Canterbury Music Hall

You are walking through a quiet corner of Lambeth that once served as the birthplace of modern mass entertainment. In eighteen fifty-two, an entrepreneur named Charles Morton opened the Canterbury Music Hall on the site of a former pub skittle alley. He built the venue using the profits from the beer he sold to his patrons, which allowed him to offer the performances for free. This arrangement transformed a simple tavern into the first true purpose-built music hall in London, effectively launching an industry that would soon span the entire nation.