Origins of the Halls

Music Hall is a distinctly British form of entertainment and evolved from a variety of older customs and performance styles.

18th century

The origins of the Victorian music halls lie in the coffee houses and pubs of the 18th century, where men gathered to discuss business while eating, drinking and watching musical performers. The atmosphere in such places were more akin to a pub sing-along type affair than a music hall performance, but it was from them that music hall culture began to emerge.

The music houses of the 18th century pleasure gardens, however, were similar to the later music halls, in that they were commercialised establishments. Entry in to the pleasures gardens, such as in Vauxhall, was inexpensive, they attracted audiences from all walks of life and the musical performances were essentially the pop concerts of the day. The songs, like those in the later music halls, addressed the social and political issues of the day, and the music on offer varied from charming ditties to operas and orchestral pieces.

Moreover, the performance styles that evolved in response to the 1737 Licensing Act, also transferred into music hall entertainment. The act decreed that all plays were illegal unless performed in one of two theatres awarded royal patents by Charles II: Covent Garden Theatre and Drury Lane Theatre. In response, non-patent theatres adapted the style of performance of these more anointed venues, and championed melodrama, pantomime, ballet opera and burlesque. These performance styles involved music or musical interludes and so could not be classified as legitimate theatre, therefore removing them from any obligations to the Licensing Act. The improvised performance styles that emerged during the latter half of the 1700s all later amalgamated to form the line-up of music hall entertainment.

Depiction of an 18th century coffee house. The Illustrated London News, 17th September 1870

A musical performance at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, circa 1779.

19th century

During the early decades of the 19th century, urban populations rose rapidly as people moved to industrial towns in search of work. Pub sing-alongs became a popular pastime across the country, and in London, supper rooms evolved from the coffee houses to offer escapism from the drudgery of everyday life. The rooms were furnished with supper tables and a small stage, and provided a place in which patrons could dine, consume alcohol and be entertained until the early hours. To begin with, the entertainment was provided by amateurs, but professional performers soon took over. As the Licensing act was still strictly enforced during the early 1800s and dramatic performances were still restricted, music was the centre of entertainment at the supper rooms.

Some supper rooms, particularly the Cyder Cellars in Maiden Lane and Coal Hole on the Strand, developed a reputation for being rowdy and scandalous. They were known as ‘night dives’ because they were night time haunts located underground. They attracted the ‘men about town’ of the period, including literary figures, such as William Thackery and Charles Dickens, and actors, including Edmund Kean, who established The Wolf Club at the Coal Hole, a debauched group dedicated to hard drinking, high jinks, mischievous pranks and general rowdy activity. Despite, or perhaps because of, their dubious reputations, such venues were the celebrity haunts of their day.

Other supper rooms provided more sophisticated proceedings. Evan’s Hotel and Supper Rooms was frequented by noblemen and provided them with fine dining, accompanied by choral singing and operatic vignettes. The concert hall could seat as many as eight hundred patrons with four per supper table and was open from ten at night until two in the morning, and audiences would sing along to choruses of sea shanties and old English ballads.

The Garrick’s Head Hotel on Bow Street and the Noblemen’s Star Room at the Grand Hotel in Strand offered a more economical option. They provided guests with a good supper, a jolly song and bed and breakfast, all for half a crown.

Evan's supper rooms depicted in 1859, Houlston & Wright London. .

By the middle of the century, a series of purpose built venues, consisting of a public house and adjoining concert hall, had emerged across the capital. These establishments were arguably the earliest music halls. One of the first of these was the Canterbury Arms in Lambeth, which was built by Charles Morton, the man accredited with being the father of the music halls. The Canterbury opened in 1852 with the capacity to seat 700 people. Morton was particularly taken by the custom of a chairman or master of ceremonies that had been observed at Evan’s Supper Rooms and so transferred the tradition to his new music hall. The venue was designed much like a conventional theatre but had small tables with chairs in the place of stalls on the ground floor. Morton’s pioneering music hall was extremely successful and he opened another, known as the Oxford, in Holborn in 1884. He also later became the manager of the famous Alhambra Theatre in the West End.

A key difference between the music halls and the more traditional supper rooms and pubs was that these new establishments welcomed women. This relative inclusivity was a major factor in the popularity of the early halls and the new mode of entertainment rapidly took off. By 1878, no fewer than 347 music halls had opened in London alone.

The Canterbury Hall in 1856. In December of this year, the Canterbury moved to larger premises which had the capacity to seat 1500 people.

Did you know?

It is traditionally believed that The Canterbury was the very first music hall. However, according to Peter Charlton, co-historian of The British Music Hall Society, the venue was really only a hall built on to a public house, and numerous buildings of a similar type had been opened across England beforehand.

As Mr Charlton argues 'the earliest halls we know about were The Star in Bolton, [which was] a hall attached to a pub, [which opened] in 1832 or The Adelphi in Sheffield in 1837, and to bring in the Midlands, there was The Rodney in Birmingham in 1840'. So, while The Canterbury was the first purpose built music hall in London, it was not the first in the country.