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A dazzling history of Victorian London´s theatre scene involving a larger than life cast of actors, tricksters, impresarios, prostitutes, comedians and more

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The Strand is one of London´s most iconic streets - today the bustling and thriving home of West End theatres and the luxurious Savoy hotel; in the Victorian era, the Strand was a much more seedy and destitute part of the city. Barry Anthony here explores the criminal and socially subversive behaviour which abounded in and around the Victorian Strand. He introduces us to a vast range of personalities - from prostitutes, confidence tricksters, vagrants and cadgers to the actors, comedians and music hall stars who trod the boards of the Strand´s early theatres.

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List of Illustrations
Timeline

1. Where´s Troy?
2. The Disappearance of Love
3. The Dark Arches
4. The Lord Chief Baron of the Coal Hole
5. Old Stock and Fancy Goods
6. The Importance of Being Ernest...and Frederick
7. Sam and Maud
8. Kicking over the Traces
9. A Peep into the Unknown
10. Looking for Mugs in the Strand
11. The Casebook of Maurice Moser
12. Alias Jack the Ripper
13. Crystals of Morphine
14. An Adelphi Drama
15. Madame St John
16. The Backside of St Clement´s

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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Barry Anthony is a historian with a particular interest in the Victorian and Edwardian period who has written extensively about popular culture and entertainment. He is the author of Chaplin´s Music Hall and The King´s Jester: The Life of Dan Leno, Victorian Comic Genius (both I.B.Tauris) and co- author, with Richard Brown, of a groundbreaking study of the early British cinema, A Victorian Film Enterprise.

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