Wiltons Music Hall

Wilton's is the world's oldest and last surviving grand music hall.

Here, in the 1850s and 60s, classical overtures, dance, circus acts, opera, choral, and folk songs were enormously popular, long before "old time music hall" evolved. John Wilton built this theatre behind his public house, The Prince of Denmark in 1858, in Graces Alley, E1. The pub was locally famous as the first to use beautiful mahogany fittings and became known as The Mahogany Bar. Wilton's was described as the "Handsomest Room in Town" and "A Temple to Apollo".

A sun-burner chandelier with 300 gas jets and 27,000 cut crystals dominated a mirrored hall where George Leybourne (Champagne Charlie) sang. Rumour has it that the first ever Can-Can was performed and promptly banned at Wilton's. The auditorium remains incredibly intact - the original cast iron 'barley sugar' pillars support a papier-mâché balcony under paper roses set in a vaulted roof. In Wilton's day, 1,500 people used to cram into the music hall to hear the top acts - artistes from the Covent Garden were lured over in full costume to perform late night favourite arias. Today the hall has a licence to seat 300 people.

In 1880 John Wilton died, aged 60. Wilton's continued as a music hall for a few years after.

Then the hall was taken over by the East End Mission of the Methodist Church in 1888 and kept the name The Old Mahogany Mission until 1956. In the first dockers' strike of 1889 it served 2,000 meals a day to the strikers and was the HQ for the people of the East End who gathered to stop Mosley's fascists in the famous 1936 Battle of Cable Street, and in World War II gave shelter to a badly blitzed community. In 1956 Wilton's was sold and used as a rag warehouse.

In 1964 Sir John Betjeman campaigned to make Wilton's a listed building to save it from demolition. Wilton's was given a Grade II * (grade two star) listing. Many people have helped in saving Wilton's - they include Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers, Rory Bremner, Liza Minelli, Roy Hudd and Christopher Biggins. For many years it was owned by the GLC and then the London Music Halls Trust.

However the building has been neglected and is semi-derelict. At the current state of decline it will cease to be accessible in the next two to three years. Wilton's comprises of a terrace of Georgian houses including the original pub and the music hall which is built across the back yards of the houses.

In 2004 the newly formed Wilton's Music Hall Trust began a stabilisation drive to open the building to the public to experience and appreciate the heritage of Wilton's through a variety of mediums such as performances, heritage education, guided tours and events.

To make a donation to the building appeal please click here or see our support page.