Sadler's Wells Theatre

There had been a theatre on the site of Sadler's Wells in Rosebery Avenue since 1683 when it was a popular venue for rope dancers, jugglers and other entertainers. In the later eighteenth century it became fashionable to attend performances and in 1781 the clown Joseph Grimaldi made his first appearance. Aquatic spectacles were also staged such as the Siege of Gibraltar in 1804. A false fire alarm in 1807 caused the death of twenty-three people.

This watercolour is likely to be the preliminary drawing for an engraving which appeared in Ackermann's 'Microcosm of London' 1808-1811 entitled 'A performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre'. In the series of engravings which appeared in this publication Augustus Pugin drew the architectural features while Thomas Rowlandson drew the figures. The scene shows the stage flooded to portray a figure being driven in a chariot. The theatre is crowded and the production evidently popular.