Caitlin House in the High Street, opposite the multi-storey car park and with Bridges Estate Agents on the ground floor, is on the site of the ‘Red White and Blue’ music hall, which was attached to the Alliance Hotel. The Red White and Blue was one of the town’s early music halls, established between 1855 and 1859. Being close to the first permanent barracks, which were along the north side of Wellington Avenue, the Red White and Blue was always very popular with soldiers.
All Aldershot music halls paid strict attention to time keeping, making sure their performances ended just before the firing of the Garrison Time Gun at 9.30 pm signalled that soldiers had to return to barracks. An account of a performance at the Red, White and Blue published in the magazine “All the Year Round” in 1859 noted:
“at the back of [the stage] is a clear faced full sized circular clock. As the movement of the hands of the clock draw near half past nine p.m. the amusements (consisting chiefly of singing) work up to a climax; allusion is made to the approach of the ‘gun-fire’ from the stage; … The leading comic singer, having sung his popular song for that night to an almost exclusively military audience, comes down from the stage to exchange congratulations all round with his scarlet and blue admirers ... the hands of the clock reach the expected period, the gun fires, the bugles sound, a brass band at the opposite barracks begins to play, the soldiers slowly disperse, having a quarter of an hour’s grace before them.”
Audiences at the Red White and Blue could be rowdy, and the venue closed in 1901 when the Alliance was refused a renewal of its licence after a mass brawl had occurred.
