University of Exeter Press
Hoxton Hall
The History of an East End Music Hall
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One of London’s best-kept secrets, Hoxton Hall, built in 1863, is one of only a handful of surviving Victorian music halls in Britain. This book presents a history of the building and its role in the social life of a deprived but resilient area of the city, celebrating the Hall’s reopening in 2015 after a two-year, Heritage Lottery-funded, refurbishment.
This landmark volume charts the Hall’s many different guises over more than a century and a half of activity, from its founding as exemplar of Victorian rational recreation to a working-class variety music hall; from headquarters of a prominent evangelical temperance movement to outpost of a Quaker East-End mission; from pioneer of 1970s community arts to today’s multipurpose centre reflecting the diversity of the neighbourhood it still serves.
The wide-ranging contributions gathered here offer an invaluable lens for understanding an area of London that has experienced comprehensive social change during the lifetime of the venue. This unique history of a building brings together scholars of architectural, theatrical, musical and entertainment history, and of social and religious history, to chart the various lives of Hoxton Hall and those who have been drawn to this remarkable space.
The history of Hoxton Hall is an epitome of a changing East End in a single much-loved building. From the Hall's origins as a backstreet music hall in one of London's roughest areas, through its take-over by evangelical reformers, its transformation as a wartime community resource and its present-day use as a community arts venue at the heart of 'hipster London', Hoxton Hall offers us a tapestry as colourful and varied as East London itself.
Jerry White, London historian
This fantastic collection of essays uncovers the social, architectural and cultural history of Hoxton Hall, which first opened in 1863. In the shadow of the infamous Shoreditch Workhouse, the Hall brought fun, song, drama and conviviality to an often tough area. This volume is a fitting celebration of a century and a half of an East End icon.
Sarah Wise, historian and author
Hoxton Hall is a rare example of an early music hall that remains open to the public. It is an important example of the community music halls that existed before the big-business chains of variety theatres. This book documents its fascinating past and present history in the context of social changes in the East End and makes a significant contribution to urban popular cultural studies and is warmly recommended.
Professor Derek B. Scott, University of Leeds
Introduction Nicholas Till and Nadia Valman
DOI: 10.47788/LASV5187
1. Hoxton Hall tells its own story Victor Belcher
DOI: 10.47788/IPYC3695
2. A tour of Hoxton Hall John Earl
DOI: 10.47788/HYVE8278
3. Placing Hoxton Hall in historical context: east London and modern urban popular culture Michael Peplar
DOI: 10.47788/DVQT9397
4. Hoxton Hall and the licensing of East End entertainment venues (1863–1871) Deborah Jeffries
DOI: 10.47788/TMET3307
5.‘First-Class Evening Entertainments’: the opening programme for Hoxton Hall, November 1863 Nicholas Till
DOI: 10.47788/GUWI9611
6. The Blue Ribbon Temperance Mission and the Girls’ Guild of Good Life (1879–1946) Jeremy Crump
DOI: 10.47788/EZWC7008
7. The Bedford Institute and Quaker philanthropists (1895–1945) Siân Roberts
DOI: 10.47788/OEML6782
8. Rebuilding Hoxton Hall’s postwar community: May Scott’s (1945–1975) Holly-Gale Millette
DOI: 10.47788/AHOV5209
9. Experiments in community arts and theatre as education (1970–1990) Maddy Costa
DOI: 10.47788/HPYX7792
10. Regeneration, gentrification and community (1990–2010) Nicholas Holden and Mark O’Thomas
DOI: 10.47788/YUUX3104
11. Managing crisis (2005–2015) Hayley White
DOI: 10.47788/MQVI4660
12. Out of the dust: reflections on a new vision for an old hall (2015–2022) Karena Johnson
DOI: 10.47788/PCVD6073
- 264 Pages
- Black & white illustrations