ENTERTAINMENT, DISAPPEARED

Almack s Assembly Rooms

William Almack kept a tavern at No. 49 Pall Mall. He created an environment in which gentlemen were happy to convene. In 1765 he established Almack s Assembly Rooms in King Street.

The Rooms tenor was established by Almack setting up a committee of titled ladies that determined who might or might not be admitted to the Rooms weekly balls. For several decades after its opening, the Rooms furnished one of the principal venues in which aristocratic social life was conducted in London. Amongst those who were refused entry to it on particular occasions were the Prince Regent, who was held to have arrived too late to be admitted, and the Duke of Wellington, who was judged to be too informally attired. In the 1830s the Rooms began to fall out of fashion.

Location: Almack House, 28 King Street, St James s, SW1Y 6AR (purple, orange)

Carlisle House

Teresa Imer was Venetian-born singer, who enjoyed a moderately successful performing career. During the winter of 1745-6 she appeared at The King s Theatre. In the 1750s she used her personal charms to promote her material well-being and settled in London. At the time, she could not speak English. She received financial help both from Casanova, who believed himself to be the father of her daughter Sophie, and from the Dutch merchant Jan Cornelis Ringerboos, whose middle name she modified and assumed as a surname.

Cornelys planned to organise subscription assemblies. She secured the backing of a number of aristocratic women. In 1760 she took a lease on Carlisle House in Soho Square. That autumn she began to stage her entertainments began. She used the building to host balls, concerts, and masquerades. The events became increasingly splendid. All the while, she was in a race to stay ahead of her increasing debts. In 1771 she dabbled in staging operas. However, she promptly discovered that the opera house and theatre managers were quick to defend their vested interests. The failure of this venture stimulated her creditors to press their claims for her to pay them. The finances of Carlisle House collapsed in upon themselves. In 1772 Cornelys was declared to be bankrupt. Once her financial affairs had been settled, she was assigned a 200 annuity. She remained full of ideas for schemes right up until her incarceration in the Fleet Prison for debt.

Location: 21a Soho Square, W1D 3QP. (St Patrick s Church now occupies part of the site.) (purple, turquoise)

The Clink

From the early 12^thC to the early 17^thC, the Bishops of Winchester had their London palace on Bankside. The land surrounding the building had ecclesiastical privilege and thus were unaffected by the restrictions that had been put in place by the City of London and Surrey magistrates. To raise money for the diocesan coffers, the prelates stewards allowed various place of entertainment to be set up on the palace s grounds. These availed themselves of its immunity. Among the Bankside entertainments were brothels. These were regulated by the bishops ordinances. In the 16^thC Southwark prostitutes were known as Winchester geese . King Henry VIII (d.1547) banished the gaggle.

The last prelate to live at Bankside was Lancelot Andrewes (d.1626). Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 the property was restored to the diocese but by then the palace had become so dilapidated that the land was leased out to building speculators.

Location: Clink Street, SE1 9DG

The Hottentot Venus

Saartjie Baartman (d.1815), a 21-year-old Khoisan woman, was brought to London in 1810. Dressed in a flesh-coloured leotard, ostrich feathers, and African beads she was displayed in the exhibition rooms on Piccadilly. Her voluptuous body prompted some scientists to speculate about the rapacious sexual appetites of savages.

She was acquired by the owner of the Palais Royal in Paris, who concluded that she was worth more dead than alive and so allowed her to drink herself to death. Her corpse was sold to the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

A cast of Baartman s body, her skeleton, pickled genitalia and brain were put on display in Paris s Mus e de l Homme in 1816. The exhibit was taken down and placed in storage in 1976. In 2002 her remains were returned to South Africa.

Location: 225 Piccadilly, W1J 9HR

Pantomime

Pantomime s roots lay in the 17^thC.

Joseph Grimaldi

Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) was born into a dynasty of clowns. His father was appointed the ma tre de ballet at Drury Lane. The father s mental instability often manifested itself in cruelty. This may have derived from syphilis. Grimaldi made his first stage performance at Sadler s Wells in 1781. He was aged two-and-a-half.

Pantomime was a mixed theatrical form composed of slapstick, ballet, specialised variety acts. During the Napoleonic Wars it became Britain s favourite form of entertainment. It was performed year-round and contained the real possibility that performers would be badly injured during a performance.

Commedia dell arte had four principal characters: the clown, the columbine, the harlequin, and the pantaloon. Grimaldi s performances led to the clown eclipsing the other three.

In 1806 Grimaldi appeared in the Thomas Dibdin-written Harlequin and Mother Goose. 300,000 tickets for the show were sold. Thereafter, Grimaldi was courted by celebrities, such as Lord Byron. His name was used to promote the sale of a wide variety of manufactured goods.

Grimaldi created Joey. The character s curving eyebrows and rouged cheeks became the classic clown make up. The inerasable, wide grin was intended to be clearly visible from the back of the theatre. The character was in large part born out of childhood trauma.

Grimaldi required his physical comedy to be physically realistic. As a result, his body sustained severe chronic injury. By the time that he had reached his mid-forties his spine was curved and his legs could barely support him. He was also the archetype of the sad clown. His first wife died after a year and a half of marriage. His son by his second marriage, Joseph Samuel, died of alcoholism.

Location: Grimaldi Park, 11 Collier Street, N1 9JU

Roller Skates

In 1760 Joseph Merlin, a native of Li ge, who was connected to the Spanish ambassador, demonstrated a pair of roller skates. While doing so he ran into a 500 mirror, which shattered.

In 1819 roller stakes were patented. Four years later the old tennis court in Windmill Street was converted into a skating rink.

Location: 11 Princes Street, W1B 2LJ (red, yellow)

The Royal Aquarium

The Royal Aquarium s lease was acquired by Lillie Langtry. She had the building refitted lavishly. The first play that opened in the theatre closed after a few days. The Methodist Church acquired the building. The interior was taken out and subsequently installed in the Imperial Palace cinema in Canning Town. The building burned down in 1931.

Location: 19 Dunraven Street, W1K 7DF. The home of Langtry during the 1870s. (blue, brown)

Methodist Central Hall, Storey s Gate, SW1H 9NH (blue, pink)

21 Pont Street, SW1X 0AZ. Langtry s home. (blue, red)

See Also: COURTESANS Lillie Langtry

Siffleuse

Beatrice Harrison was a cellist who lived at Oxted in Surrey. She took to playing in her garden in the evening. Sometimes a nightingale would accompany her. In 1924 news of this phenomenon reached producers at the B.B.C. and a decision was made that there should be a live broadcast. The musician agreed to the proposal and an hour-long slot was designated. She started to perform at 9 p.m.. It was only at two minutes to ten that listeners heard the bird join in. It proved to be a sensation with the listening public. A decision was made to repeat the event the following year.

The programme makers had undertaking a degree of research about nightingales. They had concluded that there was a risk that when they installed their equipment in Miss Harrison s garden, they might upset it. Therefore, they had had a back-up. The bird song that had been met with such pleasure had been created by Madame Saberon, who was a siffleur, a professional bird imitator.

When the broadcasts were undertaken subsequently the recording equipment was put in place more discreetly. Nightingales did sing in answer to the music.

The Talk of The Town

Robert Nesbitt was the principal creator of The Talk of The Town theatre-restaurant. The venue was very glamorous. There would be dancing to three separate orchestras. At eleven o clock a major contemporary singer or entertainer would perform. It is probably most renowned for hosting five-week-long run of concerts by Judy Garland s that proved to be her final U.K. shows. Some nights she was rude to the audience. Some members of it responded by throwing bread rolls at her. She took a liking to the venue s guard dog Rex and took it to stay with her in The Ritz hotel.

Location: Cranbourn Street, WC2H 7JH (blue, pink)

Watkins s Folly

Sir William Watkins created the Metropolitan Line and Marylebone Station which was the London terminus of the Great Central Line, its track stills runs to Birmingham.

Watkin s Folly (site - marsh because River Brent).

Location: Wembley Stadium, South Way, HA9 0WS

Wrestling

In the 1960s and 1970s non-sport wrestling in the South of England was run by the Brixton-based firm Dale Martin. Mick McManus (n William Matthews) (1920-2013) was for some years the company s matchmaker. He determined who would fight whom and what the result would be.

David Backhouse 2024