The Empire Bar: A Nod to Hackney’s Grand Old Theatre
The Empire Bar: A Nod to Hackney’s Grand Old Theatre | A Hackney bar whose name evokes the Empire – and above all the magnificent Hackney Empire, one of the great variety theatres of the land
Tag: music hall
The Mahogany Bar Review: The Old Bar of Wilton’s Music Hall
The Mahogany Bar Review: The Old Bar of Wilton’s Music Hall | A historic bar named for Wilton’s Music Hall’s own ale house – the Mahogany Bar, cradle of a grand music hall, a Methodist mission and a dockers’ soup kitchen
Hoxton Hound Review: Hoxton Was Where London Went to Laugh
Hoxton Hound Review: Hoxton Was Where London Went to Laugh | The first purpose-built theatre in England was a mile from here, and the Britannia in Hoxton held three thousand people
Champagne Charlies Review: The First Influencer Died at 42
Champagne Charlies Review: The First Influencer Died at 42 | George Leybourne was paid by Moet to drink nothing but champagne in public. He kept the contract. It killed him.
Nellie Dean Review: The Song Was an American Hit and We Adopted It
Nellie Dean Review: The Song Was an American Hit and We Adopted It | Written in New York in 1905, and it became one of the great British pub singalongs, and almost nobody knows it is not ours
Mahogany Review: Wilton’s Is the Oldest Music Hall in the World
Mahogany Review: Wilton’s Is the Oldest Music Hall in the World | A pub with a hall built behind it, saved from demolition repeatedly, and they left the walls exactly as they found them
The Clapham Grand Review: The 1900 Palace of Varieties
The Clapham Grand Review: The 1900 Palace of Varieties | A magnificent 1900 music hall built by the stars of variety – Dan Leno’s palace, later a cinema, a bingo hall, and now a great live venue
Piano Bar Review: The Pub Piano Was Killed by a Jukebox
Piano Bar Review: The Pub Piano Was Killed by a Jukebox | Every pub of any size had one, and a man who could play it, and he was paid in beer
Mother Kelly’s Review: She Is One of Only Five Women We Have Been Able to Name
Mother Kelly’s Review: She Is One of Only Five Women We Have Been Able to Name | A doorstep in Paradise Row, a music hall song, and thirty-two women with rooms named after them