Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XXXVI: Sadler's Wells.
Chapter XXXVI: Sadler's Wells.
While on the subject of places of amusement in the north--of London, near , we must not forget Sadler's Wells ( Spa), or New Tunbridge Wells, as it used to be called. The chalybeate spring was discovered in by a Mr. Sadler, a surveyor of the highways, in a pleasant, retired, and well-wooded garden of a music-house he had just opened. The discovery was trumpeted in a pamphlet, detailing the virtues of the water. It was, the writer asserted, a holy well, famed, before the Reformation, for its healing power, which the priests attributed to their prayers. It had been, in consequence, looked on as a place venerated by superstition, but arched over at the Reformation, it had been since forgotten. | |
The Wells soon became famous with hypochondriacs. Burlesque poems ( probably by Ned Ward) were written on the humours of the place, | |
p.290 | |
[extra_illustrations.2.290.1] as well as treatises on the cure of invalids by drinking the water; and finally, in , George Colman produced a farce, called The . | |
In the summer of Sadler's Wells became in high favour with the public. Gout-hobbled there; Rheumatism groaned over his ferruginous water; severe coughs went arm-in-arm, chuckling as they hobbled; as for Hypochondria, he cracked jokes, he was in such high spirits at the thought of the new remedy. At this time dancers were admitted during the whole of the day on Mondays and Tuesdays, says Malcolm, provided they did not come in masks. | |
In the Wells were so fashionable that the Princesses Amelia and Caroline frequented the gardens in the June of that year daily, and drank the waters, the nobility coming in such numbers that the proprietor took above a morning. Feathers flaunted, silks rustled, fans fluttered, and lovers sighed, partly with nausea and partly with love, as they sipped the bitter waters of AEsculapius. On the birthday of of the princesses, the ladies were saluted as they passed through Spa. Fields (then full of carriages) by a discharge of guns--a compliment always paid to them on their arrival--and in the evening there was a great bonfire, and more powder was burnt in their honour. On ceasing to visit the gardens, the Princess Amelia presented the master with guineas, each of the water-servers with guineas, and the other attendants with guinea each. | |
From till after these gardens were famous. Nervous, hypochondriac, hysteric affections, asthmas, indigestions, swellings, and eruptions, all took their doleful pleasure in them, and drank the waters with infinite belief. In the Wells were still frequented. The subscription for the water was a guinea the season; to non-subscribers, and with capillaire, it cost sixpence a glass. The spring was then enclosed by an artificial grotto of flints and shells, which was entered by a rustic gate; there was a lodging-house, to board invalids, and in the garden a breakfast-room, about feet long, with a small orchestra. In the room was hung up a comparative analysis of the water, and there were testimonials of its efficacy from gentlemen who had been ill for quarters of centuries, and had drunk all other mineral waters in vain. | |
On the bark of of the trees (before ) were cut the following lines:- The following lines were written in a room of the lodging-house, just as a votive tablet might have been hung up on the walls of a Greek temple:-- Amusements resembling those of Vauxhall-music, fireworks, &c.----were resorted to at New Tunbridge Wells, in -, but without much success. | |
On the death of Sadler, his music-house passed to Francis Forcer, whose son exhibited rope-dancing and tumbling till , when he died. | |
The place was then taken by Mr. Rosoman, a builder, and the wooden house was, about the year , replaced by [extra_illustrations.2.290.2] . A painting, introducing Rosoman and some of his actors, was in , to be seen in the bar of the the inn introduced by Hogarth in his print of published in . There was a club, at this time, at the of actors, who, in , formed a regular company, at what had now become a theatre. The amusements here were originally in the open air, the tickets to spectators including refreshments. The , of , notes the feats of activity exhibited here. After that time this suburban theatre became famous for burlettas, musical interludes, and pantomimes. Here Grimaldi cracked his drollest jokes, and here the celebrated Richer exhibited on the tight rope. The was also taken advantage of, and introduced into a tank the size of the stage, to represent more effectively naval victories and French defeats. After Rosoman, Mr. Thomas King, the comedian, and Mr. Wroughton, of , became proprietors; and at time Mr. Charles Dibdin, jun., was Stage-manager. | |
A most fatal panic took place at this theatre on the . The cry, was mistaken for and a rush took place from the gallery. The manager, shouting to the people through speaking-trumpets, entreated them to keep their seats; but in vain, for many threw themselves down into the pit, and eighteen were crushed to death on the gallery stairs. The proceed of | |
p.291 | |
[extra_illustrations.2.291.1] benefits were divided among the children and widows of the sufferers. | |
Sadler's Musical House, which, tradition affirms, was a place of public entertainment even as early as the reign of Elizabeth, seems early to have affected a theatrical air. In , we find a vocal and instrumental concert advertised here, the instrumental part being It was to continue from to , every Monday and Thursday, during the drinking of the waters. In the Wells were called and in that year Ned Ward, always coarse and always lively, describes going with a crowd of Inns of Court beaux to see a wretch, disguised in a fool's cap, and with a smutty face like a hangman, eat a live fowl, feathers and all. | |
says Mr. Pinks,
| |
Ned Ward, who was a quick observer, describes the dress-circle gallery here as painted with stories of Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter and Europa, &c. In his poem, Ned Ward is not complimentary to the Sadler's Wells visitors. In the pit, he says, were butchers, bailiffs, housebreakers, footpads, prizefighters, thief-takers, deerstealers, and bullies, who drank, and smoked, and lied, and swore. They ate cheesecakes and drank ale, and of the buffoons was also a waiter. The female vocalist was followed by a fiddler in scarlet. Then came a child, who danced a sword-dance, and after her
| |
About the Wells seems to have become still more disreputable, and in a lieutenant of the navy was run through the body there by a Mr. French, of the Temple, in a drunken quarrel. | |
Macklin says there were or exhibitions in a day, and that the duration of each performance depended upon circumstances. The proprietors had always a fellow outside to calculate how many persons were collected for a exhibition, and when he thought there were enough, he came to the back of the upper seats and cried out, This was a cant word between the parties, to know the state of the people without, upon which they concluded the entertainment, and dismissed the audience with a song, and prepared for a representation. | |
In a poem called written about , by William Garbott, the author thus describes the Wells, with advertising enthusiasm:
| |
Forcer, a barrister, the proprietor in the early part of the eighteenth century, improved the pantomimes, rope-dancing, and ladder-dancing, tumbling, and musical interludes. Acrobats threw summersaults from the upper gallery, and Black Scaramouch struggled with Harlequin on the stage. The old well was accidentally discovered in Macklin's time, between the and the stage-door. It was encircled with stone, and you descended to it by several steps. Cromwell, writing in , says that it was known that springs existed under the orchestra, and under the stage, and that the old fountain of health might hopefully be sought for there. In , in his not of his most successful works, Hogarth introduced a bourgeois holiday-maker and his wife, with Sadler's Wells in the background. In a book of songs published in -, we find a song on Sadler's Wells, which contained several characteristic verses. Rope-dancing and harlequinade, with scenery, feats of strength, and singing, seem to have been the usual entertainment about this period. In the place was presented by the grand jury of the county as a scene of great extravagance, luxurious idleness, and ill-fame, but it led to no good results. In any person was admitted to the Wells, on taking a ticket for a pint of wine. This same year a ballet on the Battle of Culloden, a most undanceable subject, would think, was very popular; and Hogarth's terrible was turned into a drama, with songs, by Lampe. | |
The Grub Street poets, in the meantime, belauded the Wells, not without reward, and not always inelegantly, as the following verses show:--
| |
A writer in the of praises a dexterous performer at the Wells, who, with bells on his feet, head, and hands, jangled out a variety of tunes, by dint of various nods and jerks. The same year a wonderful balancer named Maddox performed on the slack wire, tossing balls, and kicking straws into a wine-glass which he held in his mouth. Maddox, the equilibrist, entertained the public for several seasons by his and his fame was celebrated by a song set to music, entitled which for a time was very popular. A similar feat was afterwards performed at the Wells by a Dutchman, with a peacock's feather, which he blew into the air and caught as it fell, on different parts of a wire, at the same time preserving his due equilibrium. The same performer used to balance a wheel upon his shoulder, his foreheads and his chin, and afterwards, to show his skill as an equilibrist, he poised wheels, with a boy standing on of them. | |
The road home from the Wells seems to have been peculiarly dangerous about , as the manager announces in the that on the night of a certain charitable performance a horse-patrol would be sent by Mr. Fielding (the blind magistrate, and kinsman of the novelist) for the protection of nobility and gentry who came from the squares. The road to the city was, as he promised, also to be properly guarded. A year later an armed patrol was advertised as stationed on the , between Sadler's Wells and . Foote. wrote, about the same time:--
| |
In the old wooden theatre at the Wells was pulled down and a new built, at an expense of . A ticket for the boxes, in , entitled the bearer to a pint of port, mountain, Lisbon, or punch A pint cost .. | |
In Signor Grimaldi, Joe Grimaldi's father, appeared as chief dancer and ballet-master. He continued there till the close of . In James Byrne, the famous harlequin of , and the father of Oscar. Byrne, was employed at Sadler's Wells as a dancer, and a Signor Rossignol gave imitations of birds, like Herr Joel, and accompanied the orchestra on a fiddle without strings. About this time, too, Charles Dibdin the elder wrote some clever and fanciful pieces for this theatre, entitled | |
In Rosomon surrendered the management to King, the famous comedian, who held it till , when Sheridan gave him up the sovereignty of . King had been an attorney, but had thrown up his parchments to join theatres and play under Garrick. He excelled in , and . His and , says Dr. Doran, were only equalled by Garrick and Elliston. He was arch, easy, and versatile, and the last time he played , in , the fascinating Mrs. Jordan was the young wife.. King remained an inveterate gambler to the last, in spite of Garrick's urgent entreaties. King sold the Wells, says Mr. Pinks, for . Joe Grimaldi appeared at Sadler's Wells in , in the character of a monkey. In eggdancers and performing dogs were the rage, the dogs alone clearing for the managers, in season, . The saying at the theatre at that time was, that if the dogs had not come to the theatre, the theatre must have gone to the dogs. Horsepatrols still paraded the roads to the city at night. | |
In Miss Romanzini (afterwards the celebrated ballad vocalist, Mrs. Bland) appeared at the Wells, and also Pietro Bologna, father of the celebrated clown, Jack Bologna. In Braham, then a boy, who had appeared in , at the Royalty Theatre, Wells Street, near , made his appearance at the Wells. says Mr. Pinks,
| |
After Wroughton's time, Mr. Siddons (husband of the great actress) became of the proprietors of the Wells, where, in , a young tragedian, Master Carey, the otherwise known as Edmund Kean, recited Rollo's speech from . His great-grandfather, Henry Carey, the illegitimate son of the Marquis of Halifax, and the author of the delightful ballad, had written and composed many of the ballad operas and ballad farces which were very successful at Sadler's Wells. | |
In , Charles. Dibdin, jun., and Thomas Dibdin, his brother, were busy at the Wells. | |
In appeared Signor Belzoni, afterwards the great Egyptian traveller, as the in which character, says Mr. Pinks,
| |
In Sadler's Well's began to assume the character of an aquatic theatre. An immense tank was constructed under the stage, and a communication opened with the . The aquatic piece was a , in which real vessels bombarded the fortress. A variety of pieces were subsequently produced, concluding with a grand scene for the finale, on Thomas Greenwood, a scene-painter at the Wells, thus records the water successes in his -
says a writer to whom we have already been much indebted,
| |
In Grimaldi sang for the time his immortal song of the very night a boy was crushed to death in the rush at entering.
| |
In the use of water for scenic purposes was discontinued for a time at Sadler's Wells, and in the old manager's house, next the , was turned into wine-rooms and a saloon; the season, in consequence of the immense growth of the neighbourhood, was extended from to months, and Tom Dibdin was engaged as acting manager. The year being very , the manager got up some pony-races in the grounds, which drew large audiences. On | |
p.294 | , Grimaldi took his farewell benefit at Sadler's Wells. |
Subsequently Mr. T. Dibdin became manager at the Wells, and produced a variety of ballets, pantomimes, burlettas, and melodramas. In that best of all stage sailors, Mr. T. P. Cooke, made his appearance at this theatre as William, in , a piece which ran nights. In , during a serio-romantic lyric drama called , and founded on the mutiny of the , the stage and its scenery was drawn up bodily to the roof of the house, to avoid the tediousness of a The were also a great success. | |
But a great epoch was now about to commence. In Mr. Samuel Phelps appeared, aided by Mrs. Warner. In Mr. Phelps resolved to produce all Shakespeare's plays, and actually did represent of them. These , under Mr. Phelps's management, occupied about nights, alone running for . After honourable toil of eighteen years, Mr. Phelps, a true enthusiast for the retired from Sadler's Wells in . He paid a rent of a year. | |
At the west end of a paved avenue on the south side of Sadler's Wells Theatre, on the opposite side of the now buried , just where a row of lofty poplars once fringed the left bank, stands the Tavern, erected in , on the site of the which was built as early as . This was the favourite house for the actors and authors of the Wells, and here sturdy Macklin, the best of Shylocks, Rosoman, the manager, Dibdin, and Grimaldi used to fill their churchwarden's pipes, and merrily stir their glasses. In Hogarth's published in , we have a glimpse of the old signboard, and of a gable end and primitive weather-boarding, against which a vine spreads itself, and displays its clustering fruit. At an open window honest citizens are carousing, while the fat and sour city dame, of by no means unimpeachable virtue, as the painter implies, is pettishly fanning herself, attended by her obsequious Jerry Sneak of a husband, who toils along, carrying the ugly baby. Malcolm, in , describes the tavern as facing the river, which was In the | |
p.295 | bar of the is a curious old picture of Manager Rosoman, surrounded by his select friends and members of his company; and of this picture Mr. Mark Lonsdale, a once manager of the theatre, drew up the following account:-- |
| |
In the days when clover grew round , and the cows of that region waded knee-deep in golden buttercups-when the skylark could be heard in , the Cockney pedestrian, after his early summer walk, expected to fall upon a good honest breakfast at some such suburban tavern as the About , Spencer's Breakfasting House, a mere hut with benches outside, at the end of Myddelton Place, supplied this want-tea at threepence per head, and coffee at halfpence per dish, fine Hyson tea at sixpence per head, On Sunday mornings Spencer's hut was filled with 'prentices and their sweethearts. The house had a cow-lair and a wooden fence that almost surrounded it. Here, in , the celebrated mimic and adventurer, George Alexander Stevens, delivered his which the celebrated comedians of the day attempted in vain to rival. In the , , is the following advertisement:-- | |
| |
Footnotes: [] Islington Wells; or, The Threepenny Academy, 1654. [extra_illustrations.2.290.1] Bill of Play, Sadler's Wells Theater-June 29, 1840 [] Nelson's Islington, 1st edit., p. 212. [extra_illustrations.2.290.2] a brick building [extra_illustrations.2.291.1] Park Lane Fountain |