War hero, trick-rider, entrepreneur with a flair for PR, the Lambeth-based Philip Astley was all of these things and more. Jonathan Tyers put Vauxhall on the map when, between 1729 and 1750 he made Vauxhall Gardens the world’s most famous open-air resort. Astley (1742–1814) is the father of the modern circus. He began giving equestrian […]
Talk: Mon 3 Sep. The Opening Night of the Old Vic and the Murder of Mary Ashford
As part of Lambeth Heritage Month, vauxhallhistory.org co-editor Naomi Clifford will be giving a talk on the subject of the opening night of the Royal Coburg Theatre (now known as the Old Vic). It’s a story that takes the audience far and wide: from the Surrey side of the Thames to a field in a […]
The Old Vic and the murder of Mary Ashford: the opening night of the Royal Coburg Theatre, 11 May 1818
Vauxhall History co-editor Naomi Clifford’s The Murder of Mary Ashford: The Crime That Changed English Legal History (Pen & Sword, 30 May 2018) presents new evidence in a notorious 200-year-old case of rape and murder which changed English legal history, leading to the abolition of ‘trial by battle’ as a means of settling murder cases. […]
Love’s Labours Lost: the Morley College murals of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden
Vauxhall History brings you an opportunity to rediscover the extraordinary murals at Morley College.
The Young Vic
The Young Vic was the brainchild of Frank Dunlop, who in the late 1960s was Administrative Director with the National Theatre Company then at the Old Vic. He had started his career as director of a young theatre company in Manchester, and subsequently his productions exhibited a liveliness appreciated by youngsters. Dunlop’s concept was to […]
South Bank
The article is reproduced from a 1991 booklet Lambeth’s Theatrical Heritage with the kind permission of the Streatham Society. Copies of this very interesting booklet are still available from the Streatham Society website. It was appropriate to hold a festival of self-appraisal in 1951 – a century after the Great Exhibition. It was conceived whilst […]
Royal National Theatre
The article is reproduced from a 1991 booklet Lambeth’s Theatrical Heritage with the kind permission of the Streatham Society. Copies of this very interesting booklet are still available from the Streatham Society website. The concept of an English National Theatre was first proposed in 1848 by Effingham Wilson, a London publisher. He conceived its being […]
Gatti’s Theatre
The article is reproduced from a 1991 booklet Lambeth’s Theatrical Heritage with the kind permission of the Streatham Society. Copies of this booklet are available from the Streatham Society website (£1.80). The Italian Gatti family established a chain of inexpensive restaurants and cafes, which were successful until superceded by the Lyons’ teashops in 1894. The […]
Canterbury Theatre
The article is reproduced from a 1991 booklet Lambeth’s Theatrical Heritage with the kind permission of the Streatham Society. Copies of this very interesting booklet are still available from the Streatham Society website The passing of a law in 1843 allowed a modest growth in proto-music halls, probably the most important being the Cyder Cellars […]
Bower Saloon
The article is reproduced from a 1991 booklet Lambeth’s Theatrical Heritage with the kind permission of the Streatham Society. Copies of this very interesting booklet are still available from the Streatham Society website The Bower was a popular pleasure haunt of the 19th century. It was originally attached to the Duke’s Tavern in Stangate Street, […]
Lilian Mary Baylis
Lilian Baylis was born in London into a family that ran a concert party, the Gypsy Revellers. In 1891 the family emigrated to South Africa where Baylis worked as a teacher of music and dance. When she returned to London in 1989 she jointly ran the Royal Victoria Coffee Music Hall in London (a temperance […]
Astley’s Amphitheatre
While the Romans had circles or circuses as venues for entertainments of all sorts, there is no direct link to the modern circus,. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire small fairs had travelled from town to town with the odd attraction – a juggler or acrobat. But no one had brought together all the various […]
