# The Old Laundry Theatre becomes The Victoria Wood Theatre
There are many places around the country which have a special connection to Victoria Wood, but few can claim quite such a long and happy association as the theatre formerly known as the Old Laundry Theatre in Bowness-on-Windermere.
Earlier this year, the theatre was officially renamed The Victoria Wood Theatre, nearly ten years after we lost one of Britain’s greatest comedy writers, performers and songwriters.
Victoria’s relationship with the theatre goes back decades. She was a trustee and performed there several times, as well as producing and directing her play Talent there in 2008. The theatre also premiered the stage adaptation of her television drama Housewife, 49 in 2013.
The venue was run by Victoria’s close friends Charlotte Scott and Roger Glossop, whose friendship with Vic stretched back to the 1970s. It feels particularly fitting, then, that a place which played such an important part in their shared professional and personal lives should now carry her name.
And the celebrations don’t stop at a new sign above the door. The newly named Victoria Wood Theatre has also been home to Fourteen Again, a brand-new musical featuring songs from Victoria’s Lucky Bag! songbook, with a book by Tom MacRae, the writer and lyricist of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
It is a rather lovely way of keeping Victoria’s extraordinary work alive: not simply looking backwards, but finding new ways for her words, music and characters to reach new audiences.
Having spent the last six years touring the country with Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood, I know just how many corners of Britain proudly claim a connection to Vic. From Bury and Prestwich to Morecambe and Birmingham, her legacy seems to crop up wherever you go.
Now Bowness-on-Windermere can quite literally put her name above the door.
The Victoria Wood Theatre seems a very fitting addition to the list.
And if you’re in the mood for a little more Victoria Wood, why not take a look at my brand new show, playing The Victoria Wood Theatre and many other locations across the UK in 2026-27, What Wood Victoria Do? A fresh celebration of Victoria Wood’s wit, wisdom and music, it asks how on earth we’ve managed the last decade without her – and what she’d make of the world we live in today.
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