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...the exhibitor just having died at the age of 90. These pictures were copies of some of the most famous ancient and modern masters, and, were all worked on linen in coloured worsteds, by the exhibitor; she had finished two or three before she was 20, and completed the last at 75 years of age.

Henceforward, all sorts of exhibitions occupied the premises from time to time; such as Mdme. Warton's unequalled tableaux vivants and poses plastiques. The title of the house was then "The Walhalla;" however the abode of bliss conducted its proprietor but to the Bankruptcy Court. Then came Risley's Panorama of the Mississippi, Gompertz'
Panorama of the Arctic Regions, in 1849 Cambon's Paris, Versailles and St. Cloud, and C. Marshall's Grand Tour of Europe in 1851. Moreover, the Lapland giantess, who stood 7 feet 2 inches-whether she was still growing, though, does not appear, -Joseph Grantonio, the Italian giant, who topped the lady by five inches, was 5 feet 5 inches round the waist, and could cover a crown piece with his thum, and a negro entertainment - precursor of Haverly's - by real blacks from the American cotton plantations, all appeared here in the Exhibition year. A collection of Greek and Etruscan antiquities was exhibited here in 1852, together with Madame Fortunne, a bearded Geneva woman, with her child. Cantelo's egg hatching apparatus, Auguste Reinham's industrious fleas, and Brees' panorama of New Zealand occupied the building from 1849 to 1853, when a Living Marionette Theatre," Professor Krosso and a German troupe of athletes appealed to the public for patronage. Here, too, came Reiner, with an anatomical and ethnological museum of wax works, similar to that of Kban. In 1854, George Payne exhibited his "Nights in the Land of Gold," and in 1855, Montari his royal waxworks.

But alas! a lighted candle having been applied to an escape of gas in the cellars, Savile House, which was then called (1865) the " Eldorado " Music Hall was burned to the ground together with Ward's Furniture Manufactory; Stagg and Mantle's establishment which had formed part of the original Savile House was only saved by the great exertions of the fire brigade.

Right - This page features details of the Empire Theatre in its three major guises, including the ERA review of its openings - 1884 - 1887 - 1962 - Click the image to view the page.

The space cleared by the fire remained unoccupied till within the last few years, when the ground was acquired by some enterprising foreigners and a Panorama was erected thereon, which however did not prove a pecuniary success. It was then decided to convert the building into a Theatre, from designs by Mr. Thomas Verity, F.R. I.B.A., who proposed carrying out the work in the Moorish style of architecture, with Japanese fittings, and the Theatre was partially built. Messrs. J. & A. E. Bull, Architects, 35, Craven Street, were subsequently...

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