Owners / Managers

Edwin Villiers

The redoubtable Edwin Villiers, whom H. G. Hibbert found to be such an uninteresting comedian when acting at the Haymarket Theatre, was chiefly memorable for his building of the South London Music Hall in London Road Walworth (in conjunction with a manager called Tindall) and his direction and reconstitution of the London Pavilion. He erected the South London in 1860. Its decoration was considered exceptionally chaste. The entrance hall was planned in the manner of a Roman villa. The auditorium, reconstructed from a Catholic chapel, enjoyed for a time the unusual feature of a chairman's throne.and table placed in the centre of the floor.

In 1869 the house was completely burned down, but Villiers rebuilt it and sold it in 1874 to J. J. Poole.