The Colosseum Music Hall, Westgate, Bradford by Hector Hill

Also known as The Royal Colosseum / Protestant Hall / Working Men's Institute / Pullan's Music Hall / Alhambra / St James's Hall / St James's Hall Furniture Show Rooms

Bradford Index

A music hall stood on the west side of Westgate Bradford. Address number 63, it was across from the buildings running from the Pack Horse Inn, number 62 next to James Gate, to the Druids' Arms, number 70 near John Street.

Right - An aerial view showing the site of the Royal Colosseum and surrounding streets, Courtesy Hector Hill.

The Era of 2 March 1851 reported it was to be called the ROYAL COLOSSEUM, had cost over £3,000, and was nearing completion and would open in a few weeks. Inside it was over thirty feet high and one-hundred feet long. Mrs Dunn was the owner and would be the occupier. It opened on the 8th of April 1851, and the 'chief attractions' were: Johnson & Ceda, American Minstrels; Mr & Mrs Condell, Irish duet; and Madame Bouran, soprano.

At the height of the 1840s pub singing-room boom, Mrs Mary Dunn ran the Bermondsey Hotel on Cannon Street, off Cheapside and parallel to School Street.That locality, called Bermondsey, was erased when the Midland Railway built their new enlarged Railway Station and the Midland Hotel. Entry to the singing-room cost 3d, for which the customer received an embossed brass token to exchange at the bar. The price could rise to one-shilling when a prominent entertainer was booked. Mrs Dunn employed Henry Pullan, then in his twenties, as the manager.

An advert in the Bradford Observer in June 1853 called the Westgate hall the ROYAL COLOSSEUM & PROMENADE CONCERT HALL, and mentioned the 'Proprietress'. In October 1853 The Era styled 'Mr H Pullan' as the 'Manager'. In February 1854 the property was put up for sale by 'Mrs Dunn, the owner' as the ROYAL COLOSSEUM. Described as a 'substantial stone building' with a 'commodious stage', dressing rooms, green rooms and bars, it was said to accommodate 500 people in the Promenade and 900 in the Area. The property also included two large shops with self-contained dwellings above and a warehouse, cellars and a brewhouse beneath. Old maps suggest that it was the former Christ Church Day and Sunday School repurposed (and possibly extended) for its use as a Music Hall.

In November 1855 Henry Pullan, now 38 years-old, was described as 'the present lessee' of the ROYAL COLOSSEUM, when he was refused a theatrical licence. The report in the Bradford Observer described a regime similar to that at the Bermondsey Hotel. 'The building as is well known has been partly used as a beer-house; and the greater up-stairs portion has been fitted up as a theatrical singing-room with gallery, platform &c, the sum charged for admission being refunded, if required by the audience, in the shape of beer or porter.' Pullan intended to modify the interior and offered to forgo the beer-house. Although he would have had a music and dancing licence, the lack of a theatrical licence not only prohibited plays but also turns involving acting.

In Lund's 1856 Bradford Directory, Pullan is listed at the 'Colloseum (sic) Concert Hall, 63A Westgate'. In March 1857 the hall was advertised to let, both locally and in The Era, and was described thus: 'The hall is very spacious and lofty, and will accommodate upwards of Two Thousand Persons, and contains a Promenade, Galleries, Side Boxes, Bar, Stage, Dressing Rooms &c'. Those wishing to view were to contact Mrs Dunn.

Right - An advertisement in the Bradford Observer on the 19th of March 1857 stating that the Music Hall was available to Let - Courtesy Hector Hill.

Possession was available in April 1857 and the letting notice named Pullan as the departing occupant. The following year, on 18 March 1858 the Bradford Observer reported a presentation supper for Pullan at the Star Inn Westgate and mistakenly called him the 'late proprietor of the Colosseum'.

The ROYAL COLOSSEUM had been denounced by Bradford's Great-and-Good as 'a sink of iniquity', perhaps explaining the campaign for the tenancy to be acquired by the newly-created Bradford Protestant Association. They renamed it the PROTESTANT HALL and opened it on 6 May 1858 with 'sacred oratorios' by the Bradford Choral Society. The wide range of events and activities at the hall each week included: a Sunday Ragged School for teaching the Three Rs etc; evening classes; lectures; religious events; and entertainments of an uplifting kind, such as Professor Buck's two-hour 'New Entertainment of Physical and Natural Magic' in August 1862.

Left - An advertisement for the Protestant Hall, 63 Westgate, Bradford from the Bradford Observer 6th of May 1858 - Courtesy Hector Hill.

Around February 1863 it became the WORKING MEN'S INSTITUTE which had over 500 members by May. They budgeted £100 annually for rent; £5 for rates; £30 gas; £10 coal; plus £25 each for cleaning, papers & periodicals, and printing & incidentals. They left for other premises in November 1864.

Pullan, having returned from Manchester, opened the hall as PULLAN'S MUSIC HALL on Christmas Eve 1864. Barely five years later he relocated to his newly-built PULLAN'S NEW MUSIC HALL, advertised as 'Within Two Minutes' Walk of the Present Hall'. A wooden construction on an in-filled quarry, it opened on 25 October 1869 and was situated on the south side of Brunswick Place, off the east side of Westgate, farther away from the town centre. The extended Pullan family resided nearby at 14 Brunswick Place. Being newer, larger, better appointed and run by an experienced operator, it sounded the lingering end for 63 Westgate which, by May 1870, was being run as the COLOSSEUM by 'Messrs Smith & Binks', who were refused a beer licence in August 1870. By the year's end it was the ROYAL MUSIC HALL, under which name, in March 1871, it was advertised for letting 'by the night, week, month or year'. It came with 'scenery' and a 'grand pianoforte', and was considered to be 'a splendid speculation for a drapery establishment on the bazaar principle'. Soon after, it was being advertised as the ST JAMES'S HALL 'late Colosseum Westgate' run by the 'Shackleton Brothers, Proprietors' and 'Will Cruikshank, Manager'.

On the 4th of May 1874 William Morgan opened it as the 'ALHAMBRA Westgate opposite the Druids' Arms'. His ALHAMBRA music hall had opened on 15 September 1873 in the make-shift accommodation vacated by CHARLES ADAMS' GRAND CIRCUS, which had opened for a 'season' in March 1873 'opposite Midland Station Bradford' (then near the end of Canal Road) and closed on 13 September.

Right - A 24th of April 1875 advertisement in the Leeds Times for the Alhambra and Pullan's Music Halls, Bradford - Courtesy Hector Hill.

Apart from running the ALHAMBRA, Morgan also booked entertainments at ST GEORGE'S HALL and the THEATRE ROYAL, and ran 'confectioner, bookseller, stationery and newsagent' businesses at 31 Kirkgate and 197 Wakefield Road. He closed the Westgate ALHAMBRA around June 1875 and opened in August in the newly-completed STAR THEATRE & MUSIC HALL (later PALACE THEATRE) at the bottom of Manchester Road.

63 Westgate reverted to being the ST JAMES'S HALL. In June 1876 it was put up for sale with its shops etc. The sale notice claimed it would 'comfortably seat 1200 persons', but by April 1877 J Poole & Son were running it as the 'St James's Hall Furniture Show Rooms'. In February 1892 it was still serving that purpose when a 'Clearance' sale was held. Everything had to go by the month's end. Bradford Corporation had acquired it and the neighbouring premises on the west side of Westgate to demolish for 'Street Improvements'. Westgate was widened by moving the western building line towards Silsbridge Lane (now Grattan Road) and into the footprint of the hall; New John Street was created; and the Pack Horse Inn and Druids' Arms remained standing on the east side of Westgate (they survived into the 1960s).

At the time of writing in 2022 the area around where the COLOSSEUM stood is part waste-land and partly a surviving portion of the large 1890s replacement building; and is bounded by Westgate, New John Street and Grattan Road.

Left - A Google StreetView Image of the site of the former Colosseum Music Hall, Westgate, Bradford in July 2021 - Click to Interact.

The footprint of the COLOSSEUM is under the New John Street end of the 1890s building. Brunswick Place is now Rawson Road, and the footprint of PULLAN'S NEW MUSIC HALL is under the Oastler Shopping Centre (formerly John Street Market).

The above article was researched and written by Hector Hill and kindly sent in for inclusion by him in August 2022. If you have any more information or images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.