The Queen’s Hall Roof
One of the more short-lived but nevertheless important dancing and cabaret venues in London in the Jazz Age was that of the Queen’s Hall Roof. As its name implied, it was in the roof of the magnificent Queen’s Hall in Langham Place, Regent Street, one of London’s landmarks. Designed by Thomas Knightley, the Queen’s Hall was London’s premier concert hall that opened in 1893 catering for an audience of 2,500.
The Roof was in fact a smaller hall situated at the top of the building on the fourth and final floor and was often called the ‘small hall’. It was a cigar shaped or an elongated oval room that seated 500 people and had the benefit of high ceilings (described as deep blue domes) that had windows and allowed for ventilation. There was a stage, changing rooms and WCs and various access points via stairs. Somehow, food and refreshments could be provided, presumably from the kitchens and bar on the ground floor.
The Small Hall was used for a range of activities including meetings, lectures, recitals, performance and music. Interestingly, in early 1900, Albert Chevalier added a group of Pierrots and Pierrettes called ‘The Follies’ to an existing entertainment being staged at the Queen’s (Small) Hall.
After the First World War London returned to its post war jollity and with the renewed interest in dancing many new dancing venues opened. A lease on the Queen’s (Small) Hall was taken up by a Herbert Henri (who later opened Chez Henri in Long Acre) who turned the venue into a dancing establishment that opened 3rd March 1919.
Please see the post on Chez Henri here
Mrs Henri hosted select dances daily at 4pm and 8pm with an American Jazz Band and with her associates (English, Spanish and American instructors) gave private dancing lessons. Mrs Henri herself appointed each individual member of the Jazz band and three were named: Albert Romaine the pianist, Farrell the drummer and Joe Ball Trombone player.
The new dancing place was swiftly called ‘charming’ and ‘pretty.’ It was observed that most dance places in London were underground or far from any cooling breeze. The Queen’s (Small Hall), because it was perched high up above the housetops, provided ‘fine ventilation’. It was remarked that ‘to dance in the cool of a summer’s evening is, to my way of thinking, perfection’ and indeed, even on the warmest evening it was possible to dance there ‘and remain as cool as the proverbial cucumber’ solving the problem of summer dancing. An advantage to the usual overcrowding in other resorts was that Mrs Henri restricted the number of vouchers sold ensuring there was plenty of room to dance. There were further complements for the perfect dancing floor and the beautifully served tea and other refreshments.
The dansants continued through 1919 and 1920, presumably under the continued aegis of Mrs Henri. With the new autumn / winter season, in late 1920 the Queen’s (Small) Hall was renamed to simply ‘Queens’. During the summer recess the venue had been completely reconstructed, re-decorated, and refurnished and transformed into a new, smart restaurant-ballroom. It was announced that some form of entertainment would be introduced now and again as a cabaret. There was also an emphasis on superb cuisine from skilled Parisian chefs, incomparable service and the wines were selected from the rarest and finest vintages. It was observed as the place ‘where you can eat, drink, and foxtrot under the most seductive pink lights.’
It was stated that the music would be provided by the same Jazz band as before. Importantly, it is likely that at this juncture, Jack Hylton (later to become even more closely associated with the Queen’s Hall Roof and eventually one of the greatest of British Jazz Band leaders) joined the Queen’s Hall Roof Orchestra.
On 19th December 1920 there was a special French Leave Gala night with hostess Renee Kelly with an extension for dancing until 2.30am. At the same time, Melville Gideon, the popular composer, played and sang every evening during dinner for a while.
During the first half of 1921 the venue and the band continued as before. At some point the band did become a 7-piece unit and Jack Hylton took on the double role of pianist and arranger. In May 1921 the Queen’s Dance Orchestra under Hylton recorded four songs for HMV and the band also released songs on the cheaper Zonophone label, as Jack Hylton’s Jazz Band. However, seemingly, in the summer of 1921 there was a power struggle and Hylton was ousted. He moved elsewhere for a period of time but was then lured back to Queen’s with his new band, presumably for the new season in late 1921. Indeed, in early September 1921 it was noted that the Queen’s Dance Orchestra was under the direction of its talented pianist conductor Jack Hylton and were playing popular dance numbers.
At the same time, some form of cabaret was presented using the cast of the Gypsy Princess from the Prince of Wales Theatre with two hostesses Sari Petrass and Phyllis Titmus. Billy Leonard was noted and it is likely that the dancers Quentin Tod and Zelia Raye also took part.
In April 1922 the first true cabaret show was staged at what was now called the Queen’s Hall Roof. Folies de Montmartre was presented by Carl Hyson and music must have been provided by Jack Hylton’s band. Then, for the autumn / winter season of 1922, Jack Hylton himself staged a new show called Cabaret Follies. This ran through several different editions until mid-1924 when Oswald Percival Murray took over the lease at the roof and attempted to replicate earlier successes but failed.
There is a forthcoming post about the Cabaret Follies shows
All images (unless specified in the caption) and text © copyright Gary Chapman / Jazz Age Club and must not be re-used without prior consent
Sources
http://www.nqho.com/NQHO/Queens_Hall.html
https://www.jackhylton.com/biography
London Evening Standard 1/1/ 1900
Daily Mirror 27/2/1919
The Bystander 7/5/1919
The Bystander 14/5/1919
The Bystander – Wednesday 4/6/1919
The Bystander 11/6/1919
Pan Magazine 27/3/1920
Globe 1/5/1920
The Tatler 24/11/1920
The Bystander 15/12/1920
The Tatler 22/12/1920
The Era 7/9/1921
Pall Mall Gazette 15/9/1921
