The Bread & Roses Theatre on Clapham Manor Street
A 50-seat fringe theatre above a Grade II listed pub on Clapham Manor Street, just off Clapham High Street. Here is how to do it well.
By Clapham London Editorial
Short version: the Bread & Roses Theatre is a small fringe room upstairs at the Bread & Roses pub, at 68 Clapham Manor Street, SW4. It sits just off Clapham High Street, so it is a short walk from the station of the same name. Go for an evening show, arrive early, and have a drink downstairs first.
Getting there
The address is Clapham Manor Street, not the High Street itself. The theatre says Clapham North, Clapham Common, Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road stations are each a 5 to 10 minute walk. Time Out lists Clapham North as the nearest tube. Clapham High Street station is about 0.13 miles away, according to All In London.
One practical point: the theatre is on the first floor and is not wheelchair accessible, according to its Find Us page.
What it is
It is a fringe theatre of roughly 40 to 60 seats (the theatre’s own About page gives that range; other listings say 50). The programme leans towards new writing and underrepresented voices, but it also takes in revivals, devised work, improv, comedy, family shows and physical theatre. Visiting companies get box-office split deals, and there is an in-house company too.
The programme turns over fast, with a different company in most weeks, so treat any show as a snapshot and check the What’s On page before you set off. The theatre’s news page has listed a comedy work-in-progress, The SMALL Stuff, a one-woman piece called Dear Cathy running 21 to 25 April 2026, and Call Yourself an Irishman? due in May.
The history
The building began as the Bowyer Arms, part of a Thomas Cubitt development of 1846 to 1852, and it is Grade II listed. In 1995 the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council decided to buy its own pub as a permanent base. It bought the Bowyer Arms, and the Bread & Roses opened the following year, winning a CAMRA pub refurbishment award.
The name nods to the 1912 strike by women textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, whose banners called for “bread and roses”. The pub is run by the Workers Beer Company, the council’s trading arm.
The theatre is much younger than the pub: it dates from around 2014, and it has been behind the Clapham Fringe, now the Lambeth Fringe, since 2015. The 2026 Lambeth Fringe runs 24 September to 25 October, according to the theatre’s festival page.
Prices and booking
Expect fringe pricing: older listings on the theatre’s own site show roughly £10 to £12 standard and £8 to £10 concession, so check each listing for the current figure. Concessions apply to students, under-18s, pensioners, people on disability or unemployment benefits, Equity, BECTU and SDUK members and Portico Places cardholders. Tickets are non-refundable.
Book through the listing for the show you want, which the theatre links from its news posts. The box office number is 020 8050 3025. Evening starts are typical, but check the listing for the time.
For after, or before: the pub downstairs
The obvious answer is the Bread & Roses pub on the ground floor, which describes itself as an independent pub with live music, theatre, comedy and sport. Per its own site it opens mid-afternoon on weekdays (Friday and Saturday run to midnight, Sunday to 10.30pm), so there is time for a drink before curtain up.
- Drink: CAMRA lists it as a free house with three changing cask ales, rotating fortnightly.
- Eat: DesignMyNight says British pub food is served Wednesday to Sunday.
- Space: a patio and garden, plus a conservatory, according to CAMRA and All In London.
Arrive early, grab a seat and a pint, then head up. The pub also hosts a monthly blues jam and the Clapham Comedy Club, according to the trades council’s page.
