Restoration At Wilton’s Music Hall
Yesterday, I spent the morning exploring Wilton’s Music Hall and visiting all the secret corners to record the progress of the major restoration project which aims to preserve as much of the original fabric and patina as possible, whilst also securing the building and delivering the requirements of a working theatre to ensure the long-term future of this magnificently atmospheric survival.
Where Champagne Charlie once played
Marc Almond lingers in the foyer
In a secret workshop in the basement
The space between the former terrace of houses and the music hall that was built behind them
Old lamp stored in the cellar
Nineteenth century boiler beneath the auditorium
In the Mahogany Bar
Visit Wilton’s Music Hall, Grace’s Alley, E1 8JB
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Good to see that Wilton’s is being restored, hope it will soon shine in its former glory. I grew up nearby in Harrads Place off Wellclose Square. In my childhood there was a mission there, if I remember rightly. Valerie
My father, John Freedman grew up at 27 Well Street (now Ensign Street) between 1910 and 1921 when he emigrated with his parents to Australia. His father was in the army throughout the First World War and I have papers with the Well Street address. I visited there with my father in 1970 when some of the old buildings still existed. In 2003 my next visit it was nearly all gone.
My father died in Melbourne 1999 aged 90 and I would have loved to have shown him what is happening now.
I wonder if there are any photos of Well Street from the my father’s time.
What an amazing building!
Absolutely amazing photos. Thank goodness someone is looking after London.
Wonderful post!…a similar project at The
Winter Gardens in Morecambe…another to be saved.
Get a pie and a pint and see a show, step back in time because you will not notice the restoration in progress, you will feel and see Wilton’s as it she was in legend.
What a simply gorgeous building. Thanks for sharing.
haha that was unexpected, Marc Almond lingering in the foyer!
Great to see the record of this building being sympathetically restored. I bet my ancestors would have gone there, and maybe even performed there!! Thank you GA.
Pauline.
I hope the lamp is going to be put back above the door.
I have some writing in a book about the old mahogany bar and a line drawing which I will bring to show next time I visit.
Looking forward to seeing the restoration work.
I love this place.
I see all kinds of mysterious faces, in the patterns and fragments of photo 13… like ghosts of the old hall. Wonderful.
My father, Edward Kentish (1926-2015) used to go to Wiltons as a teenager when it was the Methodist Mission. They had a youth club. My father played table tennis there and learnt to dance. I have a photo of him in what was then the canteen in about 1939 with a group of others. A few years ago, I visited Wiltons and from the photo, worked out that what was the ‘museum’ room was the same room as the on in which the photo was taken. I think the ‘museum’ room is something different now though. It is the first room on the left in the entrance.