Memories of Covent Garden in the 20th century

[Mary]

10 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Years ago I did some waitressing at La Ballerina am amazed it’s still going strong after all this time! 
I suppose some sort of chocolate dessert is the order of the day!! 
 

in this world of constant change isn't it nice to have a few old faces left!

 

 

[LinMM]

Yes it is. 
I have no idea if it’s the same owners as I’m talking 70’s!! 
But I did enjoy working there with moments still etched in memory of for example one lunch hour a party of about 10 people all wanting “knickerbocker glories” for dessert 😱  (they are not quick to prepare or at least La Ballerina ones weren’t!! 

Edited June 4, 2022 by LinMM

[RobR]

20 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes it is. 
I have no idea if it’s the same owners as I’m talking 70’s!! 
But I did enjoy working there with moments still etched in memory of for example one lunch hour a party of about 10 people all wanting “knickerbocker glories” for dessert 😱  (they are not quick to prepare or at least La Ballerina ones weren’t!! 

I think it only opened in the 90s - it was originally a shop called ‘Morris Harris’, and Mr Harris sold paper bags wholesale for fruit and veg traders. After that it was a fairly chic French restaurant before it became La Ballerina. The statue was only erected in 1988 and the restaurant was named after it. 

[LinMM]

RobR Will have to double check what the restaurant there before was then as I definitely didn’t work there in the 90’s! 
It would have been more late 70’s early 80’s. I suspect for various reasons it was in summer of 77 or 78 if had to pin point the time. 
The restaurant had a basement or downstairs area where this party sat and I remember carrying the knicker bockers down the stairs. 

[RobR]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

RobR Will have to double check what the restaurant there before was then as I definitely didn’t work there in the 90’s! 
It would have been more late 70’s early 80’s. I suspect for various reasons it was in summer of 77 or 78 if had to pin point the time. 
The restaurant had a basement or downstairs area where this party sat and I remember carrying the knicker bockers down the stairs. 

From 1954 to 2002, the first floor above La Ballerina restaurant at 7-8 Bow Street was a solicitor’s office and I worked there from 1968 to 2002.
 

I’m afraid that even with that advantage, I can’t remember the name of the restaurant but I do recall that it was very pricey and that the meat served was always very rare. If you asked, as I did, for 'bien cuit', you were given a very disapproving look followed by a Gallic 'if you must' shrug 😬

[Suffolkgal]

I remember Bertorelli opposite the stage door in floral street 

[LinMM]

Was the stage door nearer Bow St than it is now? 

[RobR]

2 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Was the stage door nearer Bow St than it is now? 

Before the rebuilding of the ROH between 1997-1999, it was half the length it is now. The rebuilding didn’t start until long after the old fruit and veg market moved to Nine Elms.
 

A road ran behind the old building, a continuation of the alley adjacent to the RBS (and some of us remember the bar/restaurant there, ‘Les Amis du Vins') but the GLC granted the ROH planning permission to build over the road up to James Street.

 

The stage door was, as a consequence, much nearer to Bow Street. In the 1970s, the wife of one of the imposing red coated doormen, Mr Catlett, also worked at the solicitor's office.

[alison]

I thought La Ballerina used to be an Indian restaurant before it became La Ballerina?

 

JohnS, having had 3 days of Thameslinks to and from Brighton cancelled, I do sympathise ...

[LinMM]

I’ve just been reading about this Bertorelli’s restaurant which used to be in Floral st in early 80’s. 
As it specifically mentions the downstairs area as being slightly separate in feel to the upstairs I’m wondering if this was where I did a waitressing stint. 
My income was a bit weird between 1977 and 82 as I came out of teaching for a while and was just earning bits here and there ( hotel and restaurant work mostly) and doing a lot of dancing!! 
I then got a bit of a better job for a while as a medical secretary in the Occupational Health Department at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in Queen Sq. Once the dancing dream was over I went back into full time teaching! 
I was so sure that the restaurant I worked in was where La Ballerina is now but alas memories are not always perfect!! If it wasn’t Ballerina it was nearby and I remember not being far from the stage door! 
 

[RobR]

10 minutes ago, alison said:

I thought La Ballerina used to be an Indian restaurant before it became La Ballerina?

 

JohnS, having had 3 days of Thameslinks to and from Brighton cancelled, I do sympathise ...

Yes, it was. 

[Dawnstar]

57 minutes ago, RobR said:

Before the rebuilding of the ROH between 1997-1999, it was half the length it is now. The rebuilding didn’t start until long after the old fruit and veg market moved to Nine Elms.
 

A road ran behind the old building, a continuation of the alley adjacent to the RBS (and some of us remember the bar/restaurant there, ‘Les Amis du Vins') but the GLC granted the ROH planning permission to build over the road up to James Street.

 

The stage door was, as a consequence, much nearer to Bow Street. In the 1970s, the wife of one of the imposing red coated doormen, Mr Catlett, also worked at the solicitor's office.

 

I wish there were more photos around of how the ROH used to look. I first went in 2004 so only know how it looks post-redevelopment. I've read about things like there being a gallery at the top of the auditorium, accessed by a separate staircase, but I can't visualise it & haven't managed to find any photos that show it. This is the first time I've heard about the ROH only running half the length of Floral Street than it now does.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Dawnstar
Typo

[MJW]

12 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I wish there were more photos around of how the ROH used to look. I first went in 2004 so only know how it looks post-redevelopment. I've read about things like there being a gallery at the top of the auditorium, accessed by a separate staircase, but I can't visualise it & haven't managed to find any photos that show it. This is the first time I've heard about the ROH only running half the length of Floral Street that it now does.

 

I first started going to the ROH in 2014 so some time after the redevelopment in the late 1990s. Every so often there may be a program on tv from the 1970s or 80s which show the Opera House before it was redeveloped ( there may be an episode of Rumpole and certainly Fresh Fields which show Bow Street etc before the 1990s).

 

There was a book I think by Dixon Jones the architects behind the 1990s development which would have been really interesting but I can't find that now unfortunately. 

[MaddieRose]

When I was young I had an 80s book about the Royal Ballet that had a labelled map of the Opera House (sort of cut open so you could see the inside). I used to wax poetic about how when I first went to the fancy Opera House I'd already know my way around, and I was slightly miffed when I was told it had totally changed since then. But when I eventually went this year I did remember where to go to get to my seat, so it wasn't all for nothing. 

[Jane S]

We had a discussion some years ago about the old amphi and gallery - this link jumps into the middle of it.

[jmhopton]

The start of the Moira Shearer Red Shoes film is filmed from the old ROH Gallery

[art_enthusiast]

2 hours ago, jmhopton said:

The start of the Moira Shearer Red Shoes film is filmed from the old ROH Gallery

 

Wow. I do adore that film!

[bridiem]

5 hours ago, RobR said:

Before the rebuilding of the ROH between 1997-1999, it was half the length it is now. The rebuilding didn’t start until long after the old fruit and veg market moved to Nine Elms.
 

A road ran behind the old building, a continuation of the alley adjacent to the RBS (and some of us remember the bar/restaurant there, ‘Les Amis du Vins') but the GLC granted the ROH planning permission to build over the road up to James Street.

 

The stage door was, as a consequence, much nearer to Bow Street. In the 1970s, the wife of one of the imposing red coated doormen, Mr Catlett, also worked at the solicitor's office.

 

I'd forgotten the building had been extended so substantially - I do now remember being amazed when I first saw the new exterior stretching so far back.

 

I miss the long-gone greasy spoon that was moreorless opposite the old Amphi entrance. 

[alison]

2 hours ago, jmhopton said:

The start of the Moira Shearer Red Shoes film is filmed from the old ROH Gallery

 

That's the old gallery (before my time), as opposed to the unextended rear amphitheatre (which wasn't )

[Scheherezade]

4 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

I miss the long-gone greasy spoon that was moreorless opposite the old Amphi entrance. 

I loved the greasy spoon! Those endless hours queueing in Floral Street for morning-of-the-performance tickets and the joy of popping in for a cup of tea and a chat with the lorry drivers or whoever else happened to be there, then reluctantly swapping with whoever had held your place in the queue.
My daughter is very envious. She thinks that these days everything seems anodyne and colourless by comparison. 

[Swan]

This I such an interesting thread! I remember Cafe des Amis very well from the early 80’s and, as I lived in London at the time, visited regularly when meeting friends. As I had less money at that time and wanted to see as many ballets as I could, I bought amphi lower slips tickets and remember the original entrance and stage door. On special occasions and galas I would try to buy a ticket in the main house and enter through the main doors which was a fabulous treat and I felt like royalty! 😃

 

After a very long absence from the ROH it has been a joy to return this season and my heart leaps every time I enter that beautiful building. My husband doesn’t like ballet but can be tempted to enjoy a glass of champagne either on the terrace or in the hall as he appreciates the building too.

[Jan McNulty]

My friend and I, as comparative newbies, had tickets to see the Bolshoi performing a Saturday matinee of Spartacus.  We were in good seats in the lower slips.  As we were walking down Floral St to the entrance, desperate people were holding out what seemed to be fortunes trying to buy tickets.  
 

It was in the good old days when even if you were just on the mailing list you got priority booking.

[Rob S]

I found it interesting enough just looking round the inside in the pre Open Up era on Google Streetview (2013)

[Suffolkgal]

Gosh yes priority on the mailing list! My parents and I went twice to the Bolshoi on their return after so long. Spartacus with Mr M ... 

[Dawnstar]

16 hours ago, alison said:

That's the old gallery (before my time), as opposed to the unextended rear amphitheatre (which wasn't )

 

Has the amphitheatre been remodelled twice then?

[MaddieRose]

I enjoy reading this website which has a lot of information on theatres, particularly theatre architecture, over the years. Here's their page on the ROH and its predecessors that has seating plans from the 1930s and 1970/80s (in The Royal Opera House today section): 

 

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/RoyalOperaHouseCoventGarden.htm

[Suffolkgal]

My family brewery- lost to us in 1936 - was known as the theatre brewers as they supplied every theatre in London including the opera houses! It’s such a rich history ... and evolving all the time. 

[li tai po]

The old amphitheatre was remodelled in 1964, but the Royal Ballet gave a season at Drury Lane Theatre, whilst the ROH was closed.

 

I was fortunate enough to see Kenneth MacMillan's Symphony with Lynn Seymour and Donald MacLeary, Helpmann's Hamlet with the unforgettable Christopher Gable, Antoinette Sibley and Monica Mason (as Hamlet's mother) and Cranko's The Lady and the Fool with the elegant Svetlana Beriosova, Ronald Hynd and Stanley Holden (and David Drew as Signor Midas, the host).

 

About 30 years later, I met Christopher Gable, then Director of Northern Ballet, at a business meeting and asked him to autograph my programme.  He was very surprised that anyone remembered him.

 

The programme cost one shilling (5p) - which makes the current programme price of £8 seem rather expensive.

[Jane S]

It's hard to find a photograph of the old amphi/gallery, but whilst looking I found these two interiors, both taken in 1948:
 

The crush bar

 

The door in the centre led into the Grand Tier and the twin staIrcases went up to the Balcony Stalls

 

The 'vestibule'

 

This area was changed quite a bit before the big rebuild, but at this stage you can still see the performance box office - not much more than a big cupboard by the looks of it - at the foot of the stairs, where there was also a board which showed any major cast changes. Out of shot on the right there was a bookstall, managed by the elegant Stella for most of the time I remember, and also a little winding staircase to the Stalls Circle.

 

(This was 'my' Covent Garden and although I do like some of the improvements, any emotional attachment I had to it ended with the  rebuild!)

 

 

[Beryl H]

I remember the Crush Bar and the steps up to the Balcony, I used to go there before the performance for sandwiches and coffee, it was more like a friendly cafe then.

[Suffolkgal]

The dusty amphi stairs with the board at the foot with little plastic letters announcing injuries though it used to say indisposed!

 

adam and the other lovely ushers who had a kettle and would sometimes make us tea! Little secret places with dusty, hard sofas where we could gather to talk over the acts or ballets. I’m going back over 40 years which is CRAZY 

[bridiem]

I actually rather liked having the separate entrance to the Amphi (though I wasn't that keen on the endless stairs!). I felt (not correctly, of course...) that the Amphi was cordoned off for the real fans. It felt decidedly odd after the refurbishment when we started going in the main entrance - it almost felt like going to a different theatre.

[capybara]

As a child , I was frequently warned by my parents not to step in the squashed vegetables in case I carried mess onto the ROH carpet.