Pipeline Press
  • HOME
  • Books
    • Organs and Organists
    • Organ-isms Anecdotes Book
    • Organist at your service
    • Puzzle Book >
      • Grids
      • Puzzle Images
      • Errata
      • Solutions >
        • Alphabet soup
        • A-mazing tuner
        • Crosswords
        • Letter Ladders
        • Plain Difficult
        • Ring the Changes
        • Logic Problems
        • Spot the difference
        • Sudoku
        • Tricky Passages
        • Word Search
    • Looking Up
    • The Organ's Prayer
    • Olivier Latry in conversation
    • Paradisus Musicus
  • Recordings
    • Resounding Aftershocks CD
    • Organ Capers
  • Organists In the kitchen
    • RECIPE INDEX >
      • Gillian Weir
      • Dianne Halliday
      • Martin Doering-in English
      • Martin Doering-in German
      • Irmtraud Tarr
      • Robin Peirce
      • Hannah Parry
      • Birger Petersen
      • Marie-Louise Langlais
      • Thierry Mechler
      • Nina De Sole
      • Martin Setchell
      • Roberto Bertero
      • Carson Cooman
      • Ronald Watson
      • Katherine Dienes-Williams
      • Grimoaldo Macchia
      • Alexander Kellarev
      • Dorothy Young Riess
      • Andreas Willscher
      • Katelyn Emerson
      • Agnes Armstrong
      • Michael Barone
      • Claudius Winterhalter
      • Titus Grenyer
      • Alison Clark
      • Paul Spicer
      • Christiane Sauter-Pflomm
      • James Kibbie
      • James Flores
      • Inoue Hiroko​
      • Barry Jordan
      • Gareth Perkins
      • Thomas Ospital
    • Notes on weights and measures
  • Newsletters
  • Gifts
  • Articles & Reviews
    • Book & CD reviews >
      • Bevington
      • Booths of Wakefield
      • The Organ of Saint Sulpice, Paris
      • Messaien - Pierre Pincemaille
      • The Music of Ripon Cathedral
      • The Nordic - Baltic Organ Book
      • A Life in Music
      • Franck played by Pincemaille
      • Mystical vision
      • Noëls of Louis-Claude Daquin
      • Homage à Daniel Roth
      • Bach's complete works
      • Organ works of JPE Hartmann
      • The Box of Whistles ​by John Norman
      • Kristiaan Seynhave plays César Franck
      • Bach Orgelwerke played by Michael Radulescu
      • Le Grand Cavaillé-Coll de la Cathédrale d’Angers
      • The Organs and Organists of Ludlow Parish Church
      • The Hakims at Sacré Coeur
    • 2002 >
      • Alfred Hollins
      • Snetzler-1
      • Snetzler-2
      • Organ Voices
      • Organ Blowers 1
      • Organ Blowers 2
      • Organ Blowers 3
      • Organ Cases
      • Organ Cases 2
      • Organ Cases 3
    • 2003 >
      • Organ Cases 4
      • Architects and organ builders
      • Plain vanilla or chocolate?
      • Canterbury Cousins
      • Blenheim Palace and elsewhere
      • Ornament - applied and misapplied
      • Of hats and arms
      • Invisible organs
      • Organ Anthology
      • Organ Anthology Part 2
      • Ghosts
    • 2004 >
      • Spanish Fly
      • The Wonderful Woofyt
      • Mine's bigger than yours
      • Flames, frets and fiddles
      • Angelicals
      • Telegram from America
      • Booth's Puffs
      • Barker Lever
      • Bettering Barker
      • Alternative Hymn Book
      • Tale of Two Organs
      • Tale of Two Organs (continued)
      • Guitarists do it better
      • Music for the feast of Christmas
    • 2005 >
      • The art of improvisation
      • Records and Reminiscences
      • The Case is Altered
      • Fashion Notes
      • Two town Halls - Sydney & Reading
      • The organ that time and men forgot
      • Edward Heath
      • Tin Whistles
      • Secrets of the Opera
      • Singing in the train
      • Buttoning up
    • 2006 >
      • Automobile blues
      • Pipes and packing cases
      • Harry remembers
      • Harry remembers 2
      • Bismarck and the pipe organ
      • Harry remembers 3
      • Playing Aids 1
      • Playing Aids 2
      • Connections
    • 2007 >
      • The birthday Present
      • Harry Remembers 4
      • Playing Aids 3
      • Wonder of Gascony
      • Gilding the Lily
      • A Most Eloquent Music
      • Seeing Double - Part 1
      • Seeing Double - Part 2
      • Humble Relations - American branch
      • Humble Relations - French branch
      • Tops, Noils, Shoddy and Mungo
      • Tops, Noils, and Handel's Messiah
    • 2008 >
      • Neanderthal Hymn Writer
      • Brindley and Foster Byway
      • The demise of Brindley and Foster
      • Flying High
      • Dorothea, Queen of Denmark - and an organ​
      • Time's Ever-Rolling Stream
    • 2009 >
      • Giving them names
      • Dudley Savage
      • Three organ cases
      • Henery's finest hour
      • Sneezes from the Organ Loft
      • 20th Century Organists
      • Philip Marshall Part 2
      • Part 2 20th Century organists
      • More sneezes from the organ loft
      • Country church curiosity
    • 2010 >
      • The Italian Face of Salzburg
      • Ladies at the Console
      • Gothic organ cases
      • Gothick organ cases
      • Orders and decorations
      • Organs-in-fiction
      • Christmas-recipes
    • 2011 >
      • Oddments and Oddities
      • Memorials and Monuments
      • A Cunning Player - King David
      • Facing the Music
      • Celestial Bands
      • Look-Up
      • Durham-Degrees
    • 2013 >
      • Archibald McIndoe
      • Brigadier-Wagthorpe
    • 2017 >
      • Transports of Delight
  • JIGSAW PUZZLES
  • Competitions
  • Sheet music
  • Photos
  • Calendars
  • Links
  • Blog
  • About Us - and other info
    • Contact Us
    • Search
    • NZOrgan
    • Part 1 of Jenny's earthquake story
    • Part 2 of Jenny's earthquake story
    • Shipping >
      • Returns & refunds
      • Privacy policy
Previous
Index
Next

 The auditorium, St George's Hall, Bradford
The auditorium, St George's Hall, Bradford

Tops, Noils, and Handel's Messiah

David Bridgeman-Sutton continues his visit to favourite music hall haunts of Bradford.

Nowhere was Music-Hall more popular than in Bradford at the height of the woollen industry.

The city's principal music-hall, the Alhambra (pic. 1), attracted top stars; audiences became connoisseurs, awarding performers everything from ecstatic cheers to the bird with complete impartiality. Unlike many such halls, this building remains – refurbished throughout - and now a general-purpose theatre.
Bradford main Music Hall, the Alhambra
1: Bradford main Music Hall, the Alhambra
Straight theatre was also widely patronised – and, again, attracted top players and touring companies. There were few greater stars in later Victorian days than actor Sir Henry Irving. This pillar of Victorian theatre was popular in the United States, where he toured on eight occasions. He made his final and most dramatic exit by collapsing and dying on the grand staircase of Bradford's Midland Hotel (pic 2). His manager for many years was Bram Stoker, creator of Count Dracula; it has been claimed that Irving was the inspiration for this character. 

Other stars who stayed at the Midland – including Laurel & Hardy, George Formby, Joyce Grenfell and John le Mesurier – departed in more orthodox fashion, usually with waves and smiles.
Grand staircase, Midland Hotel
2: Grand staircase, Midland Hotel
JB Priestley (1894-1984) learned the craft of playwright from the galleries and stalls of his native city. (It is claimed that, even now, one or other of his plays is always in production somewhere in the world.) Two of his most popular novels – The Good Companions and Lost Empires - have theatre life as their theme.

He noted, in his essays, the beneficial influence on the town of the German community, settled in trade and manufacture. This influence was felt particularly on the musical life – as it was in many other towns the world over. The concerts this community sponsored took to the city many performers of international repute. The response from the general public must have been extremely gratifying.
Need for a suitable concert room led to the building of St George's Hall (pic 3). The organ of what is now the Civic Centre – was rebuilt several times, most recently by Henry Willis and Sons. A fire – and the subsequent activities of the Fire Brigade – rendered the instrument unplayable some years ago; there are no present plans for its reconstruction.
Much music-making centred round the churches and chapels: a list compiled in recent years (and this is certainly far from complete) shows sixty-eight such buildings. Choirs and organs were a central part of the life of all but a very few. Many, indeed, were constructed as much as concert halls as places of worship.​
St George's Hall
3: St George's Hall
Picture 4 shows Prospect Hall – a Methodist church built for this clear dual-purpose role. (To-day it is the Guru Nanak Sikh temple; the organ has probably been removed).
Rivalry between the church choirs then seems to have been as intense as that between football teams to-day. Competition came to a head at Christmas time each year, with every choir determined to receive the best press review for its performance of “Messiah”. Outstanding soloists were booked up months and sometimes years in advance.
Picture
4. Prospect Hall
In Priestley's play When We Are Married, a sub-plot shows how a choirmaster's social position would be enhanced by outstanding performance in the Messiah Premier League. Not every church could reach the heights, though few were deterred from trying. Resources were limited in one remote dale, which lacked either an organ or someone competent to play it. The conductor arranged the entire score for the only instruments available – one clarinet and one trombone. 
David Bridgeman-Sutton,
December, 2007

Picture credits – thanks to :
1. Matthew Lloyd 
2. Midland Hotel, Bradford
3. St George's Hall, Bradford 
4. The Laycock Archive.
Thanks also to Sarah Powell and Susan Caton at Bradford City Libraries.

Picture

looking for SOMETHING?

Books
Recordings
Printed music
​
Photographs
Gifts
​Calendars
​Blog
​
Links

Puzzle book grids and solutions
(Free registration & log in required)
GENERAL INFO
Contact
About Us
​
Search
​


Our earthquake stories

Support

Shipping
Returns and refunds
Privacy and Cookie declaration

© COPYRIGHT 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.