Her Majesty's Theatre provided the first alternative to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, built in 1663 and the Lincoln's Inn, founded in 1660 (forerunner of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, built in 1728). The theatre's site is the second oldest such site in London that remains in use. These three post-interregnum theatres defined the shape and use of modern theatres. The land for the theatre was held on a lease renewable in 1740 and was ultimately owned, as it is today, by the Crown Estate. Building was delayed by the necessity of acquiring the street frontage, and a three bay entrance led to
London Bridge Is Falling Down Dancing o'er The Lady-Lee. </poem> The oldest extant version could be that recalled by a correspondent to the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1823, which he claimed to have heard from a woman who was a child in the reign of Charles II (r. 1660–85) and had the lyrics: <poem>London Bridge is broken down, London Bridge is broken down, The earliest printed English version is in the oldest extant collection of nursery rhymes, "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book", printed by John Newbery in London (c. 1744), beginning with the following text: <poem> London Bridge Is Broken down, Dance over my Lady Lee.