Frederick Balsir Chatterton, known as F. B. Chatterton was a 19th-century British theatre manager and impresario who was lessee of the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane from 1866 to 1879. He is credited with originating the famous quote, "Shakespeare spelt ruin and Byron bankruptcy".
Frederick Balsir Chatterton
Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1879
Façade of St James's Theatre in 1836. Chatterton was manager here from 1859 to 1860
Chatterton as depicted in Figaro (c1870)
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The present building, opened in 1812, is the most recent of four theatres that stood at the location since 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London.
Exterior of venue during a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Thomas Killigrew as he appeared in 1650
David Garrick, the theatre manager 1747–1776, is portrayed in the title role of Richard III in this painting by William Hogarth.
The interior of the third and largest theatre to stand at Drury Lane, c. 1808