Historian Michael Peplar recommends visiting the world’s oldest grand music hall, which is just over a 10 minute walk from Northeastern’s London campus.
LONDON — Want to see a show when visiting London and avoid those stiff West End prices?
Michael Peplar, associate professor of history at Northeastern, has a tip for you. Just over a 10-minute walk from the university’s London campus is Wilton’s Music Hall, which claims to be the “oldest grand music hall in the world.”
Having had a number of past lives, it is now open as an arts venue that puts on more than 80 productions per year.
“It is quirky, very English and it is very London,” says Peplar, who researches music hall history.
The origins of the theater date to the 1690s, with John Wilton in 1859 opening his “Magnificent New Music Hall” crammed behind a row of townhouses and a pub in Graces Alley.
Peplar says music halls were hugely popular with Britain’s working class.
“It is a beautiful example of a purpose-built music hall,” he explains, “which included a host of really popular entertainments — comic songs, comedians, acrobats, male impersonators. It was very tongue-in-cheek — and sometimes quite crude — entertainment aimed mostly at working people wanting to let off steam in the evening. And that’s how Wilton’s came into being.”
The venue was geared toward making money from alcohol sales, which Peplar says meant performances could be raucous and rowdy affairs, with plenty of heckling from audience members.
Wilton’s ceased to be used as a theater in 1881, being taken over by the Methodist Church. It was after the church closed that the building was listed for demolition but a campaign successfully saved it, securing protected status for the Shadwell site in the 1990s.
Today, the theater offers visitors a chance to relax over a pizza and a drink before enjoying a show within the original 19th-century Georgian interior.
Peplar, who also serves as special advisor to the dean of Northeastern’s London operation, says parts of the buildings retain a “rough and ready” character that adds to their charm.
“It is somewhere you can go and see a show and there is a whole program of events,” he adds. “But it is also somewhere you can stop by for a drink, a chat, and a light bite to eat and just explore these old buildings. It is interesting as a place to drop in and it gives you that feeling of stepping back in time.”
Another benefit is that it is “not West End prices,” Peplar points out, with tickets starting from as little as £12.50 ($16) for some performances.