Under the Arches

Walter Sickert painted there; Kipling could see it from his window; Ada Reeve reminesced about it and many great stars appeared there.  Gatti's at Charing Cross was one of the most popular London music-halls.

Variously called 'The Hungerford', 'Gatti's in the Arches' and simply 'Gatti's', the theatre was originally a restaurant.  Carlo Gatti launched it as a music-hall in 1867.  It was built into a 250-foot arch underneath the South-Eastern railway station near Charing Cross.  The old theatre, which was one of the most vulgar music-halls of the day, could hold 600 people when it was filled to capacity.

Ada Reeve and Katie Lawrence were just some of the many stars who appeared here in the late 1800'
s.  They scandalised audiences by dressing up in men's outfits and singing risque songs.

I learned about Gatti's because I recently saw Sickert's painting, Katie Lawrence at Gatti's, in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Ada Reeve Talks About Gatti's

Prowlina Pry and the Empire Theatre

Laura Ormiston Chant was horrified.  A writer of hymns and the editor of the National Vigilance Association magazine, she had been told about the painted ladies who paraded along the promenade of the Empire music-hall.  Even the outfits of the ballet dancers who performed there revealed too much.  Two American visitors warned her and she decided to prevent the ‘horrid slavery’ of these poor women.

Nicknamed ‘Prowlina Pry’, Chant said that she was no prude and she wasn’t against music-halls.  However, she disagreed with Walter McQueen Pope.  He wrote that these women were ‘caged tigresses’ who ‘never importuned’ and ‘made good wives and mothers’.

Chant fought against the renewal of the Empire’s licence and it was closed down by the London County Council in 1894.  It was soon reopened with canvas screens placed between the promenade and the auditorium.  This infuriated the audience who rushed on the ‘barricades’ and tore them down.  

Winston Churchill took the opportunity to make a speech.  “You have seen us tear down these barricades tonight.  See that you pull down those who are responsible for them at the coming election,” he said.  The promenade remained at the theatre.