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St George's Hall, London


Coordinates: 51°31′4″N 0°8′33″W / 51.51778°N 0.14250°W / 51.51778; -0.14250

St. George's Hall was a theatre located in Langham Place, Regent Street in London, built in 1867, which closed in 1966. The hall could accommodate between 800 and 900 persons, or up to 1,500 persons including the galleries. The architect was John Taylor of Whitehall.

The hall was known for three decades for its presentation of the German Reed Entertainments alongside other musical works and lectures. After 1895, it was used for vaudeville, drama, magic shows, as the headquarters of the London Academy of Music, and even as a skating rink. In 1933, it became a BBC broadcasting studio but was shut down after extensive damage from bombing in March 1943. The theatre was demolished in 1966, and the St Georges Hotel and Henry Wood House now stand on the site.

The hall was built as a concert hall for the New Philharmonic Society and opened on 24 April 1867. The Hall could be used as a theatre, however, and the first production at "St. George's Theatre" was A Woman's Whim by Walter Stephens on 3 December 1867.

Soon afterwards, the theatre was leased by Thomas German Reed, who initially produced and conducted The Contrabandista (a comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand), The Beggar's Opera and other English operas in small-scale productions. In 1874, Reed's wife, Priscilla German Reed, moved the German Reed Entertainments to St. George's Hall. Like their earlier theatre, the Gallery of Illustration, St. George's had a small stage, and musical works were presented with only piano and harmonium. Thomas retired in 1871, and his son Alfred continued to run the theatre with his mother until her retirement in 1879 and, beginning in 1877, in partnership with Richard Corney Grain, until both their deaths in 1895.


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