Popularity: The Stars of the Edwardian Music Hall

This vast group portrait of principal artistes of the Edwardian music hall includes 231 performers. They include stars such as Marie Lloyd, on the right of the policeman and Little Tich, in the centre foreground with the bowler hat.

The scene is the junction of Lower Marsh and the Cut with Waterloo Road. It was a traditional meeting place for music hall artistes as many agents had offices there.

Lambert himself is positioned immediately above the sandwich-board man in the foreground left, shown in his role as the female impersonator Lydia Dreams. His son and daughter are the two little children in the centre foreground. The painting's first owner and Lambert's friend, Peter Cannon (Bijou), is seen with his partner Bella on the left of the policeman.

Popularity hung in Tooting High Street's Castle Hotel between 1924 and 1957. The story of this establishment, recounted in an undated pamphlet, claims that the painting's reputation 'spread far beyond the bounds of South London, even to Europe and America!'