Egyptian Hall

Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°8′21″W / 51.50806°N 0.13917°W / 51.50806; -0.13917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the building in Glasgow, see The Egyptian Halls.

Egyptian Hall in 1828

The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, was an exhibition hall built in the ancient Egyptian style in 1812, to the designs of Peter Frederick Robinson. The Hall was a considerable success, with exhibitions of artwork and of Napoleonic era relics. The hall was later used for popular entertainments and lectures, and developed an association with magic and spiritualism, becoming known as "England's Home of Mystery".

In 1905, the building was demolished to make way for flats and offices.

History

Bullock's natural history collection displayed in the Egyptian Hall

The Egyptian Hall was commissioned by

Description de l'Egypte (1810) had recently appeared in Paris. The plans for the hall were drawn up by architect Peter Frederick Robinson.[4] Bullock, who had displayed his collection in Sheffield and Liverpool[5]
before opening in London, used the hall to put on various spectaculars, from which he made money from ticket sales. The museum was variously referred to as the London Museum, the Egyptian Hall or Museum, or Bullock's Museum.

The Great Room of the Egyptian Hall, as redesigned by J. B. Papworth in 1819

The Hall was a considerable success, with an exhibition of

Laplanders with their reindeer were imported to be displayed in front of a painted backdrop, and give short sleigh-rides to visitors.[9]

The bookseller

Society of Painters in Water Colours
.

In the "Dudley Gallery" at the Egyptian Hall, the valuable collection of pictures belonging to the

Park Lane. The room gave its name to the Dudley Gallery Art Society (also known as The Old Dudley Art Society) when they were founded in 1861 and used it for their exhibitions. It was the venue chosen for their first exhibitions by the influential New English Art Club
.

The hall was used principally for popular entertainments and lectures. Here Albert Smith related his ascent of Mont Blanc, illustrated by some cleverly dioramic views of the Alpine peaks.[10]

Advertisement (1888) for Arcana at the Egyptian Hall

By the end of the nineteenth century, the Hall was also associated with magic and spiritualism, as a number of performers and lecturers had hired it for shows. In 1873 William Morton took on the management of the Hall and modified it for his protegees, Maskelyne and Cooke, whose run there lasted a remarkable 31 years.[11] The Hall became known as England's Home of Mystery. Many illusions were staged including the exposition of fraudulent spiritualistic manifestations then being practised by charlatans. The final performance was on 5 January 1905.[12]

In 1905 the building was demolished

St. George's Hall in Langham Place, which became known as Maskelyne's Theatre.[14]

Hotten documents the name in 1859 used as rhyming slang for a ball. Franklyn comments in 1960 "The term was demolished with the building."[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Adrienne L. Kaeppler, "Cook Voyage Provenance of the 'Artificial Curiosities' of Bullock's Museum" Man, New Series, 9.1 (March 1974), pp. 68–92.
  2. ^ W.H. Mullens, "Some museums of old London: II William Bullock's London Museum", Museum Journal 17 (1917–18) pp 51–56, 132–37, 180–87; Tom Iredale, "Bullock's Museum", Australian Zoology 2 (1948) pp 233–37.
  3. ^ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840, third ed. (Yale University Press) 1995, s.v. "Robinson, Peter Frederick"; Survey of London vol. xxix.
  4. ^ "Bullock's Egyptian Hall". Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
  5. ^ William Bullock, A Catalogue of the Liverpool Museum was in its third edition in 1801 (copy in the Liverpool Public Museum, noted by Kaeppler 1974).
  6. ISBN 1-85437-513-X
  7. ^ Kaeppler 1974 traces the ethnographic collection from Cook's voyage and clears up many misconceptions about the pieces.
  8. ISBN 1-85437-513-X
  9. ^ Noon & Bann, pp. 91–2 (with a print illustrated), prints Archived 26 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  11. ^ Hull Daily Mail, 11 February 1937 p. 6 Old-New Maskelyne Trick
  12. ^ ‘All the Year Round’, The Era, 2 January 1924 p. 6
  13. ^ https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs/item/1999-1908
  14. ^ http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/EgyptianHallPiccadilly.htm
  15. ^ Julian Franklyn (1960). A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul. p. 61.

External links

51°30′29″N 0°8′21″W / 51.50806°N 0.13917°W / 51.50806; -0.13917

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