Dating from 1814, the Cambridge Festival Theatre is one of only a handful of pre-Victorian theatres remaining in the country. This late Georgian building was among several built for a touring company, the Norwich players, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Originally the Barnwell Theatre, it was initially successful however the Norwich circuit did not last and by the 1830s owner William Wilkins was struggling financially. The Theatre was bought in 1878 by Mr Robert Sayle, who turned it into a mission hall for the Evangelisation Society. The Theatre remained this way for many years until 1915 when it was used as a boy’s club by King’s College. Derelict, in 1926 it was bought by Terence Gray, who gave it a 2nd lease of life as a theatre, making substantial alterations and renaming it the Festival Theatre. The new theatre operated only 7 years under the direct influence of Gray, and was then run by a management company, gradually declining until it closed in 1939. It is now the site of the Cambridge Buddhist Centre and is rumoured to have at least 3 hauntings. A former Front of House Manager hanged himself in the Corridor behind the Middle Boxes and people have felt a feeling of intense cold emanating from this area. Footsteps are also heard walking across the Stage and up the Stairs to the Office area, supposedly to do with a Woman who was assaulted in the Street outside and died after being brought into the Theatre. Mysterious people peering from the Top Gallery have also been reported.