Originally known as the ‘Royal Aquarium Summer and Winter Garden’ it opened on 22 January 1876 on Tothill Street (opposite of Westminster Abbey). Soon after opening the name was shortened to the 'Royal Aquarium'. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in a highly ornamental style faced with Portland stone. The plans were designed with the wealthy members of parliament in mind - to serve as a place that they could go and contemplate political matters while being surrounded by marvelous ocean creatures. The project scope was quickly expanded to include chess tables, smoking rooms, telegraph office, library, bar, eating spaces, art exhibitions, concerts, roller skating rink, hair salon, plays, and other performative forms of entertainment. The theatre was opened under the name of the "Aquarium Theatre" but was renamed in 1879 to the "Imperial Theatre". The theatre featured an equally elaborate design to the rest of the Aquarium and had capacity for 1293 people.
The central promenade of the building featured a 72 ft arched glass roof. The 340 ft long hall was decorated with many plants, fountains, and featured a 400 person orchestra complete with an organ. The aquarium tanks extended off of each side of the promenade and featured cutting edge designs for both the tank and water systems. During construction, a newspaper article published in the Era in 1875 offered the following description of the aquarium exhibit:
"The large tanks for fish on each side of the great central avenue have sills of polished granite, and are lighted both from above and at the back; the plate glass in front being one inch in thickness."
The building's proprietors had sunk great sums of money into the building's construction and were eager to being recouping their investment, so much so that it opened with near empty aquarium tanks. This resulted in criticism such as that "there was a screw loose somewhere about the project. The tanks contain neither water nor fishes, and the general emptiness of the place was weakly disguised with colored calico and shrubs".
To be the peak of Victorian entertainment and education, the Aquarium needed to acquire exotic marine animals such as the unfortunate beluga whale that was captured off the coast of Labrador, Canada. It was introduced to the Aquarium in 1877. Following its arrival, the whale appeared sickly and was excreting mucus from its blowhole. Three days later the whale died. The lungs of the dead whale were found to be very badly congested and the cause was identified as the method used to transport the whale. It had been on an exposed open deck during the trip across the Atlantic, and had been covered in sea water every five minutes, however water evaporated quickly between the regular soaking, which resulted in extreme cold, and the subsequent impact on the whale’s lungs. Even in death the whale remained on display, albeit for a short time. One newspaper offered the following account:
"When once the animal was safely deposited in the tank its surroundings were fully as favourable as those of most other creatures when deprived of their natural liberty. The supposed marks of ill-usage on the dead body were the consequences of the eels in the tank having after its death nibbled the edges of its fins."
Despite offering such a wide variety of entertainment, the Royal Aquarium never gleamed the status that it was originally intended to. The theatre experienced its peak in the early 1880s but even then did not manage to chart within the top ranked theatres.
During the first decade of operations, the elaborate design (that was used to exude wealth) proved to be alarmingly expensive to maintain. The aquarium tanks were supplied with fresh water and sea water by nine cisterns which were sunken into the building's foundation. This water system proved to be one of the largest operating expenses. As a result, many animals suffered, died, and eventually the aquarium aspect was all but phased out of the Royal Aquarium. In an effort to keep the building afloat, the Aquarium shifted its focus to the lower classes by offering what is best described as a glorified freak show. Its regular entertainment is best described by Erroll Sherson's 1925 account in which he states:
"Bare-backed ladies dived from the roof or were shot out of a cannon, or sat in a cage covered with hair and calling themselves ‘Missing Links’. Zulus, Gorillas, Fasting Humans, Boxing Humans and Boxing Kangaroos, succeeded one another in rapid changes.”
Other exhibitions included an 8 foot tall man called “Chang the Great Chinese Giant”, “The Two-Headed Nightingale”, apparently vocally-proficient Siamese twins (1885), a three-legged boy from Spain (1898) and (most celebrated of all) Krao “the living missing link” (1883), daughter of a tribe of hairy men and women from Laos”. The exhibits were exploitative in nature, however the Royal Aquarium chose to advertise them as being "educational".
In addition to offering a freak show, the theatre also offered music hall and variety acts such as musicians, male impersonators, serio comics, conjurers, dancers, animal acts, acrobats, and aerialists. These performances, which were ideally suited to smaller and more focussed settings, withered and failed in the vast echoing spaces of the ‘Tank’, as the Aquarium had come to be known.
In addition to the standard dog and cat shows of the 1880s, the Royal Aquarium decided to showcase more exotic animal shows such as bulls that climbed ladders and roll on their backs (1883), and packs of wolves (1887). At one point they even went so far as to use their tanks for a fishing exhibition.
By the 1890's the theatre had acquired a risqué reputation. Its clientele often consisted of drunks, thieves, and prostitutes. In 1889, the Aquarium's reputation caused the London City Council to refuse the renewal of its operating license. A common complaint was that the Aquarium featured "dangerous acts" such as launching a woman from a cannon. Management retorted the claims of danger by explaining that this was a mechanical trick and that she wasnt really shot from the cannon. They went so far as to invite the Secretary to come and attempt the trick himself. The invitation was not accepted, but it was a wonderful advertisement. After much debate, the decision was overturned on the grounds that the Aquarium was no better or worse than other similar establishments of the day.
By the turn of the century, the Royal Aquarium began to be phased out, with the original theatre closing in 1900. Three years later, in 1903, the building was sold to the Wesleyan Methodists. The contents were auctioned off and the building was demolished. Ironically, the ground is now home to ae Methodist Central Hall that was built on the site in 1911. Following the closing of the theatre, a new location was commissioned in Canning Town. The Imperial Palace Theatre opened in 1909 and featured an interior which recreated the atmosphere of the Aquarium.
During its 27 year existence, the Royal Aquarium was not the prestigious exhibition space and educational forum initially envisaged, it was not the renowned concert venue originally hoped for, it was not the well-loved variety theatre hinted at in its ever-changing programmes, it was not even an aquarium; it was in fact a circus fairground given unnatural permanence by its pretentious surroundings.
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