The One and Only

The story of Marie Lloyd, Queen of Music Hall In the late 19th century, performers, mainly from the London’s East End, created a unique phenomenon: Music Hall. At its height, there were over 500 music halls in London alone. Marie Lloyd started treading the boards at the age of 15, developing a singing repertoire that combined a mixture of arch sauciness with lyrical intensity. Hailed as the Queen of Music Hall, and enjoying an international popularity, Marie Lloyd had an equally colourful life off-stage. When she married for the third time to a younger and increasingly violent man, her health deteriorated. She collapsed during her last performance on stage, ironically singing “A Bit of a Ruin that Cromwell Knocked About a Bit.”