THEATREGOING IN EAST LONDON
by Catherine Haill, V & A
Theatregoing in the East End during the 19th century was a far cry from today's well-organised, air-conditioned and hushed experience, when a rustling sweet-wrapper is noted with disapproval. A theatre visit, especially early in the century, was not for the faint-hearted, but promised an escape from reality and the delights of being transported to other places for four or five hours, seeing several plays, interludes or a pantomime while eating, drinking, smoking, and vociferously engaging with the action despite uncomfortable seating, a smelly, hot and overcrowded gas-lit auditorium, sight-lines impeded by ladies' bonnets, and frequent danger of fire.
Locals made up the vast majority of East End audiences. A reviewer at The City of London Theatre in March 1839 noted the predominance of the local Jewish population:
`It was literally a house of Israel; as if all Bishopsgate, St. Mary Axe, Shoreditch, and Finsbury-circus, had disgorged their fusty tenantry into one huge mass of anglo-Hebrew capitalists. There were Moseses and Jacobses, and Solomons, and Isaacs...'
Audiences comprised all ages, from babes in arms, youths and families. Many were not well-dressed, although some theatres attempted to enforce suitable attire. Charles Dickens described the Britannia's audience in 1860:
`Besides prowlers and idlers, we were mechanics, dock-labourers, costermongers, petty tradesmen, small clerks, milliners, stay-makers, show-binders, slop-workers, poor workers in a hundred highways and byways. Many of us on the whole were not at all clean.'
Most people walked to the theatre. Walking was the main form of transport in the early 19th century for the working-class, but as public transport improved, many used the horse-drawn omnibuses, times of which were noted in some programmes, or even the newly-built railway.
Ticket prices were low, and did not rise substantially throughout the century. A jam factory worker in the 1850s could earn five shillings a week when a pit seat cost sixpence at the Britannia, or one-tenth of her earnings. Seats for most parts of the theatre couldn't be bought in advance, so people queued outside and bought metal tokens collected by check-takers. People were often turned away, even though audiences were tightly packed in, on wooden benches in the cheapest parts of the house early in the century, when most theatres began at 6.30pm. This was only feasible for patrons whose working day began early; for those who finished later most theatres allowed half-price entry after 8.30pm.
Many East-Enders had no cooking facilities at home, but a variety of food and drink was available at theatre bars or neighbouring public houses, and hawked by vendors in the auditorium between plays. Food at the Britannia included enormous sandwiches, cakes, pork pies, oranges, ginger beer, beer and spirits. Food smells were another part of the ambience, and the reviewer at the City of London Theatre in 1839 complained of:
`exhalations .... of rum and water, mingled with the fumes of fried plaice and indigested Welch [sic] rabbits, steaming and trickling down the walls of this fair arena'.
Exit and entrance was controlled by janitors, and was vital earlier in the century for those who needed to relieve themselves outside. Few theatres had provision for the facilities we take for granted today, and when ladies' rooms were provided at the Britannia, they were noted with pride in the programme.
Audiences were often noisy, especially the gallery boys during intervals. Quarrels sometimes broke out, and those who had over-imbibed might be ejected, but patrons could also listen intently, responding to the action as if it were reality, shouting to heroines not to commit suicide, hissing villains, or whistling with sheer delight.
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