SEASON OF
1789-1790
1 7 JUNE 1789 the opera house in the Haymarket burned
to the ground. At once began a comedy of charges, counter¬
charges, intrigues and general confusion that persisted without
abatement throughout the whole of the present season.
The questions were simple enough : should a new opera house be built
at all, and if so, where and by whom? With the disappearance of the old
theatre the patent had disappeared as well. Three men thereupon stepped
forward and laid siege to the Lord Chamberlain, he being that officer
°f the crown to whom the King gave his assent for the possession of a theatre
Patent. They were “Sir” John Gallini, the manager and mortgagee of the
defunct theatre, William Taylor, a former manager and the holder of the
patent, and Robert Bray O’Reilly, Gallini’s attorney. After much
old
dis
to
pute certain subscribers to the Haymarket opera house raised the money
Pay off Gallini’s mortgage, and induced him to withdraw from any
rther concern in that theatre. Taylor saw his opportunity. More sub¬
reptions came in, and, although no patent was still forthcoming, he began,
°n 16 March 1790 to rebuild on the old site; the cornerstone was laid
n 3 April by the Earl of Buckingham.1 But Gallini was not to be put off
easily. He and O’Reilly decided to build their own opera house; it
aS t0 be in Leicester Square on the site of the now derelict Leicester
^ se.2 Sir John Soane was called in as architect, and the patent was to be
°ne, currently dormant, belonging to Thomas Harris, the proprietor
Covent Garden. Harris, however, would not part with it, and so, after
2 Ibid'C ^^Vert‘ser' '8 Mar. and 6 Apr. 1790.
It r 12 JarL '790. Leicester House was situated at the north-east corner of the Square.
”as demolished in 1701.
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