Weston's Music Hall

Weston’s Music Hall stood at 242–245 High Holborn in the London Borough of Camden. The building replaced the old Six Cans and Punch Bowl Tavern, converted from a schoolroom by Edward Weston in six months. It opened in 1857 as a purpose-built music hall to rival Charles Morton’s Canterbury Music Hall in Lambeth. By 1868 the hall had become the Royal Music Hall, then the Royal Holborn Theatre of Varieties under Arthur Swanborough and George Burgess. W. B. Fair ran the early shows, choosing acts and encouraging the crowd to join in. The theatre’s most famous period came after Walter Gibbons bought it in 1905. Frank Matcham remodelled the auditorium in 1906, and the name changed to the Holborn Empire. In 1907 the Variety Artistes’ Federation called a strike at the Holborn Empire over pay and working conditions. Stars such as Marie Lloyd supported the strike, which led to extra payments for matinees. The theatre also premiered the first full-length feature film in 1914 and hosted early performances by Flanagan and Allen, Margaret Lockwood and Max Miller. Visitors found a lively hall where acts mixed with the audience under Fair’s direction. Later, the Holborn Empire staged revues like Haw Haw! and Apple Sauce with Florence Desmond and Vera Lynn. During the Blitz in May 1941 a bomb hit the building, ending its run. The site was cleared in 1960, but the stories of Tommy, Make Room for Your Uncle and the Music Hall Wars remain part of its history.