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The London Palladium, Argyll Street, Oxford Circus, London, W.1

Formerly The Corinthian Bazaar / Hengler's Grand Cirque /
National Skating Palace / Royal Italian Circus

Above - The London Palladium during production for 'The Sound Of Music' in October 2006.

The London Palladium opened on the 26th of December 1910 with a Variety Show and one act play called 'The Conspiracy.' The Theatre was designed by the renowned Theatre architect Frank Matcham and built at a cost of £250,000. The auditorium was built on three levels, Stalls, Dress Circle, and Upper Circle, with a massive capacity of 3,435.

Originally on the site was the London home of the Dukes of Argyll, Argyll House. In the 1800s the first Earl of Aberdeen lived here until his death in 1860 when the building was demolished and the land excavated so as to build 'Bonded Wine Cellars.' Above the cellars, in 1870, The Corinthian Bazaar was erected as a temporary structure. The land was later acquired by Charles Hengler, who had worked in the Circus all his life. He altered and renamed the building Hengler's Grand Cirque and it opened in 1871.

The original architect for this building was J.T. Robinson and it had a capacity of 1,090 but the building was eventually condemned as it was made entirely out of wood.

Left - 1912 Variety Programme for the newly opened London Palladium under Charles Gulliver's Direction. - Click to see Entire Programme.

In 1884 Hengler had the building enlarged and almost completely rebuilt by C.J. Phipps. However when Hengler died in 1887, even though his sons continued with the enterprise, Circus was already on its way out. Another Circus Showman called Edward Wulff took over the running of the building for a short period but was unsuccessful so in 1895 the place was turned into a skating ring, called the National Skating Palace, which was famed at the time for having real ice.

Left -Programme for The Royal Italian Circus / Formerly Hengler's Grand Cirque - Circa 1905 - Click to see Entire Programme.

Five years later in 1905 another go at Circus was tried out in the building when it was renamed The Royal Italian Circus. (See Programme Left) But this venture failed as the London Hippodrome had already opened and was a major success with its new form of Circus and Music Hall combined, and the London County Council had near enough condemned the building demanding major alterations and improvements which were too expensive for the present owners, consequently the building closed down and the lease became the property of the syndicate who were already drawing up plans for a new Music Hall on the site; The London Palladium.

Right - Variety Programme for the 31st of December 1928 at The London Palladium, directed by George Black.

Two days before this new Theatre opened The ERA printed a review of the building in their 24th of December issue saying: 'Brilliant in white and gold, with seating in warm red, the house sounds the last word in luxury and appointment, and the magnificent sweep of the dress circle presents a remarkable appearance from the stage.

Left - Variety Programme for the 6th of July 1936 at The London Palladium, directed by George Black.

In the great Palm Court at the back of the stalls, one thousand persons can be comfortably served with tea. This is a very striking feature of the Palladium and the Palm Court is of all Norwegian Rose granite which, especially, looks extremely attractive. In this Palm Court a ladies' orchestra will play daily between performances. The decorations are very beautiful, Rose du Barri hangings adorn the boxes, and upholstery of the same colour has been employed in the stalls, while the orchestra is enclosed by a marble balustrade, Generally speaking, the colour scheme of the walls is pink, white and gold, with coloured marbles, and certainly there is not a dull note anywhere. The walls of the main vestibule are painted silver. Perhaps the most unique feature is the box to box telephone that has been installed. It will therefore be possible for the occupants of one box, recognising friends in another box, to enter into conversation with them.'

Text in quotes is from from The ERA 24th December 1910.

From the beginning The London Palladium was a Variety House where all manner of shows were put on including Music Hall, Melodrama, Farce, Operetta, and of course Variety, and everyone who was anyone played there. Charles Gulliver took over in 1912 and ran the Theatre hard by putting on twice nightly shows and three matinees a week.

Left - 1917 variety Programme for the London Palladium during Charles Gulliver's management.

1922 saw the very successful 'Rockets' which ran for 490 performances, followed by 'Whirl of the World' in 1923 which ran for 627. Then there was 'Sky High' in 1925 for 309 performance and 'Folies Bergeres,' 'Palladium Pleasures of Life,' in 1926, and 'The Apache,' in 1927, all of them successful.

In 1928 The Palladium was bought by The General Theatre Corporation and remarkably they turned it into a Cinema, but this was a dismal failure and only lasted three months.

Right - Twice Daily Variety Programme for the London Palladium during the General Theatre Corporation ownership.

George Black took over the running of the Theatre shortly afterwards and his own style of spectacular Variety Shows was extremely successful. It was black who started a new kind of entertainment at the Palladium called 'Crazy Week' which eventually became the 'Crazy Gang Shows,' with titles such as 'Life Begins at Oxford Circus,' Round About Regent Street,' All Night at Oxford Circus,' London Rhapsody,' and 'These Foolish Things.' The Crazy Gang were so successful that they later had a home of their own and ran for years at The Victoria Palace Theatre.

Pantomime was a regular feature at the London Palladium for many years, and the Pantomime 'Peter Pan' became so popular that it was a fixture at Christmas at the Theatre every year from 1930 to 1938.

When George Black died in 1946 Val Parnell took over the running of the Palladium when it also became owned by Moss Empires. The George Black style continued under Val Parnell until 1948 when he tried his hand at Variety for the Theatre again, and with spectacular success. And of course, who can forget 'Sunday Night at The London Palladium,' a regular 'must see' for just about everyone in Britain on a Sunday night from 1955-1967 and again from 1973-1974 produced by Val Parnell, and later with his son Jack Parnell leading the orchestra.

Left - Programme for a Variety Show at The London Palladium 1st March 1948 during it's ownership by Moss Empires.

In the 1980s The Palladium became home to a string of successful large scale musicals, such as 'The King and I' with Virginia McKenna and Yul Brynner, 'Barnum' with Michael Crawford, 'Singing in the Rain' with Tommy Steele, and much less successful, the huge and lavish 'Ziegfield' which couldn't be saved even by Topol himself. Later there was 'Show Boat' 'Saturday Night Fever,' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' which was such a large production that the famous split Revolve at the Palladium was finally removed.

Above - The London Palladium during production for 'The Sound Of Music' in October 2006. - Photo M.L.

In October 2006 The London Palladium seats 2,298 and is owned by The Really Useful Theatre Group, The Theatre is currently in production for the much hyped 'Sound Of Music.'

London's West End Theatres

Adelphi Aldwych Apollo Apollo Victoria Arts Cambridge Comedy Criterion Dominion Drury Lane Duchess Duke Of Yorks Fortune Garrick Gielgud Haymarket Her Majesty's London Coliseum London Palladium Lyceum Lyric New Ambassadors New London Noel Coward / Albery Novello Old Vic Palace Peacock Phoenix Piccadilly Playhouse Prince Edward Prince of Wales Queen's Royal Opera House Savoy Shaftesbury St. Martin's Trafalgar Studios / Whitehall Vaudeville Victoria Palace Wyndham's