A night at Talbot's theatre
Actor/manager Michael Atkins opened the city's first purpose-built theatre at the top of Artillery Street in 1774. It soon became the fashionable place to be seen especially at grand social occasions when the Assize judges were in town. Dashing young military officers scanned the audience to pick out the belles. By 1830, however, polite society had deserted the theatre on the grounds that audiences were rowdy and made up of 'the lower orders'. The building was converted into a Presbyterian Church.

The Playhouse
Theatre returned to Artillery Street in 1992 with the opening of the award-winning Playhouse community arts centre. The Playhouse captured the spirit of Field Day's creative response to the Troubles through theatre and poetry. Playwright Brian Friel and actor Stephen Rea founded the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980.

'Ring a ring a roses'
The Playhouse was created from two primary schools. A former pupil recalled her first days at school: There were high windows through which one could only see the sky and fat snaky radiators. The whole building was polished to within an inch of its life. Every surface gleamed. The parquet floors were like skating rinks and the stairs perilous and slippery. In 1994 the Playhouse invited 1500 local children to form a Ring Around the Wall.

A shirt on his back
Around 1780 young apprentice William Scott used to walk up Artillery Street every day to his job in Mr Gilmour's linen weaving firm. Aged 60 he spotted a growing fashion for cotton shirts with embroidered linen fronts. By the time he retired aged 85, the founder of the city's shirtmaking industry was employing over 250 weavers and 500 home workers.

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