| Title: | The New Music Hall at the Surrey Gardens. |
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| Theatre: | Surrey |
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| Source: | The Illustrated London News, Jul 26, 1856, p. 91 |
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| See Source: | Go to Source Images (8.8 MB) |
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| Review: | The Illustrated London News, Jul 26, 1856, p. 92 |
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THE NEW MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.
"Man favours wonders" and, if anyone doubt this wisdom of our ancestors,
let him hie forth to the site of the Surrey Zoological Gardens, where Company, by a
touch of the wand of Capital, has proved a most potent architect and decorator, and
Limited Liability has chalked out enjoyment almost without bound. Just a quarter
of a century ago, Cross, the zoological showman--by turns turned out of Exeter
Change and the King's Mews, and the murky atmosphere of the Strand and Charing-cross
(the latter charged with the heinous offence of spoiling pictures)--"lions
and tigers" Cross, tired with flaunting it at every place mentioned in Owen's
Book of Fairs," shuffled off his Beefeater's faded finery, and pitched his
menagerie upon the demesne of the Manor House at Walworth. Here he built a curvilinear
iron and glass house 100 feet in diameter, for his lions, tigers, leopards, jackals,
and hyenas, which, for aught we know, may here, embowered in trailing shrubs, have fancied themselves
back in their native forests. How many thousands, within this quarter of a century
gazed at the animated exotics in the great iron and glass house; at acres of canvas
painted to represent numberless cities upon the lake, out vying the "real water"
of Sadler's Wells--it were useless to speculate. That the circular carnivora conservatory
is gone is quite clear; and upon its site has been reared a fairy temple, dedicated to
sweeter sounds than the notes of captive lion, tiger, or jackal. Such is the New
Music Hall.
We have already described the exterior of this vast Hall, which, by the way, is
twenty feet longer and thirty feet wider than Exeter-hall, hitherto the largest in
Great Britain. Its ornamental octagonal towers have an Eastern air; and the roof,
in the words of the Builder, "realises somewhat the expression of the
feature in Palladio's Basilica at Vicenza." The style is degenerate Italian, relieved
by French taste; and seeing that Mr. Horace Jones, the architect, and Messrs. Scott and
Cornwall, the contractors, have executed the whole in four months, it is a marvellous
structure. The roof is a modification of the well-known arrangement at the Exhibition
building in Hyde-park, the Great Northern Railway station and other important works
and has been employed successfully in many instances by the architect of the Surrey Music Hall.
The interior of the Hall, though not yet fully decorated, produces an effect of
grandeur and magnificence. The front of the lower gallery is ornamented with open
ironwork, of the lyre and other musical instruments, gold and white. The second
gallery is of a plainer description, but over the uppermost one is a handsome cornice
with trusses in pairs supporting its corona, between which, in the frieze, are festoons
of fruit and flowers, grouped and modelled with great taste. The upper ceiling
is curved and lighted by three octagonal apertures, in which are fixed "watch-glass
lights," twelve feet in diameter. The refreshment-room, which is in immediate
communication with the lower floor of the Music Hall, is nearly one hundred feet in
length and forty feet wide.
The orchestra, which will accommodate 1000 performers, has an upper story, the
front of which is hung by iron rods from a strong truss above. Communicating with the
orchestra are refreshment and retiring rooms. Over all is a great sounding board--the
cornice decoration of festoons and trusses ranging across it.
The lighting by night is by a line of gas jets round the main cornice, and by gaseliers
under the galleries. All the gaseliers, brackets, and footlights have been executed in
crystal glass by Defries and Sons of Houndsditch. Exclusive of the orchestra, the
building will accommodate about 10,000 persons; and 12,000 can be accommodated in all
parts, and inclusive of the external galleries. The Hall has cost about £18,200.
The grounds, which, in taste, were beyond a cockney garden have been greatly
improved, under the direction of Mr. Forrest, the eminent landscape gardener. The
lake--which has in past seasons "done duty" as the Bay of Naples, the North Atlantic,
the Frith of Forth, the Tiber, &c.--now serves as the Golden Horn for a large View of
Constantinople; beyond it is mountain scenery--all painted by Danson and cleverly harmonised
with the natural features of the place. By the side
of the picture, to keep up the Turkish illusion, is a kiosk, with a terrace for use as well
as for ornament; for here alone will smokers be allowed to indulge in their favourite vice
and will thus be precluded from offending those frequenters of the gardens who do not find
fragrance in tobacco. There are some pretty stalactite caverns and rock and rustic work;
and the gardens are illuminated by lights among the shrubs, in oiled and painted canvas
shades. Lastly, we have the fireworks on the lake with vast
improvements upon the spectacles of this class.
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