Song and supper room

A song and supper room was a dining club in mid-nineteenth century Victorian England in which entertainment and good food were provided. They provided an alternative to formal theatre and music hall with a good convivial atmosphere in which the customers were encouraged to perform themselves.

In the first part of the nineteenth century, entertainment by both professional and amateur performers began to be provided at some taverns. Such venues were known as "free and easies", and it is said that "by and large they were disreputable establishments." There was no charge for entry, but only men were permitted in them. The journal The Town reported in 1837:

The epidemic of vocal music has more particularly spread its contagious and devastating influence amongst the youth of the Metropolis, the London apprentice boys. These young gentlemen generally give vent to their passion and display their vocal abilities in the spacious room appropriated to that purpose of some tavern or public house and these meetings are most aptly denominated Free and Easies: free as air they are for the advancement of drunkenness and profligacy and easy enough of access to all classes of society with little regard to appearances or character.

According to the Scottish comedian W. F. Frame, "a free-and-easy was a happy, go-as-you-please sort of entertainment and a capital preparatory school for budding amateurs."

The song and supper rooms developed in London from the 1820s and 1830s, and were an important influence on the development of the music hall tradition. Three of the most significant were:

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