Sadler’s Wells East

Sadler’s Wells East is the fourth venue in the Sadler’s Wells portfolio and has just opened at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.

It’s part of the East Bank development, a new cultural quarter in East London alongside the BBC, UAL’s London College of Fashion, UCL and the V&A. UAL and UCL East have already opened their campuses, and V&A East will open its facilities progressively between this May and spring 2026, before BBC Music Studios completes the set in early 2027.

As the UK’s premier crewing provider, Gallowglass partnered with Jezet, the globally respected bespoke seating manufacturers to assist with the installation of the retractable platforms in the new Sadler’s Wells East theatre.

Sadler’s Wells East has a 550-seat flexible theatre and occupies almost half the volume of the building. It is a flexible space with a single rake of seats, some of which can be removed and retracted to expand the stage area.

Initially the idea was to start with the installation of the balcony chairs but after a site inspection with Mace's & Jezet’s project managers it was decided we would start with installing the grandstand. As with most construction projects, things were running a little behind and the balcony area was not quite complete.

We provided 5 London event crew including a fork lift driver on site,10 hours a day with the install taking 4 weeks. Because of a few delays in construction we had to return to site a couple of months later for two weeks to finish up, balcony seating, some electrical works & snagging.

As always our thanks to the crew that has helped on this project, conscientious, diligent & industrious as always and to Jezet, professional & meticulous; here’s to the next project!

If you haven’t been to the theatre yet, have a look here: https://vimeo.com/699441008

If you have a project that we could help support you with, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our team here.