The Stephen Joseph / Library Theatre Collection: Archivist's Notes
Scarborough has an extraordinary history with regard to theatre and yet it is largely unpublicised and little recognised. The history of theatre in the town can be traced back to the first half of the 18th century when, circa 1733, the Theatre Royal own St Thomas Street (then Tanner Street) opened as a tented booth to be replaced in 1770 by a purpose-built theatre. Since then, there has been a continual theatre presence in the town and scores of theatres over the decades.
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In 1955, the theatre radical and pioneer Stephen Joseph created the UK's first professional theatre in the round company on the first floor of Scarborough Library in the Concert Room - which survives to this day, looking not unlike it did back in 1955. It was a company predicated to promoting a new form of theatre (in the sense that theatre in the round had died out in the UK as a popular form centuries earlier) and to champion new writing and new writers.
It's an argument I often make - and I know it's a lost battle as history has been written. But Scarborough arguably has the longest tradition of new writing in the UK. It has been part of the company's DNA from the moment it was founded in 1955 to the present day and few companies can boast of such a rich new writing tradition of more than 70 years. In comparison, the most famous new writing company in this country is the Royal Court (originally the English Stage Company) which was founded in 1956 - the year after Stephen Joseph's inaugural season of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre which premiered four new works by four new writers.
Aside from its extraordinary new-writing legacy where more than half of all plays produced since 1955 have been new works. The company also became something large and more vital to Scarborough itself. Over the decades that followed, this company would grow from a seasonal fixture at library to an internationally renowned theatre largely thanks to its association with Stephen's most notable protégé, Alan Ayckbourn. He joined Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in 1957 and made his professional writing and directing debuts with the company. In 1972, he became Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, committing himself to Stephen Joseph's legacy at a point where he was a household name in theatre and could have chosen to go anywhere. Over 37 years, he guided the company and moved it to its two future homes, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round (1976 - 1996) and the Stephen Joseph Theatre (1996 - present). He and the town became synonymous over the decades and, in doing so, raised the profile of the theatre company far beyond anything Stephen Joseph might have hoped for.
And it all began in a room, in a building, patently unsuited to hosting a pioneering theatre company. Yet which - despite all the challenges - succeeded and thrived and became an essential part of Scarborough's cultural heritage and history.
To me, Scarborough Library is of national cultural significance. Both in the fact the Concert Room still survives and can be visited and also in its archive collection, which is largely unheralded and unappreciated despite holding hugely valuable insight into such an important company and, in Stephen Joseph, a criminally ignored British theatre pioneer whose influence and impact endured long beyond his tragically early death in 1967 at the age of 46.
I feel very privileged to be able to work with Scarborough Library and North Yorkshire County Council in helping to preserve this incredibly important piece of cultural history and to, hopefully, bring it to wider attention for anyone interested in Stephen Joseph, Alan Ayckbourn and the history of theatre in the round in the UK.
It is a project that I hope to be involved with for many years - as there is much work to be done - but, as an archivist and historian, I can think of no better calling than to help preserve this history for future generations to appreciate and enjoy and to champion the place of Scarborough and Scarborough Library in British theatre history.
Simon Murgatroyd, January 2026
The Library Theatre Collection pages of A Round Town are associated with The Stephen Joseph / Library Theatre Collection held in archive by Scarborough Library. This collection of material is the most significant collection relating to the UK's first professional theatre in the round company founded by Stephen Joseph on the first floor of Scarborough Library in 1955. The collection is currently being curated and catalogued by archivist and theatre historian Simon Murgatroyd.