Pierrots were troupes who entertained residents, day-trippers and holidaymakers in Portobello and other seaside resorts between the 1890s and 1930s. They offered a hugely popular mix of song, dance and comedy which has influenced subsequent generations. We know something of their local history but want to find out more.
- What groups were there?
- What did they perform?
- Who were their members and what stories did they have?
Seaside entertainment in Portobello
The origins of seaside entertainment in Portobello date back to the traditional Carter’s Play when working ponies were dressed up and raced on the sands. Horse racing became established in the 1750s and attracted lots of sideshows and stalls, like the more famous Leith Races. Portobello began its life as a resort in the 1770s with the construction of the earliest villas. Before the end of the century bathing machines were available for hire and there were visits from Ord’s Travelling Circus. In 1806 hot and cold salt water baths were opened and a thrice-daily coach service introduced from the Tron in Edinburgh. A theatre was built in 1808, a year before the town had its first church.
The town – and its entertainments – grew rapidly and continuously during the 1800s, precipitated by the opening of the railway station in 1844 and the pier in 1871. Sometimes special trains were run as on 8 July 1871, a holiday to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. This saw 600 people coming from Larkhall, 700 from Wishaw and 200 from Galashiels. The railway station was enlarged in 1884 to cope with the numbers of holidaymakers coming from beyond Edinburgh. Portobello became a notable destination for Glaswegians during the Fair (last fortnight in July); not all went ‘doon the watter’! Numbers of visitors to Portobello were big: in 1909 750,000 people visited the newly opened Marine Gardens.
Origins of the pierrots
You might think that pierrots were called this because they appeared on seaside piers – I did. But their origins lie in a very British take on the medieval European tradition of commedia dell’arte, popular troupes of travelling players who extemporised around stock characters and plot lines. One figure was the sad clown Pedrolino, or Pierrot (little Peter).
The pierrot phenomenon in Britain started when a banjoist, Clifford Essex had an inspiration while watching a very popular French play in mime, ‘L’Enfant Prodigue’ (The Prodigal Child) in London in 1891. This child was based on Pierrot from commedia dell’arte and Essex was very taken by Pierrot’s garb: white blouse, pantaloons and make-up. At the time banjo groups were frequently to be seen in seaside resorts, following the introduction of the instrument from the USA in the earlier 19th century. These groups often appeared in blackface and sometimes had a low reputation. “Why not dress up as Pierrot and be different?” thought Essex.
Essex formed a group which first performed in July 1891 on punts at the Henley Regatta and then at Cowes aboard the Royal Yacht. They developed their act, a mix of music, comedy and dance, and toured England’s South Coast. They were seen as wholesome and family-friendly and of the people, and the pierrot costume made them that bit different. They kept very close to and involved their audience, which became a characteristic of pierrots from then on.
Pierrots in Portobello
We do not know when the first pierrot show was held in Portobello, but it will have been after 1895. Many pierrot groups sprung up in resorts following the success of ‘Clifford Essex’s Royal Pierrots’. Edinburgh and Portobello residents will have been aware of ‘L’Enfant Prodigue’ which had been put on at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in October 1891.
By Edwardian times there were hundreds of pierrot troupes in Britain made up of a mix of amateurs and professionals. A few performed in theatres and on stages on piers but most performed in what would now be called pop-up venues, using their own small stages or tents, with boards put down when performances were on the sand. They had to be on their toes, performing more than once a day and changing their programmes very frequently. Group members would typically sit in a semi-circle and get up for their own or ensemble turns. Most troupes were accompanied by a banjo and/or a piano. Most would have few props and little or no scenery, just a curtain behind them. They did not seek ticket money, rather they would pass round a bottle for contributions during their performance, smashing the bottle at the end so that no one could steal from the collection. Pierrots did not always wear the pierrot costume; some wore sailor suits or evening dress, and might then be described as a ‘concert party’.
In 1906 Harry Marvello brought his ‘Geisha Entertainers’ from Ayr, staging the first large, open-air show in Portobello, so popular that he had to double capacity within a few weeks. Soon after he built the Tower Pavilion. We also know the names of three groups (the Humoresks, Enterpeans and the Dandies) who performed song, dance and comedy in the Marine Gardens between 1909 and the outbreak of war in 1914. Amongst the songs must have been those of Portobello-born Harry Lauder, such as his hits ‘I Love a Lassie’ (1909) and ‘Roamin’ in the Gloamin’ (1911). In 1913 he also wrote ‘The Portobello Lass’, “the lass he met on Portobello Pier”.
“Oh! I met a bonnie lassie on the Portobello Pier
She was lonely and looked so shy
I was sorry for her that as sure as I am here
So I just walked over and winked my eye”
You can find an original recording on the Discography of American Historical Recordings here.
Pierrots after World War 1
We know more about pierrots after the First World War not least because of the notoriety that one group attracted: Andre Letta and his Royal Entertainers, for accusations of adultery involving some of the cast. Andre Letta was in fact Robert Horne Stewart who had trained as a stage magician and will feature in Richard Wiseman’s OEC talk in October 2025. This is a story for another time but you can watch this short film of his Royal Entertainers held on the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive – the equivalent of a promotional video of today.
Membership of pierrot groups helped forge the careers of many entertainers including the great Dave Willis who was with Andre Letta for a time (sitting cross-legged in the Letta photograph). Others who worked in the same group at some point were the Welsh singer Donald Peers and Ella Logan (the aunt of Jimmy Logan) who starred on Broadway. Pierrot and concert party forms played a big role in entertaining troops in both World Wars (think ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ on BBC TV) and served as a training ground for many stars of radio and television including the Goons who in turn influenced Monty Python’s Flying Circus and later sketch shows.
Can you add to the pierrot story?
If you have any information and pictures to offer on pierrots in Portobello, we would be very pleased to hear from you.
- What groups were there?
- What did they perform?
- Who were their members and what stories did they have?
I confess to a very personal interest, as my grandfather, Willie Wright, was a member of one of the Portobello troupes before WWI, and my grandmother accompanied them on piano. He is seated in the front row, second from the right. Do you know the name of the group on the right, about its members, where it performed or anything else?
Do you have any other information or images relating to Portobello Pierrots, or other contemporary seaside entertainers or those who came before them?
Acknowledgements
We are sharing what we find with Portobello Heritage Trust, and thank Archie Foley and Margaret Munro for their local knowledge and sight of images in their collection.
I am also indebted to Tony Lidington, author of “Don’t Forget the Pierrots!” The complete history of British seaside pierrot troupes and concert parties, published by Routledge in 2022 which is an evocative and fascinating read. Tony continues to build what must be the most extensive collection of pierrot memorabilia, some of which features on his website, Seaside Follies.
This blog is based partly on a talk I gave to the u3a History of Edinburgh group in May 2024.
Further reading
References on Portobello and seaside entertainment
William Baird, Annals of Duddingston and Portobello (Andrew Elliot, 1898)
Andy Arthur, The thread about some of the early history of Portobello (2022)
Portobello Heritage Trust – heritage pages
E Simpson, Portobello’s first hundred years as a seaside resort, Scottish Local History (Issue 78, 2010)
