Boyd Hilton’s excellent
volume on English history from 1783 to 1846 in the New Oxford History of
England – A Mad, Bad and Dangerous
People? - mentions one of the many disasters to afflict London’s
theatres.
The Covent Garden Theatre was
burned down twice – in 1808 and 1856. The first fire in September 1808 destroyed
not just the building, but also the costumes, the scenery and the scripts, but thanks
partly to some chivvying from King George III, Londoners contributed generously
enough to help the owners get the theatre rebuilt and reopened just a year
later.
To recoup some of the considerable
sums they had invested, the owners decided to put up the prices. On the first
night of Macbeth, patrons rioted until
the early hours of the morning over the new charges, and that was just the
start of the so-called ‘old price riots’ which went on for 64 days.
In the end, the manager and part
owner of the theatre, John Kemble, a distinguished actor, had to deliver a public apology, and announce that the increases were being withdrawn. (See also my blog of 21 December 2013.)
