Earlier this year it was brought to our attention that there was a mystery document we might be interested in the Special Collections Library at the University of Leeds. The document was a 4 page concert programme from a Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the ‘Albert Hall’ on Friday 23rd April, and ‘a portion of the programme for the Orchestra’s Senior Concert, April 21, 1903’.
This documents were curious to us because – as far as we understood – the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1945! So in May we went on a little field trip over to West Yorkshire to see the document for ourselves and here’s what we found out:
As advised on the online catalogue, the clipping (from another SPO concert at the ‘Albert Hall’) had the date 21 April 1903 on it, but the 4 page programme wasn’t dated at all, it only said Friday April 23rd.
The 1903 date was a Tuesday, but it said “In grateful remembrance of… Ebenezer Prout (The late Professor Prout conducted performances by this society of his 3rd Symphony and Triumphal March on the above date)”. So April 21 1903 was not the date of the programme, but it indicates that Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra existed as early as 1903.
So, how can we date these programmes? And where was the venue?
A quick Google told us more about the concert venue; The Albert Hall stood in Barker’s Pool on the corner of Burgess Street, Sheffield. It opened as a concert hall on 15th December 1873, but was converted into a cinema after the First World War. On 14th July 1937, following a showing of “Black Legion” starring Humphrey Bogart, a disastrous fire took hold of the building. After World War II the land was bought by the Sheffield Corporation as the site for the new law courts but these were never built here, and in 1963 Cole Brothers Department store (a subsidiary of the John Lewis Partnership) was built on the Albert Hall site. Read more here
As for the date – years when the 23rd April fell on a Friday in the early 20th Century left us with the following possibilities: 1909, 1915, 1920, 1926, 1937, 1943.
The programme also listed the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, and the Master Cutler as Patrons: Henry Kenyon Stephenson, DSO (elected in 1908), and Douglas Vickers (1908-1911).
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So, it seems likely that the concert was on 23 April 1909. But the clipping concert date was still unknown.
This was all incredibly exciting to learn, but it raised so many more questions than answers.
Keep your eye on our blog for Part 2 when we will take a deeper dive into the history of our orchestra.