St George's Hall

St George's Hall, in Langham Place, London, was a venue that became closely associated with amateur theatre in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. It was a venue that had a favourable reputation amongst the upper and middle classes, which was seen to be presenting respectable amusements under the leadership of the German Reed family.

The Busy Bees and Strolling Players were some of many amateur theatre societies that presented work at the venue.

St. George's Hall was home to William Poel's experimental amateur productions, which considered what the original conditions of Shakespeare's theatre may have been like. In 1881, for example, he staged Hamlet there.

Records of the venue have brought to light the following amateur theatrical events and companies:

1889, 25 April - The Private Banks' Dramatic and Musical Society give a performance in aid of the Bank Clerks' Orphanage. They perform the one-act piece Our Bitterest Foe and T. W. Robertson's Caste in three acts. The President of the society is Alfred de Rothschild and one of the Vice Presidents is Lord Archibald Campbell.
1889, 4 May - The Strolling Players perform an original drama in three acts called Comrades by Brandon Thomas and B. C. Stephenson. The cast includes Major W. Newnham-Davis.
1889, 20-21 December - The Strolling Players performed in aid of the Camberwell Dispensary. They performed a five act drama by William Gillette called Held by the Enemy.
1890, 20 February - The Strolling Players perform Charles Dance's comedietta in one act, Delicate Ground, and T. W. Robertson's comedy in three acts Home.
1890. 20 and 22 November - The Strolling Players perform in aid of St Ursula's Association for carrying on Working Girls' Clubs and kindred organisations in Whitechapel on 20 November and again two days later without the charity connection. Their choice of play is Sir Charles Young's romance of modern society in four acts, Jim the Penman. The programme notes that furniture for the event is supplied by Messrs. Oetzmann & Co.
1890, 9-11 - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club perform The Tempest in aid of the Medical Aid Society and the Cyprus Society.
1890, 18 December - G. E. M. Amateur Dramatic Club perform in aid of the Children's Convalescent Home in Tunbridge Wells. Their programme is in two parts: My Turn Next, a farce in one act by T. J. Williams and Stage Land, a comedy in two acts by G. R. Douglas.
1891, 5 February - The Lyric Club hold their 96th concert which includes Sydney Grundy's In Honour Bound and a musical farce called On Lease composed for the occasion by Cotsford Dick. The amateur cast includes Charles Colnaghi, Cotsford Dick, Viscount Glentworth, Herman Herkomer and Hon. Gilbert Coleridge. The programme notes that on 1 March there would be an adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler by Justin H. McCarthy.
1892, 2 February - dramatic performances by the staff of the London and South Western Bank and friends in aid of the Bank Clerks' Orphanage. The company performed Robertson's Caste and Mark Lemon's Domestic Economy.
1892, 16 February - The Folly Amateur Dramatic Club perform an entertainment in aid of the funds of the Waifs and Strays Society. The piece was Tawno's Bride; or The Maiden of Myrtlewood Manor, a new and original opera-burlesque in two acts by E. W. Bowles, G. R. Philips and T. Merton Clark.
1892, 28 April - The Strolling Players perform Tom Taylor's comedy The Overland Route.
1892, 19 May - The Romany Amateur Dramatic Club have their third performance of their twenty-second season in aid of the funds of the Harrow Mission. They perform the four act comedy by Sydney Grundy, The Glass of Fashion.
1892, 22 November - The Strolling Players perform a play in five acts by Bronson Howard, The Old Love and the New.
1893, 28 January - the eighteenth season of the Strolling Players. They perform Sydney Grundy's one-act comedietta Man Proposes and Joseph Derrick's three-act comedy Confusion.
1893, 1 and 7 February - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club perform Shakespeare's Cymbeline.
1893, 2 February - The Old Love and the New by the Strolling Players.