It is one of those London quirks of history that the Hampstead Theatre is not in leafy Hampstead, but in the roaring traffic vortex known as Swiss Cottage, after the grimy chalet-style pub of that name there. Any place less Alpine can scarcely be imagined. This is a perpetually unfinished corner of the capital once intended to be a grand civic centre, but which got only fearsome multi-lane highways, nondescript office blocks, and a Basil Spence library and swimming baths - the latter now being rebuilt as part of a big commercial redevelopment. After starting in a scout hut in Hampstead proper in 1959, the little Hampstead Theatre Club set up its supposedly temporary Portakabin home in a scrap of spare land in Swiss Cottage in 1962. With its famously intimate auditorium and its shrewd mix of new writing and revivals, it always punched above its weight. Most actors and directors you've ever heard of, from Malkovich to McKellen, have worked here at some time. 24 West End and Broadway transfers in the past 14 years speak for themselves.