wilton-s-music-hall

Wilton's Music Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Shadwell, built as a music hall and now run as a multi-arts performance space in Graces Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is one of very few surviving music halls of the East End of London and retains many original features.

The theatre is a rare surviving example of the "giant pub hall". In the theatre, a single gallery, on three sides and supported by "barley sugar" cast iron pillars, rises above a large rectangular hall and a high stage with a proscenium arch. In its heyday, a "sun-burner" chandelier of 300 gas jets and 27,000 cut crystals, illuminated a mirrored hall. Today, charring is still visible in the rafters, where the chimney exhausted the heat of this massive device. The hall would have had space for supper tables, a benched area, and promenades around the outside for standing customers. Wilton's was modelled on many other successful London halls of the time, including the second Canterbury Hall (1854) in Lambeth, Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms (1856) in Covent Garden, and Weston's (1857) (later known as 'The Royal Holborn'). Wilton's remains the only surviving example.

Wilton's is a unique building, comprising a mid-19th-century grand music hall attached to an 18th-century terrace of three houses and a pub. Originally an alehouse dating from 1743 or earlier, it may well have served the Scandinavian sea captains and wealthy merchants who lived in neighbouring Wellclose Square. From c. 1826, it was also known as The Mahogany Bar, reputedly because the landlord was the first to install a mahogany bar and fittings in his pub. In 1839 a concert room was built behind the pub and in 1843 it was licensed for a short time as The Albion Saloon, a saloon theatre, legally permitted to put on full-length plays. John Wilton bought the business in c. 1850, enlarged the concert room three years later, and replaced it with his 'Magnificent New Music Hall' in 1859.

Wilton's was built by Jacob Maggs, on the same site as the former concert room of the Albion Saloon. The hall could accommodate 1,500 people, most of whom were working-class. The bar was retained as the public entrance, and the hall was built in the area behind the existing block of houses. This was common practice at the time, as street frontage for music halls was very expensive. He furnished the hall with mirrors, chandeliers and decorative paintwork, and installed the finest heating, lighting and ventilation systems of the day. Madrigals, glees and excerpts from opera were at first the most important part of the entertainment, along with the latest attractions from West End and provincial halls, circus, ballet and fairground. In the thirty years Wilton's was a music hall, many of the best-remembered acts of early popular entertainment performed here, from George Ware who wrote "The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery", to Arthur Lloyd and George Leybourne ("Champagne Charlie") two of the first music hall stars to perform for royalty.

Wilton's passed into several ownerships during the 1870s before being destroyed by fire in 1877. An eight-year rebuild commenced that year, before the building was bought by the East End Mission of the Methodist Church. Towards the end of the 19th century, the East End had become notorious for extreme poverty and terrible living conditions. Religious organisations tried to help, such as the East London Methodist Mission, renamed The Mahogany Bar Mission and for some time considered 'Methodism's finest hall'. During the Great Dock Strike of 1889, a soup kitchen was set up at The Mahogany Bar, feeding a thousand meals a day to the starving dockers' families. The Mission remained open for nearly 70 years, through some of the most testing periods in East End history, including the 1936 Mosley March and the London Blitz in World War II. Throughout that time, the Methodists campaigned against social abuses, welcomed people of all creeds and ethnicity, and gave invaluable support to the local community, particularly the needy children of the area.

Available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible entrance
• Wheelchair-accessible seating
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet

Not available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible parking

Accessibility information supplied by Google Maps. Please contact the venue directly to confirm details for your visit.