The North London Colosseum and Amphitheatre
A newspaper published this artist's sketch of the North London Colosseum and Amphitheatre when it opened for its first season on 1st November 1886. Robert Fossett's Circus performed here with clowns, acrobats and jugglers as did Professor Collier's giant and midget elephants. Horse riders performed feats of daring. The new circus building could accommodate 4,000 spectators. It had winter gardens, smoking rooms and extensive stables and the painted ceilings were described as "bright, cheerful and picturesque". The Roseberry Place entrances were decorated with carved heads of horses and elephants and "being most conveniently situated next to Dalston Junction railway station... it turned away several hundreds last Saturday night"
The performers and the elephants could enter the circus ring by a separate entrance, built next to the two Georgian houses, at 12 Dalston Lane. English Heritage has described this entrance, with its stepped parapet and Corinthian pilasters, as "altogether quite delightful". The Theatres Trust has found it to be "very rare because it pre-dates all of the surviving British examples". It is unique - the oldest circus entrance in the country. An urban gem.
The performers and the elephants could enter the circus ring by a separate entrance, built next to the two Georgian houses, at 12 Dalston Lane. English Heritage has described this entrance, with its stepped parapet and Corinthian pilasters, as "altogether quite delightful". The Theatres Trust has found it to be "very rare because it pre-dates all of the surviving British examples". It is unique - the oldest circus entrance in the country. An urban gem.
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