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Crosby Hall

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Venue Type & Location

Lecture Hall

Overview

  • Address: Bishopsgate Street, London. For a current map, Click Here. For an historical map showing the venue (in addition to the one excerpted at right), Click Here.

  • Alternate Names: Hall, Crosby Place; Dining Hall, Crosby Place

  • Performance Space Description: Crosby Hall was a large, single storey space that had once been the grand dining hall of a 15th Century Gothic Mansion. In 1854, John Weale described the venue as follows: “The hall (though some feet at each end are of modern design) retains its original proportions, viz., 54 ft. long, 27 ft. wide, and forty ft. high. […] [It] is lighted from both sides near the ceiling by Lancastrian arched windows of singular beauty both externally and internally. […] The crowning beauty, however, is the vaulted semi-octagonal bay window, or oriel, as it is called. Its interior is one of the most perfect things domestic architecture ever produced and the exterior one of the best of its class” (161). Similarly, an author writing in Mogg’s New Picture of London (1844) called the space a “noble hall, now converted into a lecture and concert room formed with great elegance”, and noted its “beautiful roof, divided by three rows of pendants ranging along, and, connected by pointed arches” and “its windows of stained glass” (reproduced in the Dictionary of Victorian London online). According to John Timbs, the room was fitted with “a minstrels’ gallery, but not a dais” (240)

  • Typical Fare: During the years covered by this database, Crosby Hall was mainly used for lectures and concerts. It was also the home of a Literary and Scientific Institution. Descriptions of playbills for concerts and entertainments at the facility can be found in the Arts & Humanities Research Council’s Concert Programmes Database, Here.

    • Performance History

  • Crosby Place was built as a private mansion for Sir John Crosby in 1472. It remained a private dwelling place (housing, amongst others, Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Sir Thomas More) until 1672. At that point, the Hall was converted into a chapel.

  • The chapel remained until 1769, when the space was let as a packer’s house. When this lease expired in 1831, the hall was restored to its original state (with some additions and refurbishments). It re-opened in 1842.

  • In the late 1800s, the hall seems to have been used as a restaurant. In 1910, however, it was carefully dismantled (to make way for a bank) and then rebuilt in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. For a time, it served as the dining hall of the British Federation of University Women in this new location. Now, however, it is once again part of a private residence.

    Please see the 'Bibliographic Sources' link at right for a complete listing of materials (both primary and secondary) from which the above information was compiled.

    Beth Marquis

    • Troupes at Crosby Hall

    Film Affiliated people Film Type # of event(s)
    Bosjesmans Exhibition Definite Bosjesmans
    Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847) Pelham, Richard W. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)
    Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847) Williamson, W.J. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)
    Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847) Orford, W. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)
    Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847) Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)
    Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847) Lyon, R. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) Fortescue, Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) Daniels, Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) Sherwood, Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) May, Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47) Roberts, B. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Germon, Francis Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Harrington, George Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) White, W. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Stanwood, Moody Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Pell, Gilbert W. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Dumbolton, James A. Minstrel Definite Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Female American Serenaders Rosa, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Yarico, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Hodson, G.A. Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Jumba, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Miami, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Cora, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Womba, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders
    Female American Serenaders Woski, Minstrel Definite Female American Serenaders

    Events at Crosby Hall

    Event Date Venue Location Film
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Female American Serenaders
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Exhibition - London, London (city-county) Bosjesmans
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Harmonists (1846-47)
    Minstrel Show - London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Delineators (Pelham's, 1847)

    Bibliographic Sources

    View a list of abbreviations.

    • Morning Chronicle (London) April 28, 1846: 1.
      Info in Record:
      • venue description/décor/performance environment
    • Observer (London) May 3, 1846: 1: 1.
      Info in Record:
      • venue description/décor/performance environment (suggested in ticket price breakdown)
    • Observer (London) May 10, 1846: 1: 1.
      Info in Record:
      • venue description/décor/performance environment (suggested in ticket price breakdown)
    • Morning Chronicle (London) January 29, 1847: 1 (second relvant ad).
      Info in Record:
      • venue description/décor/performance environment
    • (Under Buildings, Monuments & Museums - Crosby Place)
    • London: David Bogue, 1855
    • (Under Bishopsgate Library - Collections - Archives Collections - London Collection Manuscripts - Crosby Hall)
    • London: G. Woodfall and Son, 1854
    • (search "Crosby Hall")
    • London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1881
      pp.154-8.
    • London: H.G. Clarke & Co., 1851
      pp224-225.