Old Price Riots

The riots lasted three months, and ended with John Philip Kemble, the manager of the theatre, being forced to make a public apology.

At the end, the audience refused to leave so Kemble sent for the Bow Street police and other private militias,[6][7] but this only made the situation worse, and the rioters did not disperse until 2am.

Newspapers and journals reported frequently on the riots, citing as central to its continuation a perceived suppression of customary liberties and a lack of dialogue between the patrons and the management.

[8] At one point, a coffin was carried in with the message "Here lies the body of the new price, which died of the whooping cough on 23 September 1809, aged 6 days".

This tactic misfired and resulted in increased violence, as shown in the contemporary caricature by Isaac Robert Cruikshank, Killing No Murder as Performing at the Grand National Theatre .