Our History
Life in Old Ghosts
A Brief introduction to the history of Britannia Panopticon Music Hall
by Judith Bowers
Britannia Panopticon began life in the late 1850s when Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire and bursting at the seams with humanity. Thousands of workers had flocked to the city to work in the mills, factories, foundries, shipyards and collieries. They lived in the worst conditions imaginable; single ends* housed one third of the population, lodging houses where they crammed eight to a bed were available for those who couldn’t afford a single end and if you couldn’t afford a sliver of bed space then the penny line* was a slightly better option than the poorhouses and workhouses.
The social and working conditions of the workers of this industrial empire are unimaginable to us today; men, women and children toiled in the most atrocious and dangerous conditions, the stench of the sewers, the thick smoke that belched from the factories and mills and made the air thick and foul to breathe, the lack of indoor and outdoor plumbing etc would be insufferable to our modern and delicate dispositions – only the strongest survived.
In the early days the bill of fare offered a diet of dancing girls, comic singers and ballad singers, the dancing girls being a particularly strong draw for the men who (ordinarily starved of the sight of female flesh) would whoop and whistle their appreciation at the sight of the dancing girls’ stocking tops. This titillation meant that the ever resourceful prostitutes who inhabited the Trongate found themselves a brisk trade in the Britannia Music Hall where hundreds of fly buttons still survive as evidence of their booming business.
This bawdy behaviour became synonymous with the music halls of Glasgow’s east end and by the 1860s had become a subject of great concern amongst certain worthies of the city who believed that the nudity to be seen in the music halls was a major contributor to the moral decay of the east end working classes. The flash of a dancing girls’ thigh so outraged one pious gentleman he suggested that “No leg of mutton should be hung in a butcher’s window without being properly dressed”.​
To ensure the moral wellbeing of the public, police were thereafter instructed to include a walk around the various music halls of the city as part of their daily beat and this certainly prompted a clean-up of the music halls, though one critic did state that whilst the police were in, the material was toned down, but as soon as they left would revert to the more popular ribald humour.
In Britannia it seems that a new management, under the husband and wife team of Mr & Mrs Rossborough, brought with it a new bill which included child performers, acrobats, high wire and trapeze artistes and animal acts; it also included a caveat at the bottom which stated, “No ladies admitted unless accompanied by gentlemen” in an effort to eradicate the ladies of the night who had been plying their wares in the dark corners of the balcony.
Under the management of Mr & Mrs Rossborough the Britannia Music Hall flourished. They gave the auditorium and foyer a facelift which the Glasgow Sentinel newspaper described as being “... everywhere displays great artistic taste... The roof of the Hall has been, along with other parts, redecorated, and presents quite an elegant appearance. Boldly panelled and painted in accordance with the mouldings that cross it, the roof of the Britannia, lighted up by many chandeliers, has really a splendid effect. The front of the galleries, the proscenium, the wings of the stage, and all the more prominent points are painted with a due regard to the general effect, and the while presents a coup d’ which must astonish those who are unacquainted with the music halls of Glasgow. The front gallery has been comfortably fitted up with cushioned seats, and affords ample accommodation for the better class of visitors who may desire to visit it with their wives and children. And to complete the Hall for the comfort of those who may desire a series of private boxes at the back of the middle gallery, the decoration and adornment of which give a finish to that portion of the house...”
Britannia was by now one of the most popular places of amusement in the city and the years that followed saw some of the greatest acts of music hall history grace its boards; Marie Loftus, Dan Leno, George Leybourne, The Great Vance, Jenny Hill, Bessie Bellwood, Harry Champion, WF Frame, Marie Lloyd, Harry Lauder and so the list goes on. Many of these names are still remembered today and their songs are still sung from time to time, “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo”, “I’m Henery the Eighth I Am”, “Champagne Charlie”, “Daisy (Give me your answer do) Bell”, “Boiled Beef and Carrots”, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”, “My Old Man Said Follow the Van”, “TaRaRa Boum De-ay” and “The Boy I love Is Up In The Gallery” to name but a few. It makes you wonder what songs people one hundred years from now will remember from the early 21st Century?
But songs are not the only legacy of the music hall.
As the years progressed, so did technology and the music halls were quick to take advantage of new advancements. When in 1896 electricity became widely available in Glasgow, Britannia Music Hall was amongst the first 300 buildings of the city to have it wired in, enabling the management to show the latest marvel of the era; Animated Pictures. At the time most of the world of show business regarded the Animated Picture as a novelty act that would have a short burst of popularity before being replaced and forgotten in light of some new innovation. Subsequently the initial engagement of the animated picture was for just one week. That one week proved such an enormous success that by January of 1897 the animated picture had become a regular feature on the programme. Now Britannia stood on the threshold of the most successful entertainment the world would ever know – Cinema.