Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre is one of London's most extraordinary hidden treasures of theatrical architecture.

Housed within an anonymous modern office building, entering the main auditorium is Tardis-like: you leave the present and are thrust into the Victorian past, which painstakingly recreates an 1895 theatre which was demolished in 1972 but whose plasterwork was preserved and reinstated here in 1979.

It quickly put itself back on the map, with a series of shows - including Noises Off - that premiered here before transferring to the West End.

It has now, under the rigorous artistic direction of Neil Bartlett, gone on to develop its profile as one of London's most cutting-edge venues, both with its own in-house shows or the visiting productions it gives a home to, like Shockheaded Peter which was first seen here.

New season

Hans Christian Anderson's The Red Shoes is part of the Lyric's autumn season

The autumn season continues this trend, kicking off with Kneehigh Theatre Company's acclaimed version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes (running now, to 5 October), and described as "theatre for adults and brave children", and continuing with the London premiere of visionary Canadian director Robert Lepage's latest theatrical work, La Casa Azul, presented in a new English translation by the Lyric's Neil Bartlett (11-26 October).

Frantic Assembly's Peepshow

Then regular visitors Frantic Assembly offer Peepshow (6-23 November) - described as "the story of seven little lives in one large city", inspired by music videos - before Bartlett directs Tim Pigott-Smith in A Christmas Carol (29 November-4 January).

The Lyric also has a small, complementary modern studio that presents a range of visiting companies, such as the current Post Office Theatre production of Mother's Day (running to 28 September) and Peepolykus in Ionesco's Rhinoceros (30 September to 19 October).

Riverside

Nearby, on the other side of the giant Hammersmith roundabout and tucked beside the river behind the gigantic Apollo concert venue (which occasionally also hosts runs of musicals that don't quite make it to the West End), is the Riverside Studios.

Hammersmith-bound: Pete Postlethwaite

This used to be a more influential theatrical venue than it is now, but still has a regular theatre programme that this week sees the return of Pete Postlethwaite to the London stage in a one-man show, Scaramouche Jones, written specially for him (running to 19 October). 

Currently, too, a festival called Out of Bosnia celebrates a range of theatre, cinema and visual arts from that previously war-torn region, running to 29 September.

In late October, one of the companies who regularly make their home here, Howard Barker's The Wrestling School, premiere Barker's latest, Gertrude - the Cry from 22 October to 2 November.

The Bush

Up the street from Hammersmith to Shepherd's Bush, the tiny but highly influential Bush Theatre continues to furrow the distinctive and distinguished path of developing new writing it has pursued for the last 30 years.

This is where Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing was first seen, and from where earlier this year Richard Cameron's The Glee Club transferred to the West End, too.

Currently the Bush is hosting the London transfer of its Edinburgh co-production of Anthony Neilson's Stitching (to 10 October), then will premiere three full-length plays by first-time writers in a season entitled Naked Talent, from 23 October to 21 December.

Take a Thames Tour of Rotherhithe including the home of London's whaling and timber trades

Today's weather for London

Sunday Max 16 °C Min 9 °C

For all other forecasts, enter a town, city, country name, or a UK postcode    View National Forecast