William Batty

William Batty (1801–1868) was an equestrian performer, circus proprietor, and longtime operator of Astley's Amphitheatre in London. Batty was one of the most successful circus proprietors in Victorian England and helped launch the careers of a number of leading Victorian circus personalities, such as Pablo Fanque, the versatile performer and later circus proprietor (best known today from his mention in The Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"), and W.F. Wallett, one of the most celebrated clowns of the era. Also, while in operation for only two years, Batty's most lasting legacy is probably Batty's Grand National Hippodrome, also known as Batty's Hippodrome, an open-air amphitheate he erected in 1851 in Kensington Gardens, London, to attract audiences from the Crystal Palace Exhibition nearby.

Batty was an equestrian performer as early as 1828, and by 1836 he was operating his own circus. In that year, Pablo Fanque was performing with him in Nottingham as a "rope dancer." In the ensuing years, Batty's circus travelled throughout the United Kingdom; in 1838, he was at Newcastle and Edinburgh and, in 1840, at Portsmouth and Southampton. When Astley's Amphitheatre suffered its third fire, Batty was in Dublin, and boarded the next steamer to London to arrange for its rebuilding in Westminster Street. Batty put W.F. Wallett in charge of the management of his circus in Dublin, while Batty made plans for a temporary circus in Oxford and until Astley's could be rebuilt. While Batty was at Oxford in 1841, Pablo Fanque left Batty to start his own circus. Wallett joined him. On occasion, business would reunite Batty and Fanque over the next twenty years.

...
Wikipedia