How Sadler's Wells Became the Home of Dance

#4989 Old Sadler's Wells, London

For #InternationalDanceDay2024, here’s the home of English ballet...when a board was first trod, a Plié Plié first made. Old Sadler’s Wells began life in North #London as an #Islington pleasure garden, before the first theatre, the Musick House shown here, sprang up c.1683. Constrained by the laws of the time restricting ‘straight’ drama, it showcased instead dance and performative arts and so forged a reputation still going strong over three centuries later. While the present incarnation is its sixth! And all born of one man’s commercial opportunism, a Mr Sadler who put on varied entertainments for the hundreds of visitors to the area drawn not yet by a theatre but to the natural wells where they drank of their health-giving nectar. Sadler’s Wells literally grew from an entrepreneurial ‘toe-in-the-water’! *License this image for full commercial use for just £10 #history #authors #scanned #creatives #art #drawings #architecture #people #londonlife #places #ballet