- Hoxton Hall
Infobox Theatre
name = Hoxton Hall
caption = Hoxton Hall, still an active community resource
address = 130 Hoxton Street
city = Hackney,London
country =
designation = Grade II*
latitude = 51.5318
longitude = -0.0802
architect = James Mortimer
owner = Hoxton Community Trust
capacity = 120
type = Community and touring performance
opened = 1863
yearsactive = 1863–1871
rebuilt =
closed =
othernames = Mortimer's Hall
Hoxton Hall Dancing Academy
MacDonald's Music hall Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission
production =
currentuse = Community centre and performance space
website = www.hoxtonhall.co.ukHoxton Hall is a community centre and performance space in
Hoxton , at 130 Hoxton Street, in theLondon Borough of Hackney .A grade II*
listed building , the theatre was first built as aMusic hall in 1863, as "MacDonald's Music hall". It is an unrestored example of the saloon-style. In the theatre, an iron-railed, two tier galleried auditorium rises on three sides, supported on cast iron columns, above a small, high, multi-tiered stage. It survives, largely in its original form, as for many years it was used as aQuaker meeting house.The music hall lost its performance licence in 1871, due to complaints by the police; it was sold, and the new owners applied for a licence in 1876, but were again rejected.
William Isaac Palmer (1824-1893) purchased it on behalf of the "Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission" in 1879. Palmer was an heir to theHuntley and Palmer biscuit family and spent much of his fortune on charity. On Palmer's death, the hall passed to the "Bedford Institute", a Quaker organisation dedicated to running adult schools and alleviating the results of poverty.Today, the hall is used as a community centre and performance space, predominantly for youth groups.
Notable recent performances
*On invitation from Lisa Goldman, artistic director of award winning theatre company The Red Room,
Leo Asemota created video installations and a portfolio of photographic portraits ofHoxton residents for the site-specific production "Hoxton Story " which opened at Hoxton Hall, to performances onSeptember 10 ,2005
*Robert Newman filmed a television programme entitled "A History of Oil" forMore4 , at the Hoxton Hall (later released on CD). A mixture of stand-up comedy and introductory lecture ongeopolitics andpeak oil , in the show, based on his touring show, "Apocalypso Now" Newman argues that twentieth-century Western foreign policy, includingWorld War I , should be seen as a continuous struggle by the West to controlMiddle East ernoil . The peak oil theory is based onRichard Heinberg 's book "".References
* "Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950", John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 118-9 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
External links
* [http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/arcolive.htm Olive Yarrow's Memories of Hoxton Hall]
* [http://www.hackneytheatrepartnership.co.uk/hoxton.html Hackney Theatre Partnership]
* [http://www.hoxtonhall.co.uk/ Hoxton Hall official site]
* [http://s119102005.websitehome.co.uk/curtains_detail.asp?theatreName=Hoxton+Hall&town=&originalDateFrom=&originalDateTo=&architect=&Search=Search&ID=1796 Theatres Trust database entry]
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