Rational Recreation

As music halls increased in popularity, middle-class moral reformers became increasingly appalled by the innuendos contained within comic songs, the flaunting of women’s bodies in what they deemed inappropriate costumes and the frequency of rude gestures used by performers. Reformers organised themselves into groups dedicated to replacing such vulgarities with educational forms of entertainment, known as rational recreation. They lobbied the licensors of public entertainment, and in 1869, after their intense criticism of the popular can-can dance, the office of the Lord Chamberlain, who had overseen the issuing of theatre licences since The Licensing Act of 1737, was forced to issue the following warning to music hall managers:

The Lord Chamberlain has learned with regret...that there is much reason to complain of the impropriety of costume of the Ladies in Pantomimes, Burlesques, etc, which are now being performed in some of the Metropolitan Theatres. He has noticed for some time past that this evil has gradually been on the increase, but he has been most unwilling to interfere in a matter which he considers ought more properly to be left to the discretion and good taste of the managers…now however, that the question has been taken up by the press and public opinion…he feels himself compelled to call it to the serious attention of the managers.

However, music hall managers were all too aware that their punters expected frivolous entertainment, and so eager to retain their profits, they changed little in their programming. The moral reformers had failed in their attempts to pressure for change, but undeterred, they set about buying existing halls and establishing new ones, which they themselves would run and use to present ‘rational recreation’. One such example was Hoxton Hall, which was opened by the philanthropist James Mortimer in 1863, who aimed to ‘combine instruction with amusement’. The opening programme on the 2nd of November strongly indicated this direction. The latest telegrams from America were presented, along with a magic illusion show which projected the Prince of Wales’s latest tour in the East, and there was also a musical performance by the Orpheus Quartet Union. Entertainment was carefully chosen to present domestic ideals, positive images of the nation and monarchy, and to educate on technological advancements. The East London Methodist Mission group purchased Wilton’s Music Hall in 1888, one of the most degenerate establishments at the time and renamed it The Mahogany Bar Mission, and proceeded to establish a similar programme of entertainment as that seen at the Hoxton.

However, reformers distinguished between the ‘deserving poor’ and those who were believed to be unredeemable. Hoxton Hall charged between 3d and 9d to target a ‘better’ clientele and exclude those who frequented the penny gaffs. Though, even the ‘deserving poor’ interpreted the programmes as condescending and an assault on their working-class culture. The programme at Hoxton Hall quickly collapsed; by 1866 a new proprietor was in control and the hall reverted to traditional forms of music hall entertainment. The failure of rational recreation was replicated across the country.

Did you know?

The upper classes equally hated the middle-class intrusion into music hall culture. They enjoyed the hedonistic nature of the West End halls and strongly opposed any restrictions placed upon this, as shown by the incident below.

After relentless petitioning, the Social Purity League was finally successful in having a screen placed between the auditorium and bar at the Empire Theatre in 1894. This prevented audience members from freely accessing alcohol and soliciting prostitutes in the promenade. On the Saturday following its instalment, between 200 and 300 aristocratic young men destroyed it with walking sticks, before proceeding to parade the fragments triumphantly around Leicester Square. The ringleader gave a speech to an assembled crowd. He remarked 'you have seen us tear down these barricades tonight; see that you pull down those who are responsible for them at the coming election' (note= there was a strong association between the moral reformers and Liberal party).

Can you guess who the ringleader might have been?

Click here to be surprised.