The Philharmonic Hall, 97

Great Portland Street Great Portland Street is a commercial road in the West End of London which links Oxford Street with the A501 road, A501 Marylebone Road. A mixed-use street of residents and businesses, it divides Fitzrovia, to the east, from Marylebone to the ...

, London, originally the St James's Hall, was built in 1907–08 to replace the

St James's Hall St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones (architect), Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regen ...

that once stood in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

. The building was then used by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and known as Brock House. It is now leased to The Office Group.

Location

The Hall occupies the whole of the area bounded by

Langham Street Langham may refer to: Places Canada *Langham, Saskatchewan England * Langham, Dorset *Langham, Essex * Langham, Norfolk * Langham, Northumberland *Langham, Rutland * Langham, Somerset *Langham, Suffolk *Langham Place, London, a street in London ...

Hallam Street Hallam Street is a road situated in the Parish of St Marylebone and London's West End of London, West End. In administrative terms, it lies within the City of Westminster's West End (Westminster ward), West End Ward as well as the Harley Str ...

, Gildea Street and Great Portland Street. The building today has a street address of 19 Langham Street and the main entrance is now on the west side of the building in that street.

History

The Philharmonic Hall was built on the site of the former St Paul's Church (once known as the Portland Chapel) to replace the

which had been demolished in 1905. The foundation stone was laid by the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

on 20 April 1907 and the building opened on 25 April 1908 with a series of promenade concerts performed by the newly formed St. James's Hall Orchestra. By 1914, the hall had changed name to the Philharmonic and a

Ward Lock Ward, Lock & Co. was a publishing house in the United Kingdom that started as a partnership and developed until it was eventually absorbed into the publishing combine of Orion Publishing Group. History Ebenezer Ward and George Lock started a p ...

guide to London produced soon after the end of the First World War (1918) reported that the hall was "mainly used for

cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the ...

displays". In 1917, the hall was photographed for the

Howard de Walden Estate The Howard de Walden Estate is a property estate in Marylebone, London, owned by the Howard de Walden family. As of 2020 the estate was reported to be worth £4.7 billion. History The estate's development dates from 1715 when speculative pla ...

of which it was then, and may still be, a part. The photograph shows that ''

Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly ...

'' was playing and that on the ground floor at number 95A was a car dealership by the name of Watkins and Doncaster Limited.Reference No. BL23834.
English Heritage Archives. Retrieved 14 October 2014. Great Portland Street up to the Second World War was known as one of London's "Motor Row"s due to the over 30 car showrooms in the street.

Events

Sir Ernest Shackleton Philharmonic Hall Programme Great Portland Street c1920

The Hall presented a variety of material, including concerts and film, but developed a specialism in travel films from remote regions. Often, these were accompanied by a commentary or lecture from someone connected with the film. *In 1919, the

Southern Syncopated Orchestra Southern Syncopated Orchestra (SSO), established first in the U.S. as the New York Syncopated Orchestra, was an early jazz group known for bringing Black musicians to the UK. The group was founded by Will Marion Cook. Members of the group include ...

, who are sometimes credited with introducing Jazz to Britain, performed at the hall. The orchestra had arrived in Britain earlier that year for a European tour and was a notable success at the Philharmonic Hall and elsewhere. They were complimented for their varied repertoire and performed for the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) at Buckingham Palace.London's jazz legends.
BBC, 15 May 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2014. *In March 1919,

Herbert Ponting Herbert George Ponting, FRGS (21 March 1870 – 7 February 1935) was an English professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and S ...

was "telling the story of" the film ''With Captain Scott in the Antarctic''. *Later in 1919, Lowell Thomas's film ''With Allenby in Palestine'', was showing until the end of the year. *The explorer,

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarcti ...

, appeared there from December 1919 to May 1920 providing a commentary or lecture to accompany the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

and slides of his expedition to Antarctica which had previously been shown at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

. The appearances were necessary to raise funds to pay for former and future expeditions. The event was advertised as much as a celebrity appearance as the showing of a named work as the slides and pieces of film exhibited had not yet received a name or an identity separate from Shackleton's words. The rent of the hall cost £200 per week and Shackleton employed two operators, one for slides and one for film, at £10 each per week. *In 1922, documentary films titled ''Wildest Africa'' and ''Through Romantic India'' were shown. *In 1923, George Lattimore was promoting with

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

, ''Cradle of the World'', the "most marvellous and thrilling travel film ever screened". In a letter to the pan-Africanist W.E. Du Bois, Lattimore reported that he was having a "successful run" at the Philharmonic Hall. In fact, the show received indifferent reviews and lasted only one month. The show, which seems to have been based at least partly on ''Wildest Africa'', included a musical interlude to enliven the proceedings and to cover up the changing of the film reels.

Sol Plaatje Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (9 October 1876 – 19 June 1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native Natio ...

, the first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (later the African National Congress), who was desperately in need of money, was recruited by Lattimore to take the role of an African tribesman.

BBC use

The Philharmonic Hall was one of more than twenty locations considered for the new headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927.Broadcasting House: The BBC is Born.
''Broadcasting House a Potted History'', 27 May 2002. Retrieved 23 November 2014. The site was discounted as a headquarters and in 1932 the BBC's

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

was opened on the other side of Hallam Street. The Philharmonic Hall became a BBC building known as Brock House. The exterior is now much changed with a different facade and windows and additional space added on the roof.Great Portland Street.
Google Street View, July 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014. During the Second World War, the building was the home of the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

drama department. In later years, the building was used mainly for administration and the BBC Mechanical Workshop. By 2018 the BBC vacated the building, with the original plan for it to be redeveloped as a boutique hotel.BBC Television Centre to be redeveloped as a 'digital experience'.
Tara Conlan & John Plunkett, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 31 March 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2014. However, as of 2018, it is being developed into office space for The Office Group.

References

External links