Leisure and class in Victorian England: Rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830-1885

by Peter Bailey

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

260 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Emma Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Includes an excellent account of the rise of music halls, and the resulting changes in leisure activities. Notes that even in the 1860-70s, popular performers were groomed into 'stars', whilst lesser performers were under greater pressure to do multiple halls in a day, on lower rates of pay. Moves onto the commercialisation and mergers that led to a few large concerns controlling a lot of the London halls, and the gradual censorship of bawdy or radical political matter, with the final result at the century's end of the conversion from working class music hall to variety theatre, attracting a more middle class "respectable" audience.