The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-06 00:00:00

PARISH VESTRIES AND POPULAR

AMUSEMENTS.

The contest of the Chelsea Vestry against Cremorne
Gardens is not the only instance of a disposition on the
part of Parish Vestries to wage war against places of
popular resort and amusement.
The Argyll Rooms in Great Windmill-street, a well
known establishment, one of the most popular in Lon-
don, which has been in existence under one management
seven years, and during all that period regularly licensed
by the Board of Magistrates—which gives regular and
good employment to an orchestra of about forty musi-
cians of the first talent, and in the general businesi of
the rooms employment to about sixty other persons, has
fallen under the ban of the vestry of the parish of St.
James's, and the most strenuous opposition is to be
made to the application for the license at the ensuing
session of the board of magistrates. It is also rumoured
that the new Music Hall, now in course of erection,
•lonely adjoining Piccadilly, is to encounter a similar op-
position ; and, as the fantastic spirit of gentlemen
"dressed in a little brief authority," is contagiotis,
it is to be expected that all similar places
of public resort in London, where music and
dancing form the staple of tha entertainment, will be the
objects of a crusade, instigated and headed by Parish
Vestries.

Thus far the warfare has opened inauspiciously for the
assailants. The Chelsea Vestry have been forewarned
by their solicitors with the good advice that there is no
evidence to support the charge that the Gardens dete-
riorate the adjacent property. We believe this to have
been the only objection taken to Cremorne. What are
the relative characters of the two establishments—Cre-
morne Gardens and the Argyll Rooms In their main
features they are one and the same thing, music and
dancing being the staple of the entertainment; Cremorne
being ope❑ both in the day and night, and the Argyll-
moms in the evening only, from half-past eight till
twelve o'clock. It is true that there are other amuse•
ments at Cremorne, besides music and dancing, but
these foi m the staple attraction, and both establishments
are dependent for support on the crowds who have
neither leisure nor taste for such amusements during the
day, but prefer to listen to the one and mingle in the
other by night.
For ourselves we confess, with all due deference to
that august body, the vestry of St. James's, to
having been an occasional visitor at the Argyll.
rooms during the whole period of their existence,
we like the coup d'ait of the well-lighted, well-con-
structed and Proportional, and tastefully decorated
saloons—we like to listen to the orchestra, the beat iu
England for dance, and the cheapest shilling's worth of
music to be had in London—we like to look on the
healthful amusement which has become so popular of
late years as to be almost national—we like to watch
the fun which never breaks into disorder, and to parti-
cipate in the quiet cheerfulness which always prevails in
this establishment. Also, at the Argyll we see every
body. It is the reunion of the clubs the Royal
Eaebange of free and easy intercourse. Hither
go the best men of the country, not even
excepting the magnates of the vestry of Saint James.
Staid gentlemen with the r wives oftentimes delight to
patronise it, quietly locking on, and sometimes figuring
iu the dance. Eden Mother Church is represented, for
we have seen very reverend gentlemen indeed of our ac-
quaintance, relaxing themselves in the Argyll Rooms.
True, it may have been mere curosity which led them
thither, perhaps to stimulate them to twofold eloquence
in the next Sunday sermen ; but whatever the motive,
the visit has been invariably enjoyed.
The simple truth is that the righteous vestry of Saint
James feels somewhat scandalised at the characteristics
which dististinguish the Haymarket by night, and want-
ing a scape-goat for their virtuous indignation, they
attribute these to the Argyll-rooms. We do not give
them credit for so much candour as to imagine that they
think themselves right, while every one who knows
London knows surely that they are wrong. It is now
some where about thirty years since we commenced tak-
ing a quiet peep at the various phases of life in London,
and for tbese thirty years the Haymarket has always
been the same Haymarket, and at some periods infinitely
worse than it is at present. Where then was the cause
before the Argy li-rooms existed ? If for the better part of
half a century a manifest evil has been tolerated in the
parish of Saint James, let not the blame be cast on an
establishment in no wise culpable. We venture to affirm
of the Argyll-rooms that they are one of the bestcondacted
places of public resort in London, and that the crowds
who attend them depart, on their closing, quietly to their
homes. More than this, the frequenters of the Argyll-
rooms are not of a class who throng the streets at night.
If the pretext seized on by the vestry of St. James's be
good, then, for the same reason, should the Haymarket
Theatre be closed, and her Majesty's Opera, and all
other places or amusement to which the public go in
crowds ; and from which, the amusements being over,
they must emerge in crowds also.
We cannot have places of amusement without a cer-
tain amount of inconvenience ; but for that reason shall
some cynic, or some Dogberry, perhaps, anxious to dis-
tinguish himself, cry s out "nuisance." The traffic in the
Haymarket is temporarily impeded when the spectators
leave the theatre. The same thing occurs with the
Opera House, immediately opposite. Cabs, broughams,
carriages, eervants, crowds of people of all descriptions,
for a short time, undoubtedly, create some inconveni-
ence, and as the masses gradually flow off, there settles
behind them some of the dissolute, be it frankly said,
who hare been inside and waited outside, or in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of both theatre and opera, and
t i whom such places have always been an attraction
and resort. These things have made the Haymarket
what it is. It may be affirmed with truth that not one-
tenth part of the inconvenience arises to the public on
the closing of the Argyll-rooms, which supervenes from
either of the other establishments, and why therefore
should the former be singled out to bear all the oppro-
brium of a state of things long existent, and to a certain
extent inevitable ?

But we do not despair. Many a pleasant hoar do we
yet hope to spend in the Argyll, notwithstanding the
vestry of St. James's ! An establishment which has so
long existed without incurring a single merited reproach,
and in which the proprietor bas invested a fortune, i■
not to be broken up at the breath of a parish vestry.
We trust that the large number of persons to which it
gives employment need feel no apprehension on the
subject. We shall hope to meet our friends and
acquaintances there, and enjoy ourselves in wit•
nessing the enjoyments of others for many
a year to come aye, and for that matter,
dance too, if the humour seize us. Parish Jacks in office,
thank Heaven, are not law-makers, nor absolute arbi•
tars of our tastes and amusements. Poor slaves, indeed,
should we be if they were, for they are the most petty
tyrants of all. Mighty virtuous though they be, there
shall yet be " cakes and ale, aye and ginger shall be hot
i' the mouth too."

Happy shall we be to learn that the zeal of St. James's
Vestry works in a right direction. There is ample room
for all their efforts—room too for reformers of all de-
scriptions, amongst the sinners, high and low, who
abound in their parish, without attacking one of the
most agreeable and orderly planes of entertainment we
have, and suppressing amusements which are exceedingly
healthful to our bodies without in any wise harming our
souls.

MARKET NEWS.—(This Day.)