14-16-Regent-Street-by-Nash-1824-drawn-by-Pugin

The Royal Gallery of Illustration was a 19th-century performance venue located at 14

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

in London. It was in use between 1850 and 1873. The gallery was built in the 1820s by the architect John Nash as part of his own house, to display his considerable collection of paintings. In 1850 the building was named the Gallery of Illustration, and between then and 1855 it housed a

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

created and run by the theatrical scene-painters Thomas Grieve and William Telbin. From 1856 to 1873 the gallery was in the hands of the singer and actress

Priscilla Horton Priscilla Horton, later Priscilla German Reed (2 January 1818 – 18 March 1895), was an English singer and actress, known for her role as Ariel in W. C. Macready's production of ''The Tempest'' in 1838 and "fairy" Victorian burlesque, burlesque ...

and her husband German Reed. Their entertainments developed from songs and comedy with piano accompaniment to programmes of short plays and operettas. In deference to respectable mid-Victorian doubts about the propriety of theatres, the Reeds called their productions "entertainments", and avoided the use of the words "theatre", "play" and other theatrical terms. Under the Reeds the gallery played an important part in the development of a new generation of authors, composers and performers. Among the writers whose works the Reeds staged were

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...

and

F. C. Burnand Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera ''Cox and Box''. The son of ...

, and their composers included

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

Frederic Clay Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for songs and his music written for the stage. Although from a musical family, for 16 years Clay made his living as a civil servant in HM Treasury ...

and

Alfred Cellier Alfred Cellier (1 December 184428 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing th ...

. The performers

Arthur Cecil Arthur Cecil Blunt (1 June 1843 – 16 April 1896), better known as Arthur Cecil, was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of ''Cox a ...

Corney Grain Richard Corney Grain (26 October 1844 – 16 March 1895), known by his stage name Corney Grain, was an entertainer and songwriter of the late Victorian era. Biography Born at Teversham in Cambridgeshire, Grain was the youngest son of John Grai ...

and

Fanny Holland Fanny Holland (14 September 1847 – 18 June 1931) was an English singer and comic actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in numerous German Reed Entertainments. Life and career Holland was born in London and traine ...

made their names at the gallery early in their careers. The lease of the building expired in 1873, and it ceased to be used as a performance venue. The Reeds moved to another theatre, and the gallery became a banqueting hall.

History

1824–1855

The gallery was built by the architect John Nash, designer of

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

, and other urban improvements undertaken to the commission of King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. The gallery was part of Nash's own residence at 14 Regent Street, completed in 1824. It originally housed copies of paintings by

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

, which Nash arranged, with papal permission, to be copied by top Roman artists of the time. He allowed members of the public to view the gallery by appointment. After his death the pictures were sold. The house was bought by an auctioneer called Rainy, who made it his business premises and used the gallery to display his wares in the 1830s and 1840s. In 1850 the theatrical scene-painters Thomas Grieve and William Telbin took on the lease of the building. They opened it in March as the Gallery of Illustration, offering a

display with expert commentary and music. The first show, "Diorama of the Overland Route to India", opened in March 1850 and was a success with critics and public. A reviewer wrote: ''

The Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...

'' reported in October that the show "continues to attract overflowing audiences to the Gallery of Illustration in Regent-street. Its extensive popularity, however, is no matter for wonder, as the subject treated is perhaps the finest that can be conceived for the purposes of scenic illustration". Grieve and Telbin followed this with "Diorama of Our Native Land" (1851), "Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington" (1852), "Diorama of the Arctic Regions" (1853), and "The Seat of War" (1854). The prefix "Royal" was added to the title of the establishment by late 1852, but it is not clear on what authority, if any.

1856–1873

Early in 1856 the singer and actress

began to perform at the venue. Her entertainments given at

St Martin's Hall The Queen's Theatre in London was established in 1867 as a theatre on the site of St Martin's Hall, a large concert room that had opened in 1850. It stood on the corner of Long Acre (formerly Charles Street) and Endell Street, with entrances in ...

had been popular, and with her husband, German Reed, at the piano and "the pictorial aid of Messrs Grieve and Telbin", she started giving what ''The Morning Chronicle'' called "her very clever impersonations" at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. The Reeds continued to perform at the gallery for seventeen years, in what were first billed as "Miss P. Horton's Illustrative Gatherings" and then "Mr and Mrs German Reed's Entertainments". They quickly became public favourites: in 1859 '' The Daily News'' observed: In 1860 the Reeds were joined by John Parry, a former concert singer and subsequently an entertainer known for his impressions of popular performers. The historian Jane W. Stedman writes that the Reeds' playbills "settled into a format, which continued even after Parry retired in 1869: a musical monologue to piano accompaniment by Parry ... preceded and/or followed by a musical piece, later two, often farcical, often a pocket operetta". A Peculiar Family - Royal Gallery of Illustration

A Peculiar Family - Royal Gallery of Illustration

In the 1850s and 1860s theatres were regarded by a substantial part of society as not respectable. The historian Andrew Crowther writes, "Many who would gladly attend a concert, a lecture or an exhibition at a gallery would not think of setting foot in a theatre". The Reeds did not to refer to the Gallery of Illustration as a theatre, and they called their productions "illustrations" or "entertainments", acts were "parts", and roles were "assumptions", avoiding conventional theatrical terms. Stedman comments that the accompaniment of piano, harmonium, and at times a harp "also emphasized the presumably untheatrical nature of the entertainment". The author

F. Anstey Thomas Anstey Guthrie (8 August 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English author (writing as F. Anstey), most noted for his comic novel ''Vice Versa'' about a boarding-school boy and his father exchanging identities. His reputation was confirmed b ...

recalled that in his Victorian childhood there was no question of being taken to a theatre, The stage was tiny because the long, narrow gallery could not accommodate a larger one. This restricted the Reeds to a cast of at most five performers. Much doubling of parts and quick changes were called for. '' The Era'' reported on a typical production in July 1868: Reed experimented with what he called chamber opera – ''opera di camera'' – simplified versions of operas for his usual small forces. The first was ''Jessy Lea'' (1863), a retelling of ''

L'elisir d'amore ''L'elisir d'amore'' (''The Elixir of Love'', ) is a ' (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's ' (1831). The opera premiere ...

'', with words by

John Oxenford John Oxenford (12 August 1812 – 21 February 1877) was an English dramatist, critic and translator. Life Oxenford was born in Camberwell, London, his father a prosperous merchant. Whilst he was privately educated, it is reported that he was m ...

and music by

George Macfarren George Macfarren (1788–1843) was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Life He was born in London 5 September 1788. He was the son of George Macfarren. He was educated chiefly at Archbishop Tenison's school in Cast ...

.Jacobs, Arthur
"Cradled among the Reeds: Two Victorian Operettas"
''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

'', May 1988, pp. 234–235 After seven further productions of the same nature, with original music by Macfarren and

Virginia Gabriel Mary Anne Virginia Gabriel (7 February 1825 – 7 August 1877) was an English singer and composer. She was also known as Mrs. George E. March. Life Virginia Gabriel was born in Banstead, Surrey, England, the daughter of Major-general "Archange ...

and adaptations of Offenbach and

Michael Balfe Michael William Balfe (15 May 1808 – 20 October 1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas, especially ''The Bohemian Girl''. After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to co ...

the experiment came to an end. At the gallery the Reeds staged nine pieces by William Brough, seven by

, and five by

, whose ''

Ages Ago ''Ages Ago'', sometimes stylised as ''Ages Ago!'' or ''Ages Ago!!'', is a musical entertainment with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Frederic Clay that premiered on 22 November 1869 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. It marked the b ...

'' (1869, with music by

) was the Reeds' longest-running and most frequently revived production, narrowly outdistancing Burnand and

's ''

Cox and Box ''Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers'', is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce '' Box and Cox'' by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic o ...

''. Other authors whose works were presented there included

Shirley Brooks Charles William Shirley Brooks (29 April 1816 – 23 February 1874) was an English journalist and novelist. Born in London, he began his career in a solicitor's office. Shortly afterwards he took to writing, and contributed to various per ...

Henry Chorley Henry Fothergill Chorley (15 December 1808 – 16 February 1872) was an English literary, art and music critic, writer and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics. Chorley was a prolific and important music and litera ...

James Planché James Robinson Planché (27 February 1796 – 30 May 1880) was a British dramatist, antiquary and officer of arms. Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including ...

Robert Reece Robert Reece (2 May 1838 – 8 July 1891) was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-lang ...

, T. W. Robertson, Bolton Rowe and

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language a ...

. Among the composers in addition to Reed, Parry, Macfarren, Sullivan, Gabriel and Clay were

and James Molloy. The Reeds' lease of the gallery expired at the end of July 1873, and the building ceased to be used as a performance space. The programme for the last night there, on 31 July, comprised ''Mildred's Well; or A Romance of the Middle Ages'' by Burnand and Reed, ''Very Catching'' by Burnand and Molloy, and ''Our Garden Party'' by

."The London Theatres", ''The Era'', 3 August 1873, p. 11 The Reeds moved to St George's Hall at the opposite end of Regent Street; the gallery became the banqueting hall of the

Pall Mall Restaurant The Pall Mall Restaurant was a hostelry situated at Number 1 Cockspur Street, Westminster, London, just off Pall Mall and near Trafalgar Square. The site was subsequently the offices of the White Star Line, and was then occupied by a Tex Mex rest ...

, which occupied the site until 1883, when the building was leased by the new

Constitutional Club The Constitutional Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved, which was established in 1883 and disbanded in 1979. Between 1886 and 1959 it had a distinctive red and yellow Victorian terracotta building, designed by Robert William Edis ...

Legacy

The historical importance of the gallery is chiefly its role in the early careers and development of leading authors, composers and performers. Several future stars had their start in the Reeds' company, including

, Corney Grain and

. Few of the shows presented at the gallery have remained in the repertory. Gilbert's ''Ages Ago'' has been revived occasionally. Burnand and Sullivan's ''Cox and Box'' was taken up by later managements including the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...

, and has continued to be revived regularly in the 21st century.Pomeroy, Cybele
"''Brides and Mothers'' and ''Cox and Box'' at The Forgotten Opera Company: Two dazzling flashes of operetta"
''DC Metro Theater Arts'', 23 November 2019

Posters

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

Description of an "Illustrative Gathering"''Shakespeariana, Volume 3''
description of Horton and

John Orlando Parry John Orlando Parry (3 January 1810 – 20 February 1879) was an English actor, pianist, artist, comedian, songwriter and singer. Biography Early career Parry, the only son of Welsh musician John Parry (known as ''Bardd Alaw''), was born in L ...

Information and links about Gilbert's works for the Gallery
{{Coord, 51.5089, -0.1339, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title Former theatres in London