[ ... back to main menu for this book]

Public Halls.—The principal halls available for amateur and other performances are:
EXETER HALL, Strand, is the great place for the “May Meetings” of the religious societies. The large hall holds about 3,000, and the small hall 500 persons. Rent varies, according to class of concert, lecture, or entertainment.
LADBROKE HALL, 14, Ladbroke-grove-road, seats about 400 persons; the charges being, concert or reading, £3; dramatic performance, £3 10s.; ball, £4 4s.
LANGHAM HALL, 43, Great Portland-street, will accommodate about 600 persons; the charge being £5 5s. for an evening, and £3 3s. for an afternoon concert.
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, Langham-place, will accommodate from 800 to 900 persons; the charges being dramatic performances, £15 15s.; evening concerts, &c.£10 10s; morning concerts, &c., £7 7s. Vacancies in each week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, Thursday and Saturday evenings. The minor hall can be had occasionally; terms, £3 3s.
ST. JAMES’S HALL, Piccadilly and Regent-street, will seat from 1,800 to 2,000 people. Rent for afternoons,  £21; and for evenings £26 5s.; for meetings £31 10s., with a hall-keepers fee of £1 1s
STEINWAY HALL.—The handsome and commodious room in Lower Seymour-street (once the Quebec Institute, where Thackeray gave his famous lectures), which seats about 600 persons, is hardly to be reckoned among public halls, being chiefly regarded as subordinate to the general business of the Steinway Pianoforte Company. It may generally, however, be obtained on application for an special purpose.
STORE-STREET HALL, Bedford-square, also seats from 600 to 700 persons; the fee being, with use of piano, £5 5s.; without it, £4 4s.
WESTBOURNE HALL, Westbourne-grove, seats 300 people, at a charge per night of £3 3s.

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879

EXETER HALL, Strand, erected 1831, from the designs of Gandy Deering, is a proprietary establishment. In the Great Hall, 131½ feet long, 76½ feet wide, and 45 feet high, oratorios by Handel, Haydn, and other great composers, take place, performed by the Sacred Harmonic Society, to whom the organ and orchestra at the east end belong. The hall will accommodate about 3500 persons. There are also two other halls here, one accommodating about 600 persons, the other 250;  twenty-one other rooms used as offices and committee-rooms, and also an extensive range of vaults. The whole cost about £36,000. During the months of April and May, the annual meetings of the religious and benevolent societies take place. The latter constitute one of the leading features of the London season.
    The house was purchased in 1880 by the Christian Young Men's Society, who, after improving the interior of the building, reopened it in January 1881.
    ST. GEORGE'S HALL, Langham Place, Regent Street, occasionally used as a theatre, and lately occupied by Mr. and Mrs. German Reed, since the disuse of the Gallery of Illustration, Regent Street.
    ST. JAMES'S HALL (entrance both from Piccadilly and Regent Street) is 139 feet long, and 60 feet high. It was designed by Owen Jones, and is lighted by gas-drops from the roof. It is a proprietary establishment, and is let for concerts and other public entertainments.
    WILLIS'S ROOMS, King Street, St. James's, were built in 1765, from designs by Robert Mylne. For a considerable time they were called "Almack's," after the original proprietor, a Scotch-man. The great ball-room is about 100 feet long by 50 feet wide. There the well-known exclusive balls of the last century took place. The Rooms are let for concerts, lectures, etc.
    Musical performances in addition to the opera, are given at-
    The Albert Hall Concerts
    The Philharmonic Society's Concerts.
    The New Philharmonic Concerts and The Musical Society of London, both at St. James's Hall.
    The Floral Hall Concerts, in the glass structure next Covent Garden Theatre, during the season.
    The Sacred Harmonic Society's Oratorios at Exeter Hall.
    The Crystal Palace Opera Concerts.
    The Alexandra Park Concerts, during the summer season.
    The Royal Horticultural Society's Musical Promenades.
    The Musical Promenades in the Botanic Gardens.
    The Monday and Wednesday Popular Concerts at St. James's Hall.

Black's Guide to London and Its Environs, (8th ed.) 1882