Mass Entertainment in London prior to 1939: Music Halls and Theatres of Variety

From the mid to late 19th century to well into the 20th century, London England experienced a major period of change in terms of mass entertainment and trends of the time. No form of mass entertainment went through more change than the music hall industry, which became one of the most involved forms of mass entertainment in society, spanning hundreds of locations throughout London in the late 19th century and eventually falling into decline in the mid 20th century. Music halls, theatres of variety and later reconfigurations of them into rising cinema, show transitions of the landscape to adapt to the growing interests of the masses. Early Music Hall's experienced great success despite reputations suggesting they were meetings for the vulgar, and inter-music hall rivalries sparked races to monopolizes the business in areas where residential expansion was occurring (often Charles Morton v. John Wilton). The period of growth encouraged entertainment hubs to pop up, with many theatres and halls existing within walking distance of the next. The halls and theatres boasted entertaining nights with live entertainment, prostitution (in most) and established bars that often already existed on the sites. Many of the early music halls were taverns, converted by adding a concert or entertaining room that could entice crowds and locals to join in nightly. A theme of locality was often established, as hall's and theatres became neighbourhood dependent and often grew at the rate that the surrounding area did, providing for lower, middle and sometimes upper classes. While only a handful of the hundreds of halls to be built in London still exist, operations were regularly forced to adapt to the market demand or repurpose before running out of business. Boroughs such as Islington, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets experienced periods of growth and decline that saw many of their halls destroyed, or heavily modified to show film. Despite few existing in original form today, our tour will highlight some of the most popular sites that do or do not exist in some form today. The locations we will visit include; Canterbury Hall, Wilton's Music Hall, Deacon's Music Hall, London Empire Music Hall (Shoreditch), Collins Music Hall and Oxford Music Hall.


This tour aimed to highlight a period of growth, decline and transition in forms of mass entertainment in areas of London, England during the late 19th and early 20th century. By visiting places of theatre, music hall, cinema, and other forms of visual entertainment, this tour explains how this period in London was a time where entertainment for the most part involved a heavy intermingling of the classes, and how class interests in entertainment changed dramatically as the period progressed. Music Halls were the birthplace of local mass entertainment, often converting taverns or meeting places into places where nightly entertainment could occur weekly. Through our research, we found that operations of music halls and theatres of variety opened nightly at free or cheap admission, suggesting that the halls appealed to the demographic of the poor-working class or middle working-class neighborhoods. While some halls, like those of John Wilton or Edward Morton claimed to invite anyone of any class or gender, the majority of these theatres of entertainment were filled by the mass of the lower and middle class. Some attempt at social cohesion was made however, and the variety theatre era into cinema marks the start of visual entertainment being available to all classes in the same place. Sadly, despite an overwhelmingly majority of the original halls being torn down or demolished, few do exist in original form for viewing or tour, or are in the process of restoration (Wilton's Music Hall & Collins Music Hall). While this tour did not fully cater to the mass entertainment prior to 1939 topic, it still seemed crucial to understanding where the ideas of mass entertainment and where to find it around the turn of the century.

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