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:

• 1884, 12 February - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club perform Lytton's Money.
• 1884, 16 February - The Owl Dramatic Society hold their twenty-first performance in aid of the society's funds. They performed Andrew Halliday's dramatised version of Charles Dicken's Dombey and Son entitled Heart's Delight and J. P. Woolers' one-act comedietta Orange Blossoms.
• 1884, 28 February - The first performance of the Kendal Amateur Dramatic Club was performed, in aid of the Royal Hospital for Incurables in Putney. The group performed Thomas and G. M. Morton's comic drama in two-acts, All that Glitters is not Gold, and a new operetta in one act by Sutherland Edwards and Isidore de Lara, Minna; or, The Fall from the Cliff. The cast of the latter included Charles Hayden Coffin who, after his various amateur appearances, would go on to become a famous actor.
• 1884, 15 March - The Strolling Players are in their ninth season. They perform Tom Taylor's four-act Henry Dunbar and John Maddison Morton's one-act A Regular Fix.
• 1884, 25 March - A playbill survives that looks like those of the Strolling Players and includes key members, but does not give the society name. The performance is for the funds of the reformatory ship "Cornwall", similar to the event in 1893. The amateurs perform W. S. Gilbert's three-act comedy On Guard and S. Theyre Smith's one-act comedietta Cut off with a Shilling.
• 1884, 17 May - The Philothespian Club performed John Poole's comedy in three acts, Paul Pry, and Watts Phillips' drama in two acts, His Last Victory. This club should not be confused with the Philothespian Society that was the forerunner to the Oxford University Dramatic Society (O.U.D.S.).
• 1884, 12 June - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club perform for the benefit of the University College Hospital. They perform Shakespeare's As You Like It. The cast includes the Princess Hellen Randhir Singh.
• 1884, 2 December - A party of amateurs perform a romantic play in three acts by Herman C Merivale called A Son of the Soil. The performance is in aid of the London Cottage Mission.
• 1884, 4-6 December - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club perform Love's Labour Lost on behalf of the Artists' Benevolent Fund. Originally it was advertised in their June programme that it would be A Winter's Tale. The cast includes Charles Hayden Coffin.
• 1884, 16 December - The Romany Amateur Dramatic Club have their first performance of the fifteenth season in aid of the funds of the Paddington Green Children's Hospital. They perform Katharine and Petruchio, David Garrick's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Before this they have F. C. Burnand's two act drama The Deal Boatman.
• 1885, 30 April and 2 May - The Browning Society and the New Shakespeare Society unite to perform Robert Browning's tragedy A Blot in the 'Scutcheon and Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Arthur Ayers is in the cast, as is William Bell, another name that recurs regularly in the playbills of St George's Hall.
• 1885, 6 May - A matinee is performed for the benefit of Miss Edith Heraud who, the programme states, has been 'for five years incapacitated by illness [and has been prevented] from pursuing her profession'. The cast includes Sir Charles Young, Lady Monckton, the Beerbohm Trees and Cotsford Dick.
• 1885, 23 May - The Fireflies Dramatic Club perform in aid of the Egyptian War Fund. They perform two pieces, Conway Edwardes' and Edward Cullerne's farce Dreadfully Alarming and James Albery's three act comedy The Two Roses.
• 1885, 10 November - The Busy Bees, whose President was Hermann Vezin, perform T. W. Robertson's School. The Honorary Secretary of the Society was Mrs Lennox Browne. The cast includes T. W. Cope, Mrs Lennox Browne and Frank Bacon.
• 1885, 17 November - The Stanley Bicycle Club Dramatic Society gave an invitation performance consisting of Sydney Grundy's one act play In Honour Bound, Herman Hendrik's three act comedy, The Hurly Burly; or Number Seven Twenty Eight and Joh Maddison Morton's farce A Thumping Legacy.
• 1885, 19 December - The Whittington Dramatic Society perform Oliver Goldsmith's comedy in three acts, She Stoops to Conquer and Charles Selby's The Bonnie Fishwife. The cast included W. T. Cope and Frank Bacon.
• 1886, January - A 'semi-amateur' performance of the first and third scenes from Hamlet was mounted. It included the amateur Arthur Ayers.
• 1886, February - On 13 February the Owl Dramatic Society are pictured in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News performing at St George's Hall. The pieces presented were More than Ever and David Garrick.
• 1886, 13 February - The Strolling Players perform Conway Edwardes' Heroes, a comedy in three acts, and Bayle Bernard's one-act play His Last Legs.
• 1886, March - On 27 March The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News includes pictures of St Clement Dane's amateur theatricals at St. George's Hall. The pieces presented were Some of the Jury, Poor Pillicoddy and Withered Leaves.
• 1886, 3 April - The Strolling Players perform Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice.
• 1886, 15 April - A performance was given in aid of the Mansion House Fund. The piece performed was Albery's adaptation of Bronson Howard's drama The Old Love and the New.
• 1886, 20 May - The Whittington Dramatic Society perform in aid of the fund for providing parish rooms for the church of St Thomas in Regent Street. They perform Oliver Goldsmith's four act comedy She Stoops to Conquer and Henry Arthur Jones's one-act comedy, An Old Master. The cast includes Arthur Ayres, a regular amateur actor in London.
• 1886, 1 July - The Artists' Regimental Dramatic Club performed F. W. Broughton's comedietta Withered Leaves and Palgrave Simpson's domestic drama, Broken Ties. The cast includes numerous military personnel including Col. Serjeant W. Merceron Hudson, Private F Graham-Moon and Captain Todd.
• 1886, 11 November - The Vaudeville Club performed an original comedy in five acts by Bronson Howard called The Old Love and the New. This had been performed at the venue in April.
• 1886, 7 December - The Irving Amateur Dramatic Club performed on behalf of the Girls' Home in Charlotte Street. They performed Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I.
• 1886, 6 November - There was an amateur dramatic performance under the patronage of various notables, headed by the Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein in aid of the Middlesex Hospital Samaritan Fund. The entertainment consisted of an original comedietta in one act by Martin Bechter called Belling the Cat and Tom Taylor and A. W. Dubourg's comedy New Men and Old Acres.
• 1887, 4 June - A dramatic performance in aid of charity was mounted. The pieces were They're Smith's one act comedietta Uncle's Will, Frances Forbes-Robertson's two act fairy play As Pretty as Seven and John B. Buckstone's one act comic drama Good for Nothing. The cast includes Eric Forbes-Robertson and several presumably young member of the Dudgeon family.
• 1887, 11 June - The Strolling Players perform Herbert Gardner's three act comedy Time Will Tell and the one act farce The Area Belle. A note in the programme explains that the indisposition of Mrs Arthur Ayers has resulted in the productions of Sweethearts being postponed and The Area Belle being put in its place. The cast includes E. J. Enthoven, Captain A. FitzGeorge (R.N.), Arthur Ayers, Guildford Dudley and Charles H. Lamb.
• 1887, 26 May - A new and original four act play by Alfred D. Wilmot called Lady Deane was performed, most likely by amateurs. The cast included A E. Drinkwater, who also shared the role of stage manager.
• 1888, 26 June - A performance in aid of the Recreative Evening Schools Association was given by a company called the Mummers. It included a play adapted from German called Woolgathering. The Society's President was Ellen Terry.
• 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, Lady Eleanor Harbord, 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. (This may not have taken place at St George's Hall, as the below certainly did, but both events curiously include Charles H. Lamb).
• 1891, 5 February - The Strolling Players perform A Night Off; or, A Page from Balzac, an eccentric comedy in four acts by Augustin Daly.
• 1891, 25 April - The Strolling Players perform Tom Taylor's adaptation of Braddon's novel, Henry Dunbar.
• 1891, 19 June - Arthur M. Heathcote brings a company of amateurs to perform his comedy in three acts, Pentrobin. He is one of several Heathcote's to perform in the cast.
• 1891, 28 November - The Strolling Players perform Clement Scott and B. C. Stephenson's Diplomacy (a translation of Sardou's Dora).
• 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.
• 1893, 29 April - The Strolling Players perform W. S. Gilberts comedy in three acts, Engaged, and a comedy sketch in two acts by Henry Arthur Jones called The Deacon.
• 1893, 16 November - The Strolling Players perform in aid of the funds of the Training Ship "Cornwall" in Purfleet. They performed Arthur Wing Pinero's play in three acts, Dandy Dick.