Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, professionally known as Marie Lloyd, was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", "My Old Man " and "Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do". She received both criticism and praise for her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, but enjoyed a long and prosperous career, during which she was affectionately called the "Queen of the Music Hall".
Marie Lloyd c. 1900
The Wood family, from left to right: Top row: Daisy, Rosie, John, Grace, Alice. Middle: John Wood (father), Matilda (mother), Marie. Bottom: Annie, Maud, Sydney
Hoxton Hall (formerly the Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission)
Empire, Leicester Square, in 1911
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous music hall entertainment and subsequent, more respectable variety entertainment differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts.
The Eagle Tavern in 1830
The Oxford Music Hall, c. 1875
The interior of Wilton's Music Hall (here, being set for a wedding). The line of tables give some idea of how early music halls were used as supper clubs.
Interior of the Canterbury Hall, opened 1852 in Lambeth