INTRODUCTION
People didn't just come to Petticoat Lane to shop until they dropped, they also came to be entertained. Visiting the market was a spectacle in itself: market traders wooed their customers with their persuasive patter and a variety of street performers and their theatrical acts drew crowds.
The area has been associated with theatre for several centuries and, together with the music industry, has brought a lively night life to the area. Nowadays, the striking visual contrast of the Lane against the background of the City of London skyscrapers offers a unique location for filmmakers.
THEATRE AT THE TIME OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Archaeological investigations have revealed the remains of an important 16th century playhouse at the corner of Middlesex Street and Whitechapel High Street. The Boar’s Head Inn began to stage plays from 1557 in an impromptu manner in the yard behind its premises. The first play known to have been performed was ‘A Sack Full of Newes’ but its controversial content – described as ‘lewd’ by the Privy Council - a group of formal advisors to the monarch - led to the actors being arrested and the ‘play-book’, or script, confiscated. The Boar’s Head’s Theatre was soon followed by the Red Lion Tavern, just south of Whitechapel Road, which created a theatre within its buildings in 1567.
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Undaunted by the Inn’s earlier theatrical experience, the owners of the Boar’s Head, Jane and Henry Poley, gave permission for a galleried playhouse to be built in 1598. A stage approximately 12 metres by 8 metres was constructed within the Inn’s yard, among the existing buildings.
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Despite ongoing lawsuits, plays were performed daily in the season. Under the ownership of Susan Greene, in 1607 they were said to attract ‘great assembleis of all sortes of people’. The playhouse was demolished to make way for housing by 1621, but interpretation of its remarkable history has been included in the current building on the site and artifacts can be seen on display.
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The nearly square-shaped plan of the Boar’s Head stage and central, roofed ‘playing area’ was similar to that of Fortune Theatre, built in around 1600 on a site between Whitecross Street and Golden Lane near Cripplegate. The shape is significant as rectangular theatres offered a broad stage well suited for action plays, but for theatre design these were experimental times. Rectangular theatres and stages perhaps reflect the forms of the buildings and spaces within which they were created or echo the shapes of earlier buildings. These pioneering theatres were almost invariably cheap and rapid constructions because financial success was far from certain, so existing footings or walls would, if possible, be utilised.
Copyright Clara Ely & Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
YIDDISH CLUBS AND THEATRE
In the late 19th century, a number of dramatic clubs and theatres opened to cater for the Jewish community in the area but quickly attracted audiences from across London. Performers in these theatres used Yiddish, the language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews, and helped popularise its use in the English language, with words such as ‘schlep’ and ‘chutzpah’ entering everyday usage. At the same time, English language and customs became familiar to the Jewish community and gave an understanding of the British way of life.
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One of the earliest Jewish clubs was the Netherlands Choral and Dramatic Club, who met at premises in Bell Lane and Gun Street in the 1870s and 1880s. They gave regular concerts and was a popular place to gather to play games and socialise, gaining over 1,000 members by 1901.
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The first purpose-built Yiddish theatre opened as the Hebrew Dramatic Club in Princelet Street (then Princes Street), Spitalfields, in 1885-6. It was founded by the actor Jacob Adler and could accommodate 300 people. Classic plays by Shakespeare and Schiller were performed and many of the most celebrated Yiddish actors appeared here. The theatre closed soon after a tragedy in 1887 when 17 people died in a crush caused by the audience mistakenly believing that a fire had broken out in the building.
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Two of the most popular Yiddish theatres were the Pavilion Theatre on Whitechapel Road, which thrived until the 1930s, and the Grand Palais at 135-139 Commercial Road.
WHAT IS 'PATTER'?
Patter is the word given to the technique used by traders in the market to attract shoppers’ attention to tempt them to buy things. This could be calling out the goods being sold and the price, sometimes very quickly, similar to how an auctioneer would run a sale. Sometimes, the trader might make it into a poem or a song and even include juggling acts or magic tricks.
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One trader, Sid Strong, advertised his crockery stall by tossing plates up into the air and catching them, a display which was caught on camera in the 1960s.
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Some accounts describe the sound of the market patter as like birdsong choruses, with lots of different voices competing for attention. It is a style of selling which is also used by bookmakers (or bookies) at horse or dog races as they call out the betting odds they are offering. One of the most celebrated characters in the mid-20th century was Prince Monolulu who brought the racetrack to Petticoat Lane and called out “I gotta horse” to attract customers to hear his tips about the likely winners.
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Performance, rather than printed posters and flyers, was the favoured method of street traders in the heyday of Petticoat Lane. Many shoppers heard about the latest offers or stalls by word of mouth and the immersive experience of being in the Lane was one of the most attractive aspects of the market.
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Today, we can advertise on television or social media and use billboards and posters. It's very easy to tell the world about your business, however, in the past there was no social media, TV or even commercial radio. Printed posters only became widely used during the late 19th century and were very expensive because the technology was quite basic, and the printing process was time-consuming.​​​​​​​
Listen to June talking about her memories of traders on the Market selling their wares​​​​​​
SAY CHEESE!
The Lane has drawn filmmakers of all descriptions since the early days of film. Robert W. Paul’s short film, Petticoat Lane, was filmed in 1896, and followed by countless other documentaries, including Cyril Hepworth’s Sunday in Petticoat Lane (1904), which form part of the collection of the British Film Institute. The vibe of the Lane is apparent as these films capture the market in its prime.
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The Petticoat Lane area has also provided the backdrop, and social context, for fiction films, notably A Kid For Two Farthings, released in 1955, directed by Carol Reed and based on a 1953 novel by Wolf Mankowitz, who was born in 1924 in Fashion Street, Spitalfields. The novel reflects on Mankowitz’s experiences growing up in Spitalfields’s poor but close and devout Jewish community.
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Other artists that took inspiration from Spitalfields and the Petticoat Lane area were the painter Mark Gertler, born in Gun Street in 1891, and the composer and writer Lionel Bart, born in Spitalfields in 1930, who in 1960 created the musical Oliver!, based Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
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The market remains a popular location for film and television production companies and has been featured in the popular television series such as Luther and Slow Horses, as well as in Steve McQueen’s movie Blitz (2024), which features Fournier Street and Wilkes Street among other London locations. The film of the Sadler's Wells musical Wah! Wah! Girls (2012) was shot in the Petticoat Lane area as part of the cultural Olympiad that accompanied the London Olympics in 2012.
Researched and written by Eliza