What did Vivien Leigh Oscar Wilde do at 23-24 King Street?

The Story

# 23-24 King Street: Where Theatre History Was Made Standing at 23-24 King Street, you're looking at the ghost of a building that hosted one of theatre's most glittering chapters—the St James's Theatre, which once occupied this very plot before its controversial demolition in 1957. It was here, under the visionary management of George Alexander from 1890 onwards, that Oscar Wilde's comedic masterpieces "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" premiered, dazzling London audiences and establishing the theatre as a temple of wit and sophistication. Decades later, when the wrecking ball threatened to erase this landmark, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier—themselves titans of theatre who understood its irreplaceable cultural value—led a passionate, though ultimately unsuccessful, campaign to save it, embodying their fierce devotion to preserving the sanctuaries where theatrical magic had been forged. Though the building is gone, this commemorative plaque marks a site where three legends of the stage intersected across generations—Wilde as the playwright whose words electrified the stage, and Olivier and Leigh as the guardians who fought to preserve his theatrical legacy.