfonia. For the September 2015 Apple Music Festival, Apple announced an environmental makeover gift for the venue: "making major upgrades to the lighting, plumbing, and HVAC systems; installing recycling and composting bins… offering reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones… to reduce the Roundhouse's annual carbon emissions by 60 tons, save 60,000 gallons of water a year, and divert more than 1,600 kilograms of waste from landfills". ==Roundhouse Trust==