Entertaining Aldershot: Music Halls, Theatres and Cinemas

This on-line virtual tour takes the visitor around the sites of some of the old music halls, theatres and cinemas of Aldershot town, giving an insight into the story of how the population of Aldershot has been entertained over the last 165 years.Following the establishment of Aldershot Army Camp in 1855 there was a huge demand for places of entertainment, both from the soldiers stationed in the garrison and from the growing civilian population. In the new town centre many music halls sprang up, some purpose-built and others attached to some of the town’s many pubs. As the town grew, new theatres were built to provide entertainment of a “higher class” than the music halls to an increasingly prosperous audience. In the early twentieth century the new medium of film was added to the entertainments on offer, initially in converted buildings but then in purpose-built “picture palaces”. Some of these fine buildings remain, others have been lost but the sites can be identified and echoes found from the bygone days. Follow this on-line tour for stories of some of the entrepreneurs, performers and places of entertainment in Aldershot town centre.