Penny reading

The penny reading was a form of popular public entertainment that arose in the United Kingdom in the middle of the 19th century, consisting of readings and other performances, for which the admission charged was one penny.

Under the heading of "rational recreation", the penny reading proved to be accessible and was taken up by working class audiences. It built on the tradition of the penny gaff and "singing saloon". Writing in the mid-1860s, Thomas Wright as itinerant social observer found penny readings "exceedingly popular all over the country".

Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin criticised this passive consumption of literature through reading aloud, fitting as it did into Victorian culture and in particular poetry recitation. Penny readings, however, appealed for a period in both urban and country settings. They were significant as a way forward for the Mechanics' Institutes set up in the early Victorian period, where they became a staple activity, along with smoking concerts and study for scientific qualifications. In the fictionalised Candleford Green of Flora Thompson, the penny reading, although outmoded elsewhere, was "still going strong" in the 1890s.

The Public Reading Society founded in the 1850s was the vehicle of Charles John Plumptre, a barrister who turned to the teaching of elocution. Charles Sulley, editor of the Ipswich Express, was credited with starting the penny reading movement in Suffolk, during the 1850s. A short history was given in the 1865 standard reading collection edited by Joseph Edwards Carpenter. The Rev. James Fleming of Bath was also credited as the "father of the penny-reading movement", for his numerous public readings.

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