The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection (MMTC) is one of the largest collections of theatre and performance related material in the UK.

The MMTC exists thanks to the extraordinary lifetime’s work of Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, who met as young actors in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the London Docklands Settlement in the East End in the late 1930’s, and formed a professional and personal partnership that was to last until Raymond’s death in 1983.

Both were already keen collectors of theatre-related material, and the home they shared at 5, Venner Road in Sydenham was filled over the years with the vast collection of theatre ephemera, works of art, books and props which they accumulated together. Friends in the theatre such as Noel Coward, Sir John Gielgud and Dame Sybil Thorndike made generous personal donations, and Raymond and Joe also acquired original paintings of theatrical subjects, theatre costumes belonging to Henry Irving and others, and an outstanding collection of nineteenth century ceramic theatrical figures.

Raymond and Joe advised writers, researchers and members of the theatre profession, and supplied materials and illustrations for thousands of books, articles and theatre programmes. Additionally, they wrote several scholarly books themselves which drew on their collection, and which remain definitive in the field: Theatrical Companions to Coward, Shaw, Wagner; The Theatres of London and Lost Theatres of London; books on Music-Hall, Revue and Pantomime, among others.

By the late 1970’s, the collection was outgrowing their home and, prompted by a compulsory purchase order issued by Lewisham Borough Council, a charitable trust was formed under the presidency of Lord Olivier in 1977 to ensure its long-term future. The current President of the Trust is Joan Plowright CBE, the Lady Olivier, and a distinguished board of Trustees acts under the chairmanship of William Tayleur.

In 1984, the MMTC was rehoused in the Grade-II listed Georgian mansion at Beckenham Place Park, where it remained for the next 15 years. Richard Mangan joined as Administrator in 1988. It was hoped that MMTC might form the basis of a public museum at Beckenham, but funds to enable this remained elusive, and when in 1999, Lewisham Council decided to sell the building, Richard oversaw a move to temporary premises in the Salvation Army Headquarters in the City.

In September 2001, assisted by a generous grant from the Jerwood Foundation, the collection became part of the Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts at Trinity College of Music, and found a permanent home at the Old Naval College in Greenwich, London. Under the supervision of Richard, the MMTC was once again on the move, and opened for business at Greenwich in late 2001.