1859 London Pavilion Music Hall | |
![]() Façade of the London Pavilion in 2002 | |
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Address | Shaftesbury Avenue Westminster, London |
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Coordinates | 51°30′37″N0°08′02″W / 51.510278°N 0.133889°W |
Owner | Burford Group |
Designation | Grade II listed [1] |
Current use | Trocadero Centre |
Construction | |
Opened | 1859 |
Rebuilt | 1900 & 1918 Wylson & Long 1934 converted to cinema by F Chancellor |
Years active | 1859–1934 |
Architect | James Ebenezer Saunders and Robert Worley (1885) |
Website | |
londontrocadero |
The London Pavilion is a building on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of Piccadilly Circus in London. It is currently a shopping arcade and part of the Trocadero Centre.
The first building bearing the name, a music hall formed from roofing the yard of the Black Horse Inn, was built in 1859 for Emil Loibl, and Charles Sonnhammer. A gallery was constructed for the hall but it could not utilize the full width, because one part of the premises was used by Dr. Kahn's "Delectable Museum of Anatomy". [2]
In 1885, Shaftesbury Avenue was built through part of the site, and a new London Pavilion Theatre was constructed. This opened on 30 November 1885 with a popular revue. [4] The new theatre was the first 'music hall deluxe', with marble-topped tables for dining in the auditorium. According to Charles Stuart and A. J. Park in The Variety Stage (1895) the rebuilding signaled a new era of variety theatre:
Hitherto the halls had borne unmistakable evidence of their origins, but the last vestiges of their old connections were now thrown aside, and they emerged in all the splendour of their new-born glory. The highest efforts of the architect, the designer and the decorator were enlisted in their service, and the gaudy and tawdry music hall of the past gave way to the resplendent 'theatre of varieties' of the present day, with its classic exterior of marble and freestone, its lavishly appointed auditorium and its elegant and luxurious foyers and promenades brilliantly illuminated by myriad electric lights
The success of the venture led its owner, Villiers, to form a limited company; this became the first combine of music halls, Syndicate Halls Ltd. Lupino Lane made his London début here in 1903, as "Nipper Lane". [5]
Between 1912 and 1936, the theatre presented a regular programme of musicals; these included Noël Coward's first success, On With the Dance in April 1925. There were appearances by Sir Harry Lauder; in October 1921, the American actor and vocalist Clifton Webb appeared here in Fun of the Fayre and again in October the following year as Phidas in Phi-Phi. In 1923, electric billboards were erected for the first time on the side of the building. [6]
In 1934, the building underwent significant structural alteration, and was converted into a cinema at a cost of £70,000 by F. G. M. Chancellor, of Frank Matcham and Co. [6] Intended as London outlet to premiere films released by United Artists, the first film to be screened at the Pavilion was the Alexander Korda release The Private Life of Don Juan which was shown from 5 September 1934; Korda had recently signed an agreement with the American company to release his films. [7] For the première of The Curse of Frankenstein in May 1957, the foyer was revamped to look like Frankenstein's laboratory, complete with the Monster in a tank. [8] In October 1962 it premiered Dr. No , the first James Bond film, and in July 1964 was the venue for the premiere of A Hard Day's Night . The cinema closed on 26 April 1981 and the site remained in limbo for some years. [9] [10]
In 1986, the interior of the building was gutted and converted into a shopping arcade, preserving only the 1885 façade and the outer walls and roof. A wax figure exhibition opened in the building that same year, run by the Madame Tussauds Group, called Rock Circus . The exhibition consisted of waxworks of rock and pop musicians. The Rock Circus exhibition closed in September 2001.
In 2000, the building became part of the Trocadero Centre, and signage on the building was altered in 2003 to read London Trocadero. The basement of the building connects with Piccadilly Circus tube station and the rest of the Trocadero Centre.
The London Pavilion housed Ripley's Believe It or Not!, a visitor attraction dedicated to the weird and unusual, which was open from August 2008 until 25 September 2017. On 6 October 2018, Body Worlds London opened in the London Pavilion; the exhibition displayed more than 200 real human bodies and organ specimens preserved through the method of Plastination.[ citation needed ]
Piccadilly is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, Heathrow Airport and the M4 motorway westward. St James's is to the south of the eastern section, while the western section is built up only on the northern side. Piccadilly is just under 1 mile (1.6 km) in length, and it is one of the widest and straightest streets in central London.
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.
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The London Trocadero was an entertainment complex on Coventry Street, with a rear entrance in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. It was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, which closed in 1965. In 1984, the complex reopened as an exhibition and entertainment space. It became known for the video-game oriented SegaWorld attractions which were added in 1996, and later downscaled and renamed to "Funland" before its closure in 2011. Part of the building was opened as a hotel in 2020.
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Stanley Richard Lupino Hook, known professionally as Stanley Lupino, was an English actor, dancer, singer, librettist, director and short story writer. During the 1930s, Lupino appeared in a successful series of musical comedy films, often based on his already popular stage shows.
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Asif Aziz is a London-based billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist. As the founder and Chief Executive of Criterion Capital, he is known for owning and operating key landmarks including the London Trocadero and Criterion Building in Piccadilly Circus. Aziz is also the founder of family based charity the Aziz Foundation.
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