TUCKED away on an industrial estate in Stratford, an inconspicuous doorway leads into a warehouse of hidden treasures.

Just like Lucy in the Royal Shakespeare Company's current production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the unsuspecting visitor steps through a portal into another world.

This is not a world of snow and ice, however, but of costumes, props and pictures.

For the warehouse houses the RSC collection, one of the finest collections of theatrical artefacts and ephemera in the country - much of it not widely seen by the public for many years.

However, all that has changed with the launch of the RSC's new website - Pictures and Exhibitions - which opens up the collection to a worldwide audience for the first time.

The new interactive site, which has received a £200,000 grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund was launched earlier this month.

It is the painstaking work of RSC curator David Howells and his team who have been busy for many months collating, selecting and having 3,900 images digitally photographed to be viewed online.

The RSC collection grew out of the picture gallery that was originally part of the Victorian Swan Theatre.

All the artefacts and paintings in the collection, which now must be worth millions, were saved from a fire in 1926, and these form the core of the collection.

Over the years this has been added to by a vast collection of costumes, props, scripts, programmes and posters.

For example, there are racks of shrouded costumes worn by theatrical legends such as Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.

There's even an Marks & Spencer mac (size 12) worn in a production of Taming of the Shrew by a young, unknown actress called Ruby Wax.

In the props room there is an armoury of weapons, including spears, which possibly could have once been carried by future stars at the start of their glittering careers.

There are also models of sets, pieces of furniture, skeletal remains and weird and wonderful creations like, what appears to be, an egg with rats coming out of it.

There are even awards such as the Evening Standard Award given to Ian Holm in 1965

"It's the tip of the iceberg," says David.

Under plans for the redevelopment of the theatre in Stratford it is intended to build exhibition space into the design which would give the RSC the chance to display more of its collection directly to visitors.

In the meantime, the new website, which is part of a bigger project for lifelong learners called EnrichUK, including sites on sports, newsreels, history and the performing arts, will ensure more people can find out about the RSC's hidden treasures.

"It's the culmination of a lot of work. It means the collection the RSC owns will be known of more generally to the public rather than just a few academics," says David.

Pictures and Exhibitions can be viewed through the RSC's website at www.rsc.org.uk by clicking on the Pictures and Exhibitions icon.