Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life

by Daniel Joseph Kirwan

At the Covent Garden Opera House, the tariff of prices is as follows:

Private boxes: Second tier, 2½ guineas; first tier, near the stage, 3 guineas; ditto, at the side, 4 guineas; ditto, in the centre, 5 guineas; grand tier, 6 guineas; pit tier, 5 guineas; pit stalls, 21s.; pit, 7 s.; amphitheatre, 2s. 6d.; amphitheatre stalls, front row, 10s. 6d.; second row 7s.; all other rows, 5s. No extra charge for booking places. Evening dress to all parts except the amphitheatre and amphitheatre stalls. No gratuities allowed to boxkeepers. Doors open at eight; performance commences at half-past eight.

In most of the theatres in London hideous old women or shabby looking men attend in the lobbies, and wait upon the people who have need for their services during the night, demanding a fee for every trifling errand, and in a first-class place of amusement, a boxkeeper would be insulted if offered less than a shilling for turning a key.

And then there are terrible young blackguards who insist upon the stranger's buying oranges, walnuts or apples from them, or else he must take their chaff as it is given.

But the biggest swindle of all is, that a man must pay two pence for the programme of the play, or three pence or four pence, as the case may be, and yet I have heard Englishmen tell me with audacity that they lived in a free country.

And now before I proceed to tell anything of the London theatres, I will give a table of the prices and the time of opening doors, with the location of each place of amusement for the benefit of those who may visit London:

ASTLEY'S AMPHITHEATRE.

The Adelphi, 411 Strand; admission, seven o'clock—6s., 5s., 3s., 2s., 1s. 6d., 1s., and 6d.; Astley's, Westminster Road, Lambeth; seven o'clock—5s., 3s., 2s., 1s. 6d., 1s., and 6d.; Britannia, Hoxton Old Town, will hold 3,400 persons; half-past six o'clock—2s., 1s., 6d., and 3d.; City of London, 36 Norton Folgate; seven o'clock—2s., 1s., and 6d.; Covent Garden, Bow street; eight o'clock—7s., 5s., 3s., 2s. 6d., 2s., and 1s. It was built in 1849, with Floral Hall adjoining. Its size, 240 feet by 123 feet, and 100 feet high, equals that of La Scala, the largest in Europe. Drury Lane, seven o'clock—7s., 5s., 2s., 1s., and 6d.; Grecian, City Road, seven o'clock—1s., 6d., and 3d.; Haymarket, seven o'clock—7s. 5s., 3s., 2s., and 1s.; Her Majesty's, corner of Haymarket, eight o'clock—7s., 5s., 3s., 2s. 6d., 2s., and 1s.; Holborn, High Holborn, nearly opposite Chancery Lane, seven o'clock—6s., 4s., 2s., 1s. 6d., 1s., and 6d.; Lyceum, Strand, seven o'clock—6s., 5s., 3s., 2s., and 1s.; Olympic, Wych street, Drury Lane, half-past seven o'clock—6s., 4s., 2s., 1s.; Marylebone, Portman Market, seven o'clock—3s., 2s., 1s., and 6d.; Pavilion, Whitechapel, half-past six o'clock—2s., 1s., and 6d.; Prince of Wales, Tottenham Court Road, seven o'clock—6s., 3s., 1s. 6d., 1s., and 6d.; Princess's, Oxford street, seven o'clock—6s., 5s., 4s., 2s., and 1s.; Queen's, Long Acre, formerly St. Martin's Hall, seven o'clock—6s., 5s., 4s., 2s. 6d., 2s., and 1s.; Royalty or Soho, Dean street, Oxford street, half-past seven o'clock—5s., 3s., 1s., and 6d.; Royal Amphitheatre, High Holborn, west of Red Lion street, seven o'clock—4s., 2s., 1s. 6d., and 1s.; Sadler's Wells, Clerkenwell, seven o'clock—3s., 2s., 1s., and 6d.; Standard, Shoreditch, half-past six o'clock—3s., 1s. 6d., 1s., 6d., and 3d., burnt down in 1866, is rebuilding; St. James's, King street, St. James's Square, half-past seven o'clock—4s., 3s., 2s., and 6d.; Strand, Strand, seven o'clock—5s., 3s., 1s. 6d., and 6.; Surrey, Blackfriar's Road, seven o'clock—3s., 2s., 1s. 6d., 1s., and 6d.; Victoria, New Cut, Lambeth, half-past six o'clock—1s. 6d., 1s., 6d., and 3d.

Drury Lane, which was built in 1812, will seat 1,700 persons, and its vestibule and saloons are as fine as any in Europe. Private boxes in the London theatres range in price for a single seat at from one guinea to four pounds, or from $5 to $20 a night. The Olympic seats 2,000; the Adelphi 1,500; Astley's Circus 4,000, and the gallery of the Victoria will seat 2,000, while the Pit of the Pavilion, a murderous hole in Whitechapel, seats 1,500 roughs.

Astley's is a sort of Hippodrome for spectacles, and is much loved by young London for the prancing of its horses and its grand shows. Astley's is at Lambeth, on the Surrey side of the Thames, and is in the heart of the democratic quarter of London. The present building is the fourth erected upon this site. The first was one of the nineteen theatres built by Philip Astley, and was opened in 1773, burnt in 1794; rebuilt 1795, burnt 1803; rebuilt 1804, burnt June 8, 1841, within two hours, the house being principally constructed from old ship-timber. It was rebuilt, and opened April 17, 1843, and has since been enlarged. There is only one other theatre in London for equestrianism; and the stud of trained horses numbers from fifty to sixty.