Spiritualism and the Victorian City

During the 1860s there was a growing interest in seances and modern Spiritualism in London. In 1852, Maria B Hayden visited London from America and offered her services as a medium which set off a trend for 'spirit telegraphy'. This included calling out the letters of the alphabet and waiting for the knocks or ‘rapping’ from the spirit to give a message. Attempting to communicate with the dead by these methods had been popularised by the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York State, in 1848.

Appetite for the Supernatural

With death from disease and infant mortality arriving all too frequently during this period, Spiritualism provided a comfort through the hope of connecting with a lost loved one.

Séance’s took place at home with a small group of people, but they were also conducted as public performances. Of course, much like today, there were people that were sceptical about them as being genuine interactions with the spirit world. The magicians John Nevil Maskelyne and George Alfred Cooke exploited this and were the masters of the ‘mock séance’ and injected humour into their illusory shows.

The Egyptian Hall

At The London Archives is a collection of ephemera from the Egyptian Hall which was known as the ‘England’s Home of Mystery’. This was at 170 Piccadilly, and the building was demolished in 1905 after being on the site since 1812.

The Egyptian Hall was a natural home for this type of entertainment of the conjuring of the magical and mystical.

In 1883, a comic sketch based around aspects of the performative nature of the séance and the people involved, with all the parts being played by men was titled, 'A New Spritualistic Sketch entitled Mrs. Daffodil Downy's Light and Dark Seance!' A skeleton appeared in the performance in a cloud of light.

Characters - Sir Everleigh Staid (a rich widower) - Mr W Crompton Dr Blade (a Spirit Medium) - Mr J .N Maskelyne Morsel (Dr Blade's Assistant) - Mr G. A Cooke Mrs Daffodil Downy (Fair, Fat and Forty) - Mr J Hansard Phoebe (Mrs Downy's Maid) - Mr E.S. Elton.

Egyptian Hall - Mrs. Daffodil Downy is an enterprising widow with designs upon a wealthy widower, Sir Everleigh Staid, who is restrained from responding to her suit by the promise which he has made to his late wife that he will not marry again. Mrs Downy, to solve the difficulty, enlists the help of Dr Blade, a medium, and a séance is concocted for the delusion of the trustful baronet. Here the deceased lady, after a variety of manifestations, appears to him in the spirit, and not only releases him from his engagement to the past, but actually compels him to give his hand to the scheming widow. The ghost of the late wife is a masterpiece of stage effect, and, as it floats a denser shadow in the darkness of the Hall, has a spectral realism that causes a thrill even to the most unsusceptible.

You can find out more about the layout of the Egyptian Hall and Mr Maskelyne's Experimental Room from the plans in our collection in GLC/AR/BR/19/0226 and GLC/AR/BR/07/0226. In addition, further images of Maskelyne and Cooke's performances can be found on the London Picture Archive.

Further reading

Maskelyne and Cooke : Egyptian Hall, London, 1873-1904 by George A. Jenness with an introduction by Noel Maskelyne, 1967 (reference: 43.3 JEN).