Wilton's Music Hall
The Prince of Denmark
Tavern was reputedly the first in London to have mahogany
counters and fittings, hence it was known by the
alternative name 'Old Mahogany Bar' which stuck to it for
well over a century.
The Bar was the resort
of many people of ill-repute. Sailors were induced to
enter, drink and dance. On many occasions these men were
plied with drink, knocked senseless, and after being
robbed were thrown out into Graces Alley. An alternative
was to drop the victim through a trap door (which is
still to be seen) and leave him to get out when sober as
best he could. Entertainment of the baser sort was the
main attraction, from which fights issued, and which
sometimes resulted in murder within the very walls. The
Bar had the reputation of being one of the worst dens of
evil in the London of those days.
Behind the tavern
there was a concert room which became licensed as the
Albion Saloon but shortly after became a music hall. John
Wilton acquired the property along with the adjoining
land and built a grand music hall. Situated in Grace's
Alley, just off Cable Street in London's East End, it was
opened by John and Ellen Wilton in 1858. The foundation
stone of Wilton's Music Hall was laid by Ellen, wife of John Wilton on Thursday the 9th day of December, 1858.
Mirrors covered much
of the walls of the main hall, and light was provided by
a gas-burning chandelier made from 27,000 cut crystals.
It was the first music
hall and one of the most successful of London for over 25
years. In 1877 the building was gutted by fire. Wilton
refitted the hall and it was reopened on 16 September
1878. John Wilton died in 1881, aged 60.
One day in 1884 Reginald Radcliffe and his wife and a Miss Macpherson were passing through Grace's Alley into
Wellclose Square as the evening performances in the
music-hall were proceeding. The dreadful noise and sounds
that came from the hall startled them. They paused to
listen and were so impressed that they paid the
admisssion fee and went in to see what really could be
going on. The sights on the stage and the condition of
things were so awful that they fell on their knees in the
centre of the hall, and in view of the onlookers and
stage prayed that God would break the power of the devil
in the place, and bring the premises into the use of
Christian people. Soon after this the hall was closed,
the licences lapsed, and it was not again opened until
February, 1888, when it was opened as the East End
Mission of the Methodist Church in 1885 and became a
church in February 1888 being used by the Mission until
1956.
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