The ADC Theatre is Britain's oldest University playhouse. Plays have been presented on the site since 1855 when the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC) was founded and the Club met and performed in the back room of the Hoop Inn on Jesus Lane. The coaching inn stood almost exactly where the ADC Theatre stands today. In the 1860s the CUADC leased additional rooms from the inn owner, William Ekin, a brewer and wine merchant, and in 1882, the CUADC bought the freehold to the property using a mortgage of £3,500. The building was subsequently developed into the ADC Theatre over an extended period of time. In 1933 a fire destroyed much of the building but the theatre was quickly rebuilt to a design by Harold Tomlinson and W.P. Dyson and reopened in 1935. The theatre was run as a private members’ club by the CUADC but from 1960 onwards the Club experienced growing financial difficulties and by 1972 matters had reached a crisis: the Club could not raise the funds necessary to repair the fabric of the building and replace equipment. Following a University Enquiry into the financial state of the ADC Theatre, it was agreed for the theatre to be leased to the University of Cambridge for 75 years from 1 August 1973. The University employs full-time staff to run the theatre, has responsibility for its maintenance and for a defined range of recurrent expenditure including maintenance, rates, insurances, and cleaning. Thus, although the theatre is owned by the CUADC it is currently run as the smallest department of the University. It continues to be a producing theatre with the CUADC as one of its resident companies, the others being Cambridge Footlights and Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society. A history of the theatre is available online as part of its website http://www.adctheatre.com.