A night-cellar is a
cellar which is open for business at night, typically providing food, drink and entertainment. There were many such in London in the 18th century and they were often disreputable.
London
George Augustus Sala wrote an account of
Evans's Supper Rooms
Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms was an entertainment venue for music and singing in the early nineteenth century, located at 43 King Street, Covent Garden, London. The venue provided the type of entertainment which later evolved into music hall. W ...
in 1852. This was a famous
supper club which would serve hearty food and raucous entertainment in the middle of the night – as late as one in the morning. But he lamented that the night-cellars of the previous century had mostly disappeared in London:
[
]
New York
In the 1840s, there was a popular night-cellar in New York called Butter-Cake Dick's. This was a favourite of the b'hoys and g'hals – the rough young folk of lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
.[ Later in the US, cellar bars and clubs became known as ]dive
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
s because one could dive into them without being seen.
References
Nightclubs in London
Types of drinking establishment
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