75 years at Stratford

Michael Boyd, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with the cast of Coriolanus after the last performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in its current form Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance

David Garrick's Jubilee Pavilion from 1769, the first commemorative theatre to be erected on the banks of the Avon Photograph: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/RSC

The old Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, photographed here in 1900, burnt down in 1926. Part of the surviving shell now encloses the small-scale Swan Theatre Photograph: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Bancroft Gardens, photographed soon after it opened in 1932 Photograph: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/RSC

Laurence Olivier as Titus Andronicus in Peter Brook's production from 1955 Photograph: Angus McBean/RSC

Charles Laughton in Peter Hall's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1959 Photograph: Angus McBean/RSC

Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret in Henry VI, part of the Wars of the Roses cycle, directed jointly by Peter Hall and John Barton in the mid-1960s Photograph: Angus McBean/RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre from the riverside Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre photographed as the final performance, Coriolanus, is about to start Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance

Theatregoers thread their way up the great spiral staircase just off the foyer, with a bust of Shakespeare looking on Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance

The spiral staircase with its art deco skylight Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance

Back to the future ... Theatregoers examine a model of the new theatre, which will be raised inside the existing walls Photograph: Andrew Fox/freelance