Built circa 1862 as the Gladstone Hotel & Vaults, it had a six day liquor license. An advert (see below) from the Leicester Guardian, April 1863.
An 1883 (written on back), drawing of the Gladstone Hotel exterior and interior (LRO). It was rebuilt in 1892.
Initially purchased by Samuel Sweeny, it would open as Sweeny’s New Oxford Music Hall. Sweeny soon ran into financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt in 1866.
LJ Sale notice of Sam Sweeny’s New Oxford Music Hall, November 1866. The building was unused as a Music Hall for a period, instead it seemed to be a municipal meeting hall, advertised again in August 1867.
Sill advertised as the Oxford Music Hall, it was to be known as the Gladstone Music Hall but was soon to get a new lease of life when Sam Torr (above), moved from the Green Man in Wharf St to re-open the Gladstone as the; the Gaiety Palace of Varieties in 1883. Headlining the bill was Vesta Tilley, a famous male impersonator, and the foremost artist of the day.
Sam Torr was a showman who is possibly best known as the first person to exhibit Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man). Joseph, who lived locally, was displayed as a ‘main attraction”, although many knew him locally as he tried to make a living, hawking door to door. (His hawker’s card is in LRO).
Much has been written on Joseph, films and plays too. Suffice to say that it was possibly Sam Torr, who with like minded showman such as Tom Norman, who was to propel Joseph to national fame, first as a freak show, eventually to be fawned over by the medical establishment and even royalty.
The Palace of Varieties was to last until circa 1898, when name change to the New Empire Palace of Varieties or New Empire Theatre.
This copied from the official licensing book which lists owners and licensees, we can see 1898 the owner was Joseph Waterfield and occupier or licensee Richard Ernest Marshall, (Professionally known as R E Liston) Marshall declared himself bankrupt Jan 1901, (One month later Marshall was to lose his six year old daughter in an accident)
John Gulson Burgess official receiver is in occupation for 3 weeks in April 1901, F & F put up for auction, before Cecil Wm Gray runs the New Empire calling it the Royal Empire until new owner and occupier Samuel Theodore Bunning arrives in June 1901. The Licence was refused under the Licensing Act, finally closing July 1907, compensation of £1570-10/- being paid.
c 1912 the Old Gladstone Vaults was turned into a cinema called the Empire later the Hippodrome. Admission for children was one penny, or a pop bottle if they hadn’t any money.
The Hippodrome thrived until the World War II, then stood empty for many years before eventually it became a Motor Factor warehouse.
Charlie Mitten, the son of the owners showed Barry Lount around during the 1980s.
Looking much smaller but still attractive in the 1980s. This was finally demolished for a block of flats named Merrick House in 2009. The only remnants of its past are some stone roses saved by the demo boys and the name Joseph Merrick, which in a way is a fitting tribute to the man who suffered so much indignity in his short painful life.
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