Canterbury Hall ... is one of those many resorts of musical
entertainment which have of late spring up in such numbers in the metropolis,
combining the attractions of the tavern with those of the concert-room. For the
moderate entrance money of one sixpence, a spacious and brilliantly lighted
saloon, a very interesting gallery of pictures, and four or five hours
unceasing ‘entertainment’ is at the disposal of any one ‘out for the night’.
The ‘entertainment’ originally consisted of the usual sestett of principal
singers, and a very efficient chorus, who performed the principal music from
favourite operas, such as ‘Norma’, ‘Lucrezia’, ‘Trovatore’, and others, in a
most creditable manner. This ‘high art’ was also varied by the addition of
comic songs of all nations, from the old established countryman in an
ante-diluvian flowered waistcoat, and Paddy with half a coat and a shillelagh
down to (and no lower depth could be sounded) “Sally, come up”, and “Sister to
the Cure.” All this while the pleasure-seeker can comfort his inner man with
almost any variety of eating and drinking which he is likely to fancy and pay
for. Even the mysterious delights of tobacco are not denied him; and though
pipes are prohibited in the ‘reserved seats’, and only the lordly cigar
permitted in those aristocratic precincts, yet in any other part of the
spacious building a twist of bird’s-eye and a yard of clay may be seen in the
mouths of three quarters of the assemblage. It is but fair to add that nothing
can exceed the good order with which everything is conducted at this
establishment, and it is almost needless to say that the attractions which this
and other such places of resort present to the humbler classes of society have
interfered most seriously with the profits of the legitimate, or perhaps we
should rather say the licensed theatres.
Morning Post 7 March 1861
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