London’s theatrical evolution can be traced back to 1576 with the imaginatively named 'The Theatre' at Shoreditch, the first of the early playhouses. The Shakespearean era then ushered in...
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The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more".13th April 2025.
Happy Sunday! During the week, I popped up to London to visit my youngest at university and watch Mrs Doubtfire the Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. We are long-time fans of the film, so when we first went to London to check out the university halls of residence last August, it was a pleasant surprise to find that they overlooked the Shaftesbury Theatre. We agreed to check out the musical before it closed. The production comes to an end in a couple of weeks, so we made it just in time. If you’re a 'Doubtfirer' and looking for a couple of hours of humour, uplifting music and dancing, then I wholeheartedly recommend it.
"Help is on the way dear!" Mrs. Doubtfire, Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.
Shaftesbury Avenue forms one of the main arteries of London’s Theatreland; 40 theatres tripping over each other in a 2.5 square mile patch of the West End. London’s theatrical evolution can be traced back to 1576 with the imaginatively named The Theatre* at Shoreditch, the first of the early playhouses. The Shakespearean era then ushered in a new wave of theatres, most notably the Globe Theatre in 1599, built by Shakespeare’s company The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The Globe Theatre was actually built using the timbers from The Theatre. The lease for the land on which The Theatre was built had expired in 1596, and an agreement could not be reached for a renewal. Subsequently, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed that the building now belonged to him as it was on his land when the lease expired. So, one night while Allen was away celebrating Christmas, The Theatre owner, James Burbage, rounded up some manpower (some claim William Shakespeare was among them). They quietly dismantled The Theatre and shipped it over the River Thames to its new home.
In 1613, during a performance of All is True at The Globe, when King Henry VIII made his grand entrance, a cannon was fired for special effect. Sparks from the wadding used to pack the gunpowder flew up into the thatched roof and set it on fire. The theatre burned to the ground. Although The Globe was immediately rebuilt, it was demolished again on 15 April 1644**.
Inside Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre today. The replica, built close to the original site, first opened in 1997.
* A previous playhouse had been built, The Red Lion, Stepney, but lasted less than a year.
** Three hundred and twenty-five years later, construction of a replica building started within 250 yards of the original site. 'Shakespeare’s Globe' opened for business in 1997.
By 1642, London boasted seven theatres, catering for various tastes - and pockets. Then, progress came to a standstill. England’s First English Civil War had erupted. The parliamentary Roundheads were at war with King Charles I’s Cavaliers. Tensions relating to religion and governance had spilt over. The Puritan-led Parliament voted to close London theatres to rid the capital of immorality, frivolity and vice thinly veiled as ‘entertainment’. Conveniently, political unrest could also be controlled; people associated theatres with the monarchy, so Royalist-leaning demonstrations were restricted. Fast-forward 18 years. The English experiment in republicanism had failed. Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the republic, died in 1658, after which chaos prevailed. To steady the ship, Parliament invited the would-be Charles II to the throne from his hideout in the Netherlands in 1660. Charles was the natural successor to Charles I, his father, who had been executed by a previous Parliament ten years earlier. Charles II accepted. Now, that’s pragmatism. The Restoration was underway. One of Charles II’s first acts in the early 1660s was lifting the embargo on public performances. He granted royal patents to only two theatres, licencing them to perform ‘serious’ staged theatrical performances.
The Battle of Marston Moor, 1644, one of the significant battles of the First English Civil War. The Parliamentarian Roundheads scored a decisive defeat over the Royalist Cavaliers near York. Oliver Cromwell emerged as a future leader of the republic. John Barker (1811-1886).
We walked 100 yards along High Holborn from the Shaftesbury Theatre before turning down Drury Lane. Moments later, we reached the first of those two theatres awarded royal patents, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London’s oldest theatre in continuous use, first opened in 1663. I say continuous, that is, other than three pauses for rebuilds in 1674, 21 April 1794 and 1812. The theatre is considered to be one of the most haunted in the world. An apparition is occasionally reported walking across the upper circle and disappearing into a wall. He is the Man in Grey, dressed in an 18th-century grey cloak and donning a classic tricone hat. During a renovation in 1848, the builders discovered a skeleton behind that wall. Forensics later suggested that the man had been murdered. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane was Charles II’s regular theatre of choice. It was here that he became enchanted by actress Nell Gwynn, who became his mistress for 17 years until his death in 1685.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane today.
We turned into Russell Street alongside the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Within 100 yards, we turned right at Bow Street and there stood the second of the two patented theatres, the Royal Opera House - originally called the Theatre Royal Covent Garden.
Like many of the early theatres built from wood, the Royal Opera House’s first and second incarnations burnt down. The first lasted from 1732 to 1808, the second from 1809 to 1856. The third rendition, completed in 1858, looks to my keen eye as if it’s here to stay for a while. The Royal Opera House’s most famous resident in the 18th century was composer George Frideric Handel, who became an honorary Brit in 1727. Two of Handel’s most enduring pieces are the Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. His output was prolific; he composed numerous other instrumental pieces, sonatas, cantatas, anthems, choral works, oratorios, incidental vocal works and… 42 operas. Handel staged many of these operas at the Royal Opera House from 1735 through to his death on 14 April 1759. He was buried at Westminster Abbey two days later.
The Royal Ballet and Opera, formerly the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Royal Covent Garden.
Handel had commissioned the installation of his own organ at the Royal Opera House in 1735 (at that time still the Theatre Royal Covent Garden). In his will, he had donated the organ to the theatre. Tragically, just under 50 years after Handel’s death, the organ was destroyed in the 1808 fire. In 1946, shortly after the conclusion of World War II, the first ballet, Sleeping Beauty, was staged at the theatre. Subsequently, it became home to both The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. The theatre’s name was officially changed to Royal Ballet and Opera only in April 2024.
The Restoration around 1660 had been a very sensitive period. The divisions created by the English Civil War lingered. Understandably, Charles II was a bit jittery. After all, his father had lost his head in the same spot where he was now living. The two theatre patents helped to control the narrative, ensuring that public performances were only performed by Royalists. The restriction didn’t shut out other theatres altogether. However, they were limited to performing pantomime, music and dance. This was seen as ‘illegitimate’ entertainment, which was acceptable because it didn’t seek to subvert the public through carefully managed dialogue. The theatre patents remained in play throughout the Georgian era, only terminating shortly after Queen Victoria came to the throne. The Theatres Act 1843 gave local authorities the right to license theatres independently. The curtains rose on a new era. London theatres flourished. Variety took centre stage. Music Halls opened, opera, comedies and Shakespeare revivals spread across the West End. Despite Victorian conservatism, the relaxation of licensing laws also opened the door to more risqué entertainment. Burlesque had arrived. Burlesque parodied the classics. It was irreverent, playful and relieved patrons from their restrained day-to-day lives. The costumes were elaborate. Women dressed as men while other women dressed as women in provocative outfits. It was all fun and frolics.
Even Ben Hur didn’t escape the Burlesque treatment. This is a poster depicting TheGreat Chariot Race in ‘Bend Her’, an American burlesque performance in 1900.
Towards the end of the 19th century, a new genre had appeared, further progressing from music halls and burlesque. The French developed a style of theatre that combined light comedy, music and satire. Vaudeville had arrived. Vaudeville flourished in the United States after the American Civil War, peaking in popularity around the early 20th century. Troupers toured on both sides of the Atlantic, so English music hall performances gained traction in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, while American Vaudeville acts became popular in England.
Out of curiosity... The term Vaudeville likely evolved from the Vau de Vire (the Vire Valley) in Normandy. A 15th-century poet from the valley, Olivier Basselin, wrote satirical and irreverent drinking songs, which the French revived in the 17th century.
We strolled from the Royal Ballet and Opera across the cobbles of the Covent Garden Piazza, through to the vibrant Covent Garden Market Building, constructed in 1830, bustling with shops, restaurants, cafes and stalls. Then we headed out of the Piazza to the south onto The Strand, turned right and a few steps later reached the Vaudeville Theatre.
The Vaudeville Theatre opened one hundred and fifty-five years ago this Wednesday, 16 April 1870. Its name acknowledged ‘Vaudeville’ as representing the best in light comedy and variety entertainment, with a touch of burlesque for good measure.
Vaudeville Theatre, The Strand. Sorry, blue on blue doesn't come out too well!
Walking through London’s Theatreland, you are surrounded by buildings steeped in centuries of history. Each theatre guards its individual historical secrets of past performances, performers, and patrons. But these theatres also foster a vibrant living history, with new performances, performers and theatre-goers adding their own spin on history for future generations. Time for a coffee.
Dates with History
Wednesday…
Elizabeth Holmes was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine ten years ago this Wednesday, 16 April 2015. Holmes was CEO of Theranos, a company she founded in 2003 with a mission to revolutionise blood testing. A simple finger-prick test would reveal a wide range of medical conditions within hours. At the time Holmes received her recognition from Time magazine, Theranos was valued at $9 billion. The problem for the Theranos mastermind was that the technology didn’t work - and the world was about to find out. By 2018, Theranos had dissolved and Holmes was fighting in court against charges of fraud and investor deception. Today, Elizabeth Holmes is serving an 11-year prison sentence at Federal Prison Camp Ryan in Bryan, Texas. Her current projected release date is August 2032. Holmes has two children aged three and two.
Thursday…
Saloth Sir was born in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia in 1925. He was one of nine children in a prosperous farming family. Saloth attended a Catholic School in Phnom Penh from the age of six and finished his formal education studying radio electronics in Paris. He failed his exams, possibly due to extracurricular time spent within the French Communist Party. By 1963, Saloth had risen to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), more commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge. In 1970 Saloth changed his name to Pol Pot.
Pol Pot
Fifty years ago this Thursday, 17 April 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia after a long and bloody civil war. Over the proceeding five years, Pol Pot was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 to 2.5 million Cambodians from a total population of eight million. Pol Pot was overthrown in 1979 but remained active for a further 20 years. I was privileged to talk with Chris Moon in 2023 for the podcast, one of the only Westerners to survive captivity under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. It’s a gripping story. If you get a quiet moment, check out The Khmer Rouge, Mr Clever and Me. Pol Pot died of heart failure on 15 April 1998, though there is some suspicion that he committed suicide to avoid capture by an international war crimes tribunal.
Question of the Week
In 1888, Cecil Rhodes was a man on a mission. He had founded De Beers Consolidated Mines, taking control of 90% of the world’s diamond production. A year later he obtained a Royal Charter to form the British South Africa Company. The BSAC was tasked with expanding British colonisation across territories in Southern Africa from his base at Cape Colony, part of present-day South Africa. Rhodes obtained a mandate to colonise an area north of the Limpopo River, formally named Rhodesia in 1895. In 1964, Northern Rhodesia became the independent country of Zambia. In 1965, Prime Minister Ian Smith declared Southern Rhodesia to be independent from Britain. He neglected to run this by the British beforehand. Nonetheless, Smith ruled a white-minority government for the next 15 years. In 1979, the British brokered a peace between Smith and African nationalist groups in London. The British then supervised elections in Southern Rhodesia. A new independent state was born 45 years ago this Friday, 18 April 1980. Robert Mugabe could start his 37-year reign of terror. On that day in 1980, Southern Rhodesia changed its name. What is it called today?
And Finally…
Karl-Adolf Schlitt was born during the final year of World War I, 1918, in Laboe, a small coastal town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, overlooking the Baltic Sea. With the onset of World War II, Karl-Adolf enlisted for service in the Kriegsmarine, the Nazi German navy. He would join its crown jewel - the U-boat division. German U-boats had been the scourge of the Allies in the early part of the war. By 1942, they had destroyed over 1,000 ships, mainly in the North Atlantic. In areas such as the ‘Black Pit’, they could operate with impunity, out of reach of allied air cover.
A Type VIIC U-boat, down by the stern and sinking, after attacks by a Short Sunderland flying boat, 1944.
However, by 1944, Allied aircraft range had improved, as had radar, sonar and the ability to break the codes of the Nazi Enigma Machines. The effectiveness of the U-boat division was significantly diminished. In 1944, Schlitt was promoted to command his own U-boat, the U-1206. It was a Type VIIC submarine, workhorse of the U-boat division. It was also an upgraded version of the VIIC class - Germany was expecting. Naval Architects were constantly looking to design U-boats that could dive deeper, travel faster and stay underwater for longer. So, they were obsessed with minimising weight and space. On a typical U-boat, 50 men were crammed into a steel tube 20 feet wide and 220 feet long. In other words, there wasn’t much space. On submarines, the crew sleep in hot bunks; different shifts sleep at different times so why waste a bed? Kitchens double up as meeting rooms, furniture is collapsible and every nook and cranny is available for storage. Torpedo rooms provide emergency sleeping quarters and unused torpedo tubes even provide additional space for supplies. The new version of the Type VIIC U-boat had improved in all these areas. There was also the toilet system to consider. Because U-boats spent extended periods of time underwater, the human waste had to be stored on board in septic tanks. With 50 men answering nature’s call over a 16-hour period, that’s a lot of sewage to hang onto.
Say cheese. Crew of typical U-boat in World War II.
But U-1206 was different. Its toilets boasted an advanced high-pressure system, which could expel waste directly into the sea while submerged. Not only did this save space and weight, but the U-1206 could remain underwater for longer. The new toilet system was complex and required training to operate correctly. Apart from that, the new design would be a game-changer. After several months of preparation, including training exercises in occupied Norway, U-1206 was ready for service the following year. It was assigned to the 11th U-boat Flotilla, ready to roam the North Sea to seek and destroy British and American shipping. Eighty years ago tomorrow, 14 April 1945, U-1206 lay submerged a few miles off the coast of Scotland on its maiden patrol, tracking Allied shipping lanes. Captain Karl-Adolf Schlitt found a quiet moment to pay a visit to the toilet. Once relieved, Schlitt had a problem operating the valve system to dispose of the waste. He was unclear on the exact process to follow. He called the on-duty engineer for assistance.
The ‘heads’ on the HMS Alliance, 1947, an Amphion-class submarine equipped with high pressure toilet system similar to U-1206.
Unfortunately, the engineer was also unclear how to operate the waste ejection process. As the system was maintained at high pressure, it was critical to operate the series of valves in the correct order. The hapless engineer cranked open the wrong valve. The toilet area and surrounds were instantly swamped in excrement and seawater. Although unpleasant, this might have been a soon-forgotten experience for Captain Schlitt and the engineer. But it wasn’t. The sewage-seawater combo found its way down through the deck to the submarine’s main battery compartment below. This triggered a toxic chemical reaction, releasing deadly chlorine gas into the chamber. Schlitt had no alternative than to surface his submarine near Peterhead, Scotland, exposing his location. Within moments, U-1206 was under attack from alert British patrol ships. The Captain gave the order to abandon the vessel. In the melée, three of the crew drowned and the British rescued the remaining 46. Captain Schlitt’s last act of defiance was to scuttle the submarine, sending U-1206 to the bottom of the North Sea along with his dignity. The 46 captives spent the last few weeks of the war at Her Majesty’s pleasure in various prison camps awaiting repatriation.
U-995, a VIIC class U-boat and sister to U-1206, on display today at Laboe Naval Memorial, Laboe, Karl-Adolf Schlitt’s home town.
After the war, Karl-Adolf Schlitt spent 21 years as a low-key district administrator in Oldenburg, Holstein. He remained quite relaxed about his role in the war and the flushing fiasco. Luckily for the on-duty engineer that day, his name was not recorded in the historical account of the mishap. In 1987, Schlitt revisited Scotland to pay tribute to his rescuers and visit the graves of his crew who had perished that day. As for the surviving crew, Schlitt outlived them all and died peacefully in 2009 at the age of 90. Footnote: U-1206 was rediscovered 25 years later in 1970 during an oil pipeline survey.
Out of Curiosity.. On the same day of Captain Schlitt’s bathroom blunder, 14 April 1945, Ritchie Blackmore was born in Weston-super-Mare, near Bristol in South West England. Deep Purple fans will know that Ritchie would become one of the most influential rock guitarists in music history. Today, Blackmore is living in Long Island, New York. Tomorrow will be his 80th birthday.
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Southern Rhodesia is now called Zimbabwe, named after Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe between the 11th and 15th centuries. The remains of Great Zimbabwe still exist today, protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Great Zimbabwe in 2009.
ATTRIBUTIONS
Inside Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre today. The replica built next to the original site first opened in 1997: Inside Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Battle of Marston Moor, 1644. The Parliamentarian Roundheads scored a decisive defeat over the Royalist Cavaliers near York. Oliver Cromwell emerged as a future leader of the republic: John Barker (1811-1886), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Royal Ballet and Opera, formerly The Royal Opera House and The Theatre Royal Covent Garden: Norio NAKAYAMA from saitama, japan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A Type VIIC U-boat, down by the stern and sinking, after attacks by a Short Sunderland flying boat, 1944: Royal Air Force official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
U-995, sister to U-1206 on display today at Laboe Naval Memorial, Laboe, Karl-Adolf Schlitt’s home town: Noop1958 at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.
The ‘heads’ on the HMS Alliance, 1947, an Amphion-class submarine equipped with high pressure toilet system similar to U-1206: geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Even Ben Hur didn’t escape the Burlesque treatment. This is a poster depicting the Great Chariot Race in ‘Bend Her’, an American burlesque performance in 1900.
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