A luminary of the Arts who was regularly seen at Birkbeck’s theatre, Arthur Wing Pinero later became one of the most distinguished dramatists and stage directors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Pinero first walked into the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution in Southampton Buildings in 1870. Although he signed up to four years of legal classes, his real reason for choosing Birkbeck was its magnificent theatre and unrivalled reputation for dramatic performances. Within only a couple of years, Pinero had won the College’s prize for dramatic technique.

Upon completing his legal training, Pinero accepted a job as actor in the Edinburgh Stock Company, first appearing at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh in 1874. Two years later, he returned to London with the Lyceum Company. He became a prolific dramatist, producing over fifty dramas, some of which had over 1,000 performances.

Today, Pinero’s plays don’t seem particularly subversive, but at the time they represented a seismic shift in theatrical theme and performance. Pinero’s “new women”, for example, were sexually liberated, politically astute, career-minded and edgy.