CLASS ACT: By rail to the music halls
Travelling by rail to music halls and variety theatres was popular for daytrippers and holidaymakers for more than a century. David John Hindle, of Preston, looks at how the history of each was intertwined, and also provides a taster for his new book.
Vctorian England was an age ofstuffy complacency, remembered partly for its crinolines and Hansom cabs, satanic mills and streets with gas lamps and knocker uppers, and for the birth of a peculiarly English institution - the music hall often referred to as the 'good old days'.
In Great Britain variety was originally known as music hall, especially during the earlyto-mid-Victorian era, though the two terms are often used interchangeably. Music hall was a product of the Victorian era.
Fundamentally the variety theatres emerged from music hall and were prevalent in seaside resorts, towns and cities during the first half ofthe 20th century, with British steam-hauled trains conveying the famous and not so famous stars to the music hall.
The origin and demise of the music halls and variety theatres closely parallels the steam era, spanning about 140 years, beginning with George Stephenson's Rocket in 1829 and ending with the last British Railways steam locomotives in regular service, which were condemned to a siding and the cutter's torch in August 1968.
Likewise the period that begins with the first music hall cl832 ends with the closure of the last variety theatres in the mid-1960s. Tramcars too complemented the railways and music halls, especially during the halcyon days of the inter-war years.
As the railway expanded, theatres and music halls began to stage international performances on a lavish scale, increasingly served by the railway, with improved mobility for scenery, costumes, animals and equipment.
In the mid-l 9th century it was the railways that changed everything. London-based touring companies and doyens ofmusic hall were now able to penetrate the provinces by train. From a social perspective this newly found mobility lured the public to the very first music halls long before the dawn ofthe automobile. For about 75 years the railways were the only form of proper land transport.
The Furness Railway came to be used by those engaged in the music hall industry,
with favourable terms offered for travelling music hall artists during 1897: 'On or after
1st October, 1897, parties of music hall artists and their assistants, numbering five persons and upwards, will be conveyed distances above 20 miles at the under mentioned rate: single journey - three fourths ofthe ordinary single fare, return journey - ordinary single fare and one half. The tickets to be made available until the end ofthe tour; ordinary paper tickets will be issued to stations endorsed, music hall artists, only one half the ordinary cloak room charges are to be made to music hall artists. Luggage will be a minimum ofone penny per package.' (Furness Railway Audit Accounts Office, Barrow, September 29, 1897)
Music hall artists toured Britain and Ireland by train, often playing a different venue every day for months, and with great reliance on theatre digs. At Preston the legendary music hall performer Marie Lloyd sang the railway song: "Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do? I want to go to Birmingham, and they're taking me on to Crewe."
Promoters of pleasure
Fortunately, however, she caught the right train when she topped the bill at Preston's Royal Hippodrome on October 30, 1911. The entire cast would have travelled by train before arriving at the next music hall on their tour.
An article in The Railway Magazine in
1912 details the theatrical traffic carried on the LNWRon the October 22. A total ofll2 theatrical companies were conveyed on the railway, comprising 2,374 passengers, 182 scenery trucks, and eight horse boxes. Railways came to be used by the promoters ofpleasure and as a foundation for cultural enjoyment too. Paul Robeson, the great American bass singer, actor and activist, toured extensively in the late-1930s on the crack express, the 'Coronation Scot'.
Notable entertainers, touring companies and travelling circuses, actors, music hall performers, prirna donnas and their audiences continued to have great reliance on the railways at the turn of the 20th century and thereafter.
Moreover, it would be interesting to know who they might have inspired out there in the audience.
Nine Butlin's camps throughout Britain were a haven for budding variety performers, and Sir Billy Butlin's camps were well served by the railway network.
The Filey camp had its own railway station, which opened in 1947, in the then East Riding ofYorkshire. The camp station was situated at the end of a short branch line off the line from Hull to Scarborough. It catered for the large number ofholidaymakers arriving and departing from the holiday camp each Saturday.
The network oflocal branch lines and their appealing motive power were once pivotal to the rural landscape of England.
The tranquil railway scene saw minimal change and preserved the rustic essence and magnetism ofthe country's railway network for more than a century. Indeed the charm ofrural branch lines of Britain once epitomised those wonderful days of steam in a forgotten scenario of quaint little trains in a vanishing natural landscape.
In the early days of the LMS an elderly friend told me how she inserted an old penny into a Nestle's chocolate machine on the station platform at Grimsargh (on the Longridge branch), before catching a train into ►
''As the railway expanded, theatres and music halls began to stage international performances on a lavish scale, increasingly served by the railway, with improved mobility for scenery, costumes, animals and equipment."