Centre Court shopping centre in Wimbledon

This afternoon I went to Wimbledon to go to the theatre and before this visited the Centre Court Shopping Centre. Before the pandemic this was a vibrant area with lots of shops and a really big Debenhams where I often bought things. Sadly since the Debenhams has closed most of the other shops have gone too hence this sign. I think there is also going to be another gym and office space. The area outside the station and the nearby High Street looked rather dreary and so different from in summer when the tennis championships are taking place!

I have not been to Wimbledon Theatre for years and found it also was rather dreary, very dull colours on the paintwork…maybe they have restored the original colours? It is not as nice as Richmond Theatre which I go to quite often. However we had good, quite cheap seats, in the front row of the circle. It was the musical Strictly Ballroom with Kevin Clifton as the star and Maisie Smith who was in one of the strictly series on TV. I had not seen the original film or read the story beforehand so found it all rather strange. Most of the dancing was very good with Kevin being excellent and also an extremely good Spanish flamenco dancer. However I found some of the wigs ( on both men and women) and costumes rather tacky. It was set in the 1990’s I think. The set…see extra…and the music was good. So ‘ good in parts’ but I’m glad I had not travelled far to see it or bought expensive tickets.