Highbury Theatre Centre
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| Address | Sheffield Road Birmingham England |
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| Coordinates | 52°32′16″N 1°50′03″W / 52.537894°N 1.834181°W |
| Public transit |
 Chester Road
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| Construction | |
| Built | 1937–1942 |
| Opened | 1942 |
| Rebuilt | 1980 |
| Website | |
| www |
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Highbury Theatre Centre is a non-professional theatre situated in the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest, established amateur theatres in the city and a founding member of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain.
Conceived in 1924 by Bertie English, the theatre originally started life as a simple play reading group, under the name, The Erdington ILP Play-reading Circle. As the members passion developed from just reading plays together, they began to start producing and acting in various productions. On 5 March 1925, they performed their first stage production of Little Sins and Pretty Sinners at the Folkhouse, Erdington. In 1928, a 17-year-old John English, took over from his father as the Director of the company. Rehearsals would often be held at his home which was named, Highbury. Subsequently, in that same year, the group chose to rename themselves after their rehearsal space and became; The Highbury Players. Due to no theatre of their own, the company were still having to produce plays in local church halls until 1935. In hope more than expectation they set up a building fund and began to search for premises.
But it was in 1937, that they purchased the freehold site on Sheffield Road from Rhonda Anstey (of Anstey College of Physical Education), using an existing World War I mission chapel (once used as a hospital for World War I veterans) as the basis for their new theatre, at a cost of just over £200. Using this basic structure they built, almost entirely on their own, their own theatre. Members learnt new skills on site first hand, to build brick walls, plastering, joinery, electrics, metalwork and much more, pulling together to create a theatre of their own. They worked both night and day during the early years of the Second World War to complete it. When the war broke out in 1939 most of the work was undertaken by the female members. It was through dedication and without financial aid or patronage; that the theatre was constructed, along with its traditions which helped to lay the foundations of what it eventually became. The original theatre seats were donated to the theatre when the then newly refurbished Prince of Wales theatre in the City Centre was bombed during an air raid, some of the seats still proudly bore the bomb splinters. When building work was completed, the new building was christened; Highbury Little Theatre.
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