| Description | On the site of Methodist Central Hall stood one of Victorian London's most lavish palaces of variety entertainment, the Royal Aquarium, which was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 22 January 1876. The brainchild of Wybrow Robertson, it was designed for education as much as entertainment, and included reading rooms and an art gallery as well as a smoking room, billiard room, skating rink, theatre and summer and winter garden. The aquarium itself contained a variety of fish and sea creatures including crabs, octopus, anemones, monster turtles and alligators from the Mississippi. At first the Royal Aquarium staged high class entertainment such as operas, with Sir Arthur Sullivan as music director for a brief period, but from the 1880s it was attracting more sensational music hall and circus acts and was increasingly frequented by prostitutes, which led the moralists of the day to call for its closure. In 1901 the actress Lillie Langtry became manager of the Imperial Theatre there, performing for Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on 8 December the following year.
In 1898 the Methodists started fund-raising for a meeting place, the plan being to raise 1 million guineas from 1 million Methodists. The result was the Central Hall, a grand building in the Viennese style with classical columns, sculpture and square dome designed by Lanchester and Rickards and built in 1905-1911. The Royal Aquarium was closed and partly demolished in 1903, but the theatre continued until early 1907 when it too was demolished and rebuilt in an old music hall in Canning Town. Sadly it burned down in 1931. |