*the amazing "Brick Lane Music Hall"-Silvertown London E16 (Nov 2025)

The other day my London Shoes visited a really unique and unusual venue located down in the Docklands district of East London, that has a really interesting history behind it :–

The amazing “BRICK LANE MUSIC HALL” …….

The quest of the Brick Lane Music Hall is to keep the old music hall style of entertainment alive in London – and what a fantastic job it does too.

Folk of my generation may well remember the popular tv programme “The Good Old Days” that ran for an amazing 30 years from 1953 to 1983. It was a Victorian/Edwardian influenced old-time music hall variety show that was hosted at the prestigious 1865 built ‘Leeds City Varieties’ venue – where the performers and the audience all dressed in fashions/clothing from the old-time music hall era – creating an atmosphere of days gone by when perhaps life was simpler and for some possibly happier.

Long before the introduction of cinema, music hall variety shows were the main source of entertainment, especially for the working classes – creating many now legendary stars like Charlie Chaplin / Marie Lloyd / Harry Champion plus hundreds more.

The Brick Lane Music Hall is the brainchild of entertainer Vincent Hays MBE, a massive old-time music hall fan, who in the early 1980’s – in an attempt to keep music hall alive, started hosting shows in a back room of an East End pub, the ‘Lord Hood’ in Bethnal Green. Hays would invite and encourage his actor/actress/singer friends to come down to the pub and do a little old-time music hall ‘turn’ on its tiny back-room stage.

These entertainment nights became very popular very quickly -with queues forming around the outside of the pub and the place being rammed to the rafters.

It was obvious that a bigger venue was urgently required to accommodate the acts and the ever-increasing audience numbers – and in 1992 the opportunity came about to purchase the canteen of the old Truman Brewery situated in the popular Brick Lane London E1 that had closed down and abandoned since 1989.

The old brewery canteen was converted into a theatre – and the decision was made to offer the punters meals – thus enhancing their overall music-hall experience. They also put on matinee performances and afternoon teas.

But again – the popularity of the old-time music hall shows that owner Vincent Hays and his company were regularly hosting, meant that it wasn’t long before and even larger venue was required.

So – in 2002 the opportunity came about to purchase an old, abandoned church down by the old Royal Dock in Silvertown, within the Canning Town district of East London – very close to City Airport – the Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery and the Excel Exhibition Centre.

St. Marks Church was built in 1862 and operated as both a church and a church school.

Because of its close proximity to London Docklands, it was very much a community church for dockers and their families.

Surprisingly, this old church survived extensive bombing throughout WW2.

However, by the mid 1960’s with the docks in rapid decline, and with a drop in local population due to slum clearance and stuff like that – St. Marks Church became more or less redundant and it eventually ‘closed-down’ in 1974 when it merged with another parish.

In 1979 St. Marks Church was bought by Newham Borough Council with an intention of turning it into a Museum – but it never happened. In 1981 a massive fire completely destroyed the entire roof.

To this day (2025) the exterior of St. Marks is relatively unchanged – but its interior has had a complete make over – nothing like what it used to be – with a Bar / Kitchen / Stage / Lighting Rigs / Sound – Control mixing desks / Offices now built into every nook & crannie of its interior structure.

The audience are treated to a proper cabaret style old-time music hall experience – with a tasty menu served up between sets (it was proper old skool sausage & mash when my London Shoes was there).

The Brick Lane Music Hall venue is licensed to conduct weddings and civil partnerships, and the company do a lot of community work, visiting care homes / hospices / community centres throughout London’s East End – and they also run a programme of workshops for schools & colleges.

My London Shoes, accompanied by Mrs Shoes (ie Angela), thoroughly enjoyed the Brick Lane Music Hall – the experience far exceeded my expectations.

The entertainment on offer the afternoon of my London Shoes visit was a matinee performance of “There’ll Always Be An England” – war time music hall show – extremely patriotic / very moving and emotional in places / musical throughout / humorous / bawdy in places / a lot of audience participation especially singing rousing versions of ‘Land Of Hope and Glory’ and other patriotic popular songs from the two World Wars – a thoroughly entertaining show.

There atmosphere inside the Brick Lane Music Hall was fantastic throughout – and enhanced by the fact that this year (2025) is the ‘80^th Anniversary of VE Day’ – plus Remembrance Sunday was just a couple of days away at the time of Shoes visit, the place was buzzing – making it a really enjoyable and memorable occasion.

So – that the ‘Brick Lane Music Hall’ experience for you – a venue that I knew very little about, and a place I had never visited before – and hopefully it won’t be my last visit.

Hope you enjoyed this little story and that the photos brought it to life a little bit for you

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Below is the entire gallery of photos and images put together to accompany this Brick Lane Music Hall blog

The Brick Lane Music Hall is the brainchild of entertainer Vincent Hays MBE, a performer and massive old-time music hall fan, who in the early 1980’s – in an attempt to keep the spirit of British music hall alive, started hosting shows in a back room of an East End pub, the ‘Lord Hood’ in Bethnal Green. Hays would invite and encourage his actor/actress/singer friends to come down to the pub and do a little old-time music hall ‘turn’ on its tiny back-room stage.

The popularity of the old-time music hall entertainment in the back room of the Lord Hood pub meant that a bigger venue was required urgently – and in 1992 the opportunity came about to purchase the canteen of the old Truman Brewery situated in the popular Brick Lane London E1 that had closed down and abandoned since 1989.

The popularity of the old-time music hall shows that were being hosted at the old Truman Brewery site in Brick Lane – meant that yet again, an even larger venue was required – and in 2002 the opportunity came about to purchase an old, abandoned church down by the old Royal Dock in Silvertown, within the Canning Town district of East London

Views of the Royal Dock – near to the new Brick Lane Music Hall theatre in Silvertown-London E16 – close by to City Airport.

Views of the Royal Dock – near to the new Brick Lane Music Hall theatre in Silvertown-London E16

An old b & w photo of the 1862 built St. Marks Church – Silvertown. The surrounding area certainly doesn’t look anything like that today.

St. Marks Church was built in 1862 and operated as both a church and a church school. Because of its close proximity to London Docklands, it was very much a community church for dockers and their families.

– in 2002 Vincent Hays and his Brick Lane Music Hall company purchased the old St. Marks Church, and the enterprise moved across East London from Brick Lane to Silvertown

The exterior of St. Marks is relatively unchanged but its interior has had a complete make over – nothing like what it used to be – with a Bar / Kitchen / Stage / Lighting Rigs / Sound – Control mixing desks / Offices now built into every nook & crannie of its interior structure.

Inside the ‘Brick Lane Music Hall’ venue in Silvertown – as it looks today (2025)