The Gaiety Restaurant – London Evening Standard – Monday 18th October 1869

THE GAIETY RESTAURANT.

 

The Gaiety Theatre is already honourably distinguished among all other play-houses in London for its elegance, and for the pains taken by the lessee to secure the comfort and protect the pockets of the persons who visit it. On and after to-day the house will present a fresh attraction in consequence of the opening of the restaurant that has been added to the theatre. The ample space at the command of the architect has been turned to excellent account, and a series of handsome rooms, running from the Strand into Catherine-street, have been erected. There are very spacious cellars, a large cafe, extensive dining, smoking and billiard rooms, and some smaller apartments, where cosy parties of four or five will doubtless often have dinner before, or supper after, the theatrical performances. The restaurant opens into the theatre, and though it may be too much to suppose that the agreeable French custom of adjourning to coffee during the entr’actes will be generally observed, we expect that not a few sensible and thirsty persons will, in future, prefer to stroll for a quarter of an hour from the theatre to the restaurant for a quiet cigar, instead of remaining in their seats to listen to the hammers of the scene-shifters or the preliminary melodies of the orchestra. Comparisons are often drawn between the enormous crowds that visit the French theatres nightly, and the scanty audiences attracted to the English theatres, though they are smaller in size, fewer in number, and cheaper in price than the Parisian houses. Perhaps English managers would be more prosperous if they could contrive to make a visit to their theatres a little less of a penance. The stoutest playgoer cannot but feel sometimes appalled at the prospect of sitting, from seven o’clock till half-past eleven or twelve, in an uncomfortable chair, in a heated atmosphere, cramped as to his arms and legs, with no sort of refreshment but South African sherry and leathery buns, and no opportunity of relaxation except a walk in the streets. In an age when the humanity of the legislature prohibits even the overcrowding of bullocks and pigs on their way to the slaughter-house, surely some voice might be raised against the callous indifference of so many theatrical managers to the comfort and enjoyment of their patrons. It is because we hail with pleasure any change for the better in these respects that we are glad to give publicity and encouragement to the opening to the Gaiety restaurant.

 

London Evening Standard – Monday 18^th October 1869

 

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