St Mark's Church: From Victorian Parish to Brick Lane Music Hall

In the 19th century, the building known as St Mark's Church was a joint establishment serving as both a church and school. A permanent structure designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon opened in 1862. The docks' manager Charles Capper was allowed to nominate the first vicar for the parish, which was promoted to a separate parish two years after the church opened.

As time marched on, St Mark's founded several mission churches, including St Matthew's, Custom House, and St Luke's Church, Canning Town. However, the decline of the London docks in the 1960s led to a sharp drop in local population and major slum clearances. The church was declared redundant in 1974, and its parish merged with those of two of its former mission churches, St Barnabas' and St John's. Newham Council bought the building in 1979 with the intention of turning it into a museum.

A major fire in 1981 largely destroyed the roof, which was replaced between 1984 and 1989. In 2003, Brick Lane Music Hall took on the building, converting it to its present use to host traditional music hall and variety shows. Before moving to its present building on North Woolwich Road, the hall had opened in 1992 in the former Truman's Brewery building in Brick Lane and later moved to Shoreditch.

The church's exterior was left largely unchanged, whilst a stage, bar, kitchen and lighting and sound equipment were added to the interior, with offices housed in the church's former vestry. In 2004 a mural was painted on the wall behind the church's exterior war memorial, whilst a new lighting and sound rig was installed in October 2006. Audiences are seated at tables in a cabaret-style arrangement and food is served during the interval at matinees and before the show in the evenings.

Brick Lane Music Hall is licensed for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies as well as being involved in workshops for schools, as well as taking shows to community centres, care homes and hospices throughout the East End.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons