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____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Britannia Theatre 115 - 117 High Street, Hoxton
Above - The Britannia Theatre, Hoxton - Courtesy Peter Charlton The Britannia Theatre, Hoxton was built in 1858 and is considered to have been one of the most important 'Saloon Theatres' of its period. These were quasi-drama houses adjoining public houses. Originally there had been a 'Saloon Theatre' behind the Britannia Public House built for Samual Lane. This was so successful that in 1858 he commissioned Finch Hill & Paraire to build him a new Theatre with a horse-shoe shaped auditorium. Finch Hill & Paraire, of 441 Oxford-street, had previously built a number of early music halls, and were the architects for the Theatre Royal, Holborn in 1866. The Britannia Theatre was later managed by Sara Lane, Sam Lane's widow, who was an actor and singer of some repute, and the Britannia was so popular with local audiences, with it's spectacular melodramas, that it soon became known as the Drury Lane of East London. In 1923 the Britannia was converted into a Cinema and gave up live productions, showing films exclusively. Sadly the Theatre was bombed during the war in 1940 and mostly demolished, although there were still some fragments remaining until the 1970s. Arthur Lloyd is know to have performed here in 1865. |
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The Britannia Theatre, Hoxton by Ronald Mayes
Right
- The Britannia Theatre Hoxton. These
early saloons were the forerunners of the music
halls, having a particular licence which, whilst preventing the
performance of Shakespeare, allowed the consumption of food and drink. |
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Obituary for Frederick Perry who died 4 April 1917 A
Famous Drummer The internment took place yesterday, in the family grave at Abney Park Cemetery, of Mr Frederick William Perry who had the reputation of being one of the finest drummers in the world. His death occurred on Wednesday week, in his eighty-first year, and he is survived by his wife, Mrs Julia Mary Perry, who, a year younger than her husband, is an invalid, and lives at Frampton Park Road, South Hackney, where the couple had resided for the past thirty-five years. (Julia died 1920). The late Mr Frederick Perry comes of a military and professional family. His father was Band Sergeant-Major of the Coldstream Guards, his grandfather was bandmaster of the Grenadier Guards and his great-great- grandfather also belonged to this latter regiment. The two last named members of the family died in Chelsea Hospital. The deceased, in his earlier days was noted as being one of four men who could properly play the ophicleide, a large brass German instrument used in military bands but now defunct owing to its difficult manipulation. Of his two sons, the elder became bandmaster to the 10th Lincolnshire Regiment, and also held the post of bandmaster to musicians of the Great Western Railway, India, in which country he died. The other son Mr Alfred Perry also served as a trooper in the 13th Hussars, afterwards entering the theatrical profession, with which the deceased drummer's seven daughters also became associated - two under the name of Curette. A Magnificent War Record. Mr Perry was corporal drummer in the Honourable Artillery Company for about forty years and was also a member of the Veterans' Corps of Hackney. He has serving with the Forces at the present time 21 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Another interesting fact, from a local point of view, is that Mr Perry was for fifty-two years drummer at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, he being the only musician who sat in the same orchestra for such a long period. In recognition of his services, Mrs Sara Lane, the then proprietress of the theatre made him a public presentation on his fiftieth anniversary, of a gold watch and albert, subscribed for by herself and others connected with the theatre. He was her oldest servant. His association with the "Old Brit" ceased when the Crawfords parted with it about ten years ago. Up to just prior to his death, however, he was still beating the drum and fulfilling engagements. Many of the drummers in London were Mr Perry's pupils, and he had the distinction of training the late Queen Victoria's trumpeter to beat the drum and play the cornet. He himself received his tuition at the same time as the Duke of Edinburgh. At yesterday's internment the coffin was covered with a Union Jack belonging to the Hackney Veterans' Corps, and his four grandsons, Messrs William and Thomas Danford, Sydney Woodhurst and Ernest Forrester acted as pall bearers. Frederick William Perry's obituary courtesy Liz Shea. |
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