[1852 became Royal Marionette Theatre]
see Photography - Advertisements
SPLENDID EXHIBITION, Adelaide-street, West Strand. - Novelty and amusement blended with instruction are the peculiar features of this Institution. Here only is to be seen Perkins's steam gun, which discharges a stream of bullets at the rate of 1,000 in a minute. The electrical eel in full life and vigour, the only specimen ever brought to England, in addition to a splendid oxy-hydrogen microscope, with working models of steam engines, steam boats, &c.
advertisement from The Times, January 13, 1839
THE ADELAIDE GALLERY OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE. —We were somewhat surprised to witness at this place last night a series of exhibitions, we cannot say entertainments, which bear no sort of relation to science either in practice or theory, and which are certainly neither adapted to enlighten an audience nor confer much respectability on the establishment in which they were displayed. There was an elderly and somewhat heavy-looking person whose tedious narrative of old Americanisms was occasionally relieved by the songs of a confederate in his absurdities ; this part of the entertainment met with occasional sibillations, and fortunately was finished before the hisses were general. A bell, similar to that used by dustmen, was then rung by a person who announced that, by the payment of an extra 6d. a piece, each lady and gentleman present might inspect the studies and labours of the industrious fleas. Shortly after this, half-a-dozen of that class of persons who are not inappropriately termed "snobs" inhaled the laughing-gas, and managed by the display of various antics to make themselves greater fools than nature perhaps designed them to be. This sort of exhibition may perhaps attract, and fill the pockets of the proprietor of the gallery better than an exhibition of things really and legitimately connected with science; but surely it is too much to call the building in which such scenes are exhibited the "Gallery of Practical Science."
Times, December 15, 1843
Adelaide Gallery, Royal, of Practical Science ... open every day in the morning from 10 to 5, and in the evening from 7 to 10. Admission, 1s.
Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844
Royal Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science, Adelaide Street, Strand. This establishment was commenced by a party of scientific gentlemen, with a view to the promotion of the arts and manufactures by their connection with science. Science alone, however, it was soon discovered, had not of itself attraction sufficient for the multitude, and a resort to meretricious aid was the consequence. Its first proprietors having seceded, it passed into other hands, who, by combining the astonishing powers of electricity with the wonders of optical illustration, scientific lectures daily delivered, and introduction of promenade concerts, have succeeded in establishing a very agreeable lounge. The Boccius Light was first exhibited here.
Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844
The Adelaide Gallery, which was situated at the northern, or St. Martin's Church, end of the Lowther Arcade (where as a child I used to eat buns at Miss Ehrhardt the confectioner's, and buy toys of John Binge, who combined toy-selling in the daytime with theatrical singing at night, and who was called "The Singing Mouse," owing to the smallness of his sweet tenor voice), was started as a science "show." Its principal attractions were Perkins's steam-gun, which discharged a shower of bullets, but was never adopted in serious warfare; and the gymnotus, or electrical eel, a creature which emitted shocks on its back being touched. Parents and persons in charge of youth were great patrons of the Adelaide Gallery, which flourished until a rival institution appeared in the shape of the Polytechnic, in Upper Regent Street, which speedily and completely took the wind out of the sails of the original establishment.
Edmund
Yates, His Recollections and Experiences, 1885
[chapter on 1847-1852]
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[-26-]
THE CASINO.
SOME time back - dates are dry things, so we need not care about the precise
year - there existed in the neighbourhood of the Lowther Arcade an establishment
called the Adelaide Gallery.
It was at first devoted to the diffusion of knowledge. Clever
professors were there, who emulated the transatlantic acquirement of
"knocking all creation into a cocked hat," by teaching elaborate
sciences in lectures of twenty minutes; fearful engines revolved, and hissed,
and quivered, as the fettered steam that formed their entrails grumbled sullenly
in its bondage; mice led gasping subaqueous lives in diving-bells; clock-work
steamers ticked round and round a basin perpetually, to prove the efficacy of
invisible paddles; and on all sides were clever machines which stray visitors
were puzzled to class either as coffee-mills, water-wheels, roasting-jacks, or
musical instruments. There were artful snares laid for giving galvanic shocks to
the unwary; steam-guns that turned bullets into bad sixpences against the
target; and dark microscopic rooms for shaking the principles of teetotalers, by
showing the wriggling abominations in a drop of the water they were supposed
daily to gulp down by pints.
Then came a transition stage in the existence of the Adelaide
Gallery, at first stealthily brought about. [-27-] The oxy-hydrogen light was
slily applied to the comic magic-lantern; and laughing gas was made instead of
carbonic acid. By degrees music stole in; then wizards; and lastly talented
vocal foreigners from Ethiopia and the Pyrenees. Science was driven to her wit's
end for a livelihood, but she still endeavoured to appear respectable. The names
of the new attractions were covertly put into the bills, sneaking under the
original engines and machines in smaller type. She was an exemplification of the
old story of the decayed gentlewoman, who, driven to cry "Muffins" for
her existence, always hoped that nobody heard her.
But, between the two stools of philosophy and fun, Science
shared the usual fate attendant upon such a position - she broke down
altogether. Her grave votaries were disgusted with the comic songs, and the
admirers of the banjo were bored with the lectures. So neither went to see her;
poor Science declined into the Gazette; and, vague as to money matters
and accounts - her common failing - fled to America.
But during all this time a mania for dancing had been
gradually coming on, and at last burst forth. Not even the propensity of St.
Vitus, when, in the middle ages, a red slipper placed on the highway was
sufficient to collect and set going a host of dancing maniacs in his popular pas,
could have kept pace with the movement. New dances were called for, and new
music for them. The supply was equal to the demand; the domestic "Paine's
First Set," of Quadrille's childhood, was laid aside for Herz; then for
Musard; and then for Jullien, Weippert, Coote, Bosisio, and a host of others.
Clever people had always defined the earth [-28-] to be one large ball, and there
was every chance of its practically proving the truth of the statement.
Travellers also began to tell bright legends of Terpsichore's
palaces in her own land - of the Chaumiêre, with its bosquets and
Montagnes Russes; of the guinguettes beyond the barriers of Paris; of the
Chateau Rouge; and lastly, of the glittering Bal Mabille, with its palm-tree
lights and trellises of bronze vines - its ruling spirits, whose names became
great facts in Paris - the "grande brune" Mogador, the
graceful Frisette and Rigolette, the inimitable student Brididi - le
moulin perpetuel, as he was called in the Quartier Latin - whom no one could
approach in his wonderful gyrations ; and finally, the veteran Chicard. And at
last all the steam-engines and water-works were cleared away, and the Adelaide
Gallery was devoted entirely to the goddess of the "twinkling feet,"
and called a Casino.
Imagine a very long and very high room - so high that there
are two rows of museum-like galleries running round the walls, between the floor
and ceiling. At one end is a capital orchestra, and beneath it a refreshment
room; the entrance staircases are at the other. As you enter, a polka is going
on, and the coup-d'oeil from the gallery is well worth the visit. At
first the salle exhibits a scene of moving confusion similar to that
which the drop of water formerly showed in the microscope. The dancers - and
there may be sixty or eighty couples - are taking all directions, and, in all
styles, yet seldom coming into collision. Some are slowly progressing, with
short creeping steps, round. the outer boundary of the polka; others, more
daring, drive up and down the centre with fearful rapidity; [-29-] but all dance
well - certainly as well as the mass of habitués of the Paris public
ball-rooms, and without a shade of impropriety. Should any, indeed, transgress
in this respect, they are immediately expelled.
The polka finished, refreshments are eagerly sought after,
and of these the " sherry-cobbler" is the one in greatest request. It
must be confessed that the peculiar vintage to which "the golden wine of
Xeres" used in that beverage belongs, is difficult of detection. But
nectar, whatever it was, could not have been more delicious to the gods of old,
than sherry-cobbler to the polkers. It is not strong to be sure; but this is an
advantage, in addition to that of the corresponding modesty of price. It is
amusing to drink, involving pneumatic and hydraulic principles taught in a far
more pleasing manner than was once the case with the air-pumps, and many others,
on the same spot. It is the most social refreshment known, as two straws may be
employed in its absorption - straws that show clearly which way the wind blows;
and when eyes are so closely opposed to one another, no one knows what may
result. And, to the observer, it has the agreeable property of offering an
occupation, whilst his vision remains unobstructed to be employed about him.
Raise your own eyes from the floating lumps of crystal you
are so intently watching, and let us point out to you the persons who pass in
this droll kaleidoscope of London life. That good-tempered young man leaning
against the railing, and talking to a small silver- grey plush bonnet, is an
Earl. He is making an engagement for the next dance, when you will ser him the
most active of all. By his side are two unmitigated Gents in white coats, and
hats out of the perpendicular, [-30-] short sticks, and flaring cravats, who think
they are "doing the fast" - types of an overwhelming class. The
two young men, lounging round, arm in arm, are in the Guards. They are nodding
to a good-looking fellow with long spiral mustachios and jet-black eyes, in the
reserved seats above, next to a very florid, merry-faced gentleman, whose blood
is as nearly royal as may well be, and voice the same, to judge from the
specimen the public is best acquainted with. Then comes a square-built
paletote'd barrister, the best deux-temps waltzer in the place - the
"Brididi" of the Casino - followed by two or three of less renown, who
hang about him to share his popularity. Anon, a tribe of young littérateurs,
making the visit on the strength of the "orders" of the journals
with which they are connected. Next, a group of shop-boys, who would like to
smoke if it was allowed; a few men-about-the-City from Mark Lane, Lothbury, and
Throgmorton Street; some provincial visitors; one or two university men, out on
the loose; and then a crowd of those faces you are so familiar with, about, in
the London world, but whose names or families you never knew. This singular mass
keeps moving round and round; and then the music begins again.
Laurent's band is the best for its mission in London. The
Casino is worth a visit, if it be only to hear it, and especially with Trien on
the cornet: it fairly lifts you off your legs. Weippert's is very good, but
better adapted to the West-end drawing-room or the county ball, where the
separate excellence of the performers comes out to greater advantage; and
Jullien's requires an immense number of musicians to give proper effect to his repertoire.
Barnard's would be perfect if the other instruments did not, at times, swamp
his own [-31-] admirable piano playing; and Adams's has been so lost in a
connexion who incline to Lancers and Caledonians, and other painful fandangos,
that we hardly know what he can do. Certainly, what he, or the master of the
ceremonies, puts down in his rococo programmes, he plays most excellently
well; but the dances themselves are atrocious.
We really believe that the Casino is a wholesome institution;
and that, far from propagating Gentism, it has, in a measure, suppressed it.
Individuals who are cooped up all day, on high stools or behind counters, must
have some method of setting free their constrained energies. In France they
despoil palaces and upset thrones, when they are out on the loose; in England,
formerly they stole knockers and smashed lamps; and they also got wonderfully
drunk. Now, at time conclusion of a Casino programme - after a two hours' sudatorium
- all these rollicking propensities are so thoroughly taken out of them,
that the bed, which was formerly looked upon as a "slow" refuge, to be
patronised, like home, when everything else had been used up, is very calmly
resorted to. We are not going to anatomize the company at the Casino too
minutely. Bad ingredients there are, without doubt, in its composition - but so
there are in every public assembly; and the question is, whether these
objectionable particles might not be worse occupied than in listening to a
capital band, sucking up most inoffensive sherry cobblers, or flying round and
round in a polka or waltz, until they have hardly got an atom of wind in their
lungs, or a leg to stand upon?
ALBERT SMITH.
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