Royal Gallery of Illustration

In 1850 the building was named the Gallery of Illustration, and between then and 1855 it housed a diorama created and run by the theatrical scene-painters Thomas Grieve and William Telbin.

Among the writers whose works the Reeds staged were W. S. Gilbert and F. C. Burnand, and their composers included Arthur Sullivan, Frederic Clay and Alfred Cellier.

A reviewer wrote: The Morning Chronicle reported in October that the show "continues to attract overflowing audiences to the Gallery of Illustration in Regent-street.

Her entertainments given at St Martin's Hall had been popular, and with her husband, German Reed,[n 2] at the piano and "the pictorial aid of Messrs Grieve and Telbin", she started giving what The Morning Chronicle called "her very clever impersonations" at the Royal Gallery of Illustration.

[13][n 3] They quickly became public favourites: in 1859 The Daily News observed: In 1860 the Reeds were joined by John Parry, a former concert singer and subsequently an entertainer known for his impressions of popular performers.

The historian Andrew Crowther writes, "Many who would gladly attend a concert, a lecture or an exhibition at a gallery would not think of setting foot in a theatre".

[13] The author F. Anstey recalled that in his Victorian childhood there was no question of being taken to a theatre, The stage was tiny because the long, narrow gallery could not accommodate a larger one.

[21] After seven further productions of the same nature, with original music by Macfarren and Virginia Gabriel and adaptations of Offenbach and Michael Balfe the experiment came to an end.

[13] Other authors whose works were presented there included Shirley Brooks, Henry Chorley, James Planché, Robert Reece, T. W. Robertson, Bolton Rowe and Tom Taylor.

[21] Burnand and Sullivan's Cox and Box was taken up by later managements including the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company,[37] and has continued to be revived regularly in the 21st century.