• Turn back to Islington Green and walk across the top and slightly left to the entrance to St Peter’s Road …

Collins’s Music Hall stood here on the North side of the Green from 1863 to 1958 and, although taking its name from an Irish vocalist and music hall entertainer called Sam Collins, was actually only licensed to him for two and a half years until his death in 1865.    ///lanes.candle.necks

This Music Hall was a conversion of a public house called The Landsdowne Arms and was situated at the rear of the pub.

In its heyday it could accommodate between seven and eight hundred people who came to see performances from such stars as Charlie Chaplin, Marie Lloyd, Harry Lauder and George Robey and George Leybourne. 

George Leybourne was often known by the title of one of his songs, "Champagne Charlie". In 1867 this song was a huge hit and led to the first major success of the music hall concept in Britain. Even today he is one of the best-known music hall performers. Follow this YouTube link to hear Tommy Trinder sing his version.

Like its more famous rival, The Windmill in Soho, it never closed, remaining open during the Blitz of the early 1940‘s. It was finally destroyed by fire in 1958. The photo above shows the Music Hall in its heyday in the late nineteenth century. 

The premises are now occupied by a book shop. The blue plaque marking this famous building is unusual in being square rather than round.