 On 30 May 1898 the Tower Theatre was opened, sited between the legs of the tower. Capable of accommodating an audience of 2,500, it was the largest theatre in England outside London. Each season at the theatre was different; some years it would show a play or an opera, others it would focus on variety acts such as magicians, comedians and lion tamer Mademoiselle Marguerite, with her seven lions. Wrestling was hosted at the theatre as early as 1903, and had become a weekly event by 1937. When the Americans occupied the site during the Second World War they used the Tower Theatre to show their own roadshows to the troops.
