LONDON’S PLAYHOUSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17306, 22 March 1924, Page 5

LONDON’S PLAYHOUSES.

STORIES OF HISTORIC ENTERTAINMENTS. tßy an -English Barrister-Journalist.) It is not tno purpose of these short articles to uescrioe tno inxruuition, out to give some account 01 tuose houses of entertainment winch have attorned a recreation to millions of visitors to the metropolis during the past century and uon-11 u> the (.lay. Tiiousands of colonials will be coming to .London in tne course of the next lew months, and there will be hundreds of thousands looKing with longing eyes towards the Motherland, recalling either their own personal experiences or the histona places of which they have read or heard from the lips of their elders. In these articles it is hoped to interest the actual visitors, as well as those less fortunate readers who will have to be content to bridge the intervening spaj.-e by the exercise of memory.

Of the older theatres Drury Lane is the only one that has regularly continued as such, for Covent Garden Theatre has only spasmodic operatic performances and is threatened with demolition. and although there was a Lyceum as early as lVbo it was not a theatre but a house of a very different character. Quite gone are the old shows and circuses, the pleasure gardens of Cremorne and Vauxhall, and even Hosherville at the mouth of the Thames, and the only permanent exhibition that lias stood the test of time is Madame Tussaud’s, which came over irom Paris in the year 1802 and still flourishes. It was in the year 1789 that Philip Astley erected his first wooden amphitheatre. Twice his building was destroyed by fire, but on Easter Monday, 1804, a new house was opened with an equestrian spectacle on a grander scale than ever. In 1809 the Royal Circus,” erected in Blackfriars Road by Charles Dibdin, the song writer, came under the management of the great Elliston, who converted it into the Surrey Theatre which still exists. The Lyceum, scene of Sir Henry Irving’s and Miss Ellen Terry's triumphs, was first constructed in 1765 ibor tho exhibitions of the Society of Artists, but, after three years, divisions took place among the members, certain of whom went to Somerset House and there founded the Royal Academy. When his building was first burnt down it was to the Lyceum that .\stley brought his circus. About 1794 l>r Arnold, the musical composer, rebuilt the interior as a theatre, but as he failed to obtain a license, through the opposition of the two “patent ” theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane, the house was made to accommodate several exhibition*. It was by turn a school of elocution, a concert room, a Roman Catholio chapel, and the show-place of a white negro girl ana porcupine man. To return to the old Lyceum. It was here that Madame Tussaud, upon her arrival in England in 1802, first exhibited her collection of figures. It was not until 1809 that the building became a regular theatre, and a year later its name was changed to that of the English Opera House, but it was not long before it again became known as the Lyceum, the name it- has borne ever since. Now it is the home of melodrama, with a pantomime at Christmas. Close by stood Exeter Change, famous for its wild beasts and monsters, pictures of which were daubed all over the frontage. It was the ■* Zoo ’ of that day and was regarded as one of the sights of London. Here was exhibited from 1809 until 1826 the celebrated elephant “ Chunee ” which had been engaged for the first production of “ Bluebeard ” at Covent Garden. When tl Chunee ’* went mad it required a file of soldiers and 152 bullets to kill him.

Pall Mali used to be a rare place for shows, especially of pictures. In the old “ Star and Garter ” house was Exhibited from 1815 tho Waterloo Collection of portraits and battle scenes, with helmets, sabres, firearms and other spoils. At No. 121, Caqipanani showed his Etruscan and Greek antiquities in rooms fitted up as “ Chambers of the Tombs.” Pall Mall as at one end Marlborough Palace and the London Museum ; and. at the other end, Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery, all of which colonial visitors will want to tpe. Trafalgar Square, it may be mentioned, is the very centre of London's houses of entertainment. The Pantheon, in Oxford Street, was another old place of amusement. Built In 1770 it used to be celebrated for its masquerades, the money squandered at the last, of these being computed to be £20.000, " although tradesmen go unpaid and the industrious poor are starving.” Here in 1873, a bal masque, got up by a noted clown of tho period named Delpini, took place in honour of the coming of age of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., and in the following year there was exhibited the balloon in which Lunardi had made hi = first successful ascent. Miss Linwood’s famous collection of needlework pictures was shown here in 1796-8. pro■*k>U£ to its final removal to Leicester ■'Square. In the early years of the nineteenth centurv Madame Tussard’s and Miss Linwood’s were the only two exhibitions in London, and it is remarkable that they should Jiave been run by women, both of whom died at the great age of ninety. Very few people remember old Madame Ttissaud ; indeed, it was only the other day that the veteran actor. Sir Squire Bancroft, declared that he was probably the only man still living who had seen and conversed with her. The Hanover Square Rooms were probably started as a counter-attrac-tion to to fashionable gatherings in Soho Square and other places where music went hand-in-glore with masked balls and other frivolous dissipations. The famous Concerts of Ancient Music hegan hero in 1804 and continued to flourish under the patronage of royalty und the nristoeraev, including the Prince Consort and the Duke of Wellington. down to June, 1848. /rT, -» be continued.)