How London Amuses Itself.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 253, 22 October 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

How London Amuses Itself.

Extracts From the 'Theatres and

Music Halls ' Blue Book.

The Blue-book containing: the evidence given beforo tho Selecb Committee on Theatre* and Places of Amusement baa now been published. The proceedings of tho Committee received bub scant notice from tho nowspapors nfc the time, and a fow extracts from statements put in, and from the ovidence of the Examiner of Plays, will, we think, be found interesting. Capital in Mosichialls. The amounb of capital invested in music" halls in London and the provinces is, of course, considerable, amounting in London to £650,650, and in the provinces to £776,200. The following are the amounts as regards a few of tho London balls :-— Alhambra £100,000 Canterbury and Paragon ... 90,000 Metropolitan 62,000 Queen's 47,000 Collins's, South London, Royal, and Cambridge (each) 40,000 In several of tho provincial ventures the amount is considerably larger than is the cuso in any one of tho London halls, as for instance :—

Winter Gardens, Blackpool ... £125,000 Manchester Palace, Manchester £120,000 The capital of one company which owns halls in Shields, Sunderland, Harfclepool, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh is sot down ab £138,000.

Artistes, Employees, and Wages.

As regards the number of artists employed at any one music-hall, the Empire, London, bends the Hat with 260, tho Winter Gardens, Blackpool, coming I noxt with 260. The Alhambra has 238, ["and the Manchester Palace 145. There are 308 persons employed at tho Empire, the Mnnchestor Palaco oomes next with 150, and tho Winter Gardens, Blackpool, third, with 140. There are 190 employed at the Canterbury and Paragon, And 119 at the Alhcmbra. The amount of salaries paid is highest at the Alhambra, being £1,140 per week; tho Empire pays £1,000. All the others pay very much loss, the next highest being the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, £645, and the Manchester Palaco, £600.

Skating Capacity of Theatres and

MUSIC-HALLS.

Id is often said that the popularity o* tho muaic-lmllß is increasing. They are certainly much more numerous than tho theatres, and the accommodation in them fc much larger. In' the music-halls in London and the suburbs, for instance, the seating capacity amounts to 158,013. The to^al for the theatres is only 65,859, or lors than half.

Drury Lane is not, it seems, the largest theatre, as is usually supposed. Tho Britannia is seated tor 3,450, Astley's for 3,410, and the Standard for 2,800. Drury Lane accommodates only 2,500, the Elephant and Castle Theatre the same number, the Surrey follows close with 2,300, the same as Convent Garden. Of other thea'res tho New Olympic has seating capacity for 2.150, the Grand at) Islington 2,000,' the Lyceum 1,835, tho Princesses's 1.524, the Onioty 1,360, and the Criterion 1,000. Terry Vis tho smallest, with a seating capacity of 531, and Toole's next, with 657.

Among the music hnllfi the proper seating eccomodation is :—For tho Alhambra, 2,799; tho Pavilion, 2.650; tbo 'Vic 1 2.500; the Paragon, 1,700; the Metropolitan, 1,700 ; the Middlesex, 1,500 ; and tho Canterbury. 1,480. A very largo number of mueic halls could not find seats for a thousand people.