Located on Avenida da Liberdade, on the western side, between Rua do Salitre and Praça da Alegria, it was inaugurated on 15 June 1922, and was the result of a family sharing of the Mayer mansion and its gardens.

Between 1918 and 1920, the Club Mayer, a nightclub for leisure and games, operated in this space.

In 1920, the outdoor space of Parque Mayer was acquired by Artur Brandão, the first promoter of the space.

In 1921, it was acquired by Luís Galhardo, a journalist, writer and businessman. Together with other partners, he set up Sociedade Avenida Parque, Lda., which designed a nightlife venue and a theatre attraction centre specialising in revue theatre in the spaces adjacent to the Club Mayer building.

In 1930, Luís Galhardo sold the Club Mayer to house the Spanish Consulate General in Lisbon.

The 1930s and 1970s marked the heyday of Parque Mayer, a charismatic place of entertainment – with “shooting” stalls, bumper cars, carousels, “diabolical roulette”, the El Dorado circus, boxing and wrestling matches – and bohemian life. The political, social and cultural trajectory of the country in the early 1970s led to a renewal of authors, artists and the Portuguese magazine itself. This change was linked to authors such as José Viana, Aníbal Nazaré, Francisco Nicholson and Gonçalves Preto, who dared to address previously forbidden subjects.

In 1932, at the suggestion of Leitão de Barros, the first parade of groups representing Lisbon’s neighbourhoods took place in Parque Mayer, which would later give rise to the Marchas Populares.

Several theatres were built in this space: the Teatro Maria Vitória (1922), the Teatro Variedades (1926), and the Teatro Capitólio (1931), the latter being – designed by Luís Cristino Silva – an important landmark of modernist architecture in Portugal. In 1956, the last of these venues was built – the Teatro ABC – which closed for good in 1997.

After the 25th of April, the plays that had been banned by censorship were staged.

At the beginning of the 21st century, only the Teatro Maria Vitória was active in some form, with revues, on the initiative of the businessman Hélder Freire Costa.