Rescue an East End treasure

Tonight could be your chance to help save a lost treasure. Wilton’s Music Hall in East London is one of thirty crumbling old buildings across the UK that the BBC wants you to rescue from a state of dereliction.

A once-fabulous building found in the shadows of the Tower of London, on Grace's Alley off Cable Street, Wilton’s was one of the first and biggest of Londons music halls,

Originally built in 1858 as a pub, it grew to be so popular it that in the 1870s it was expanded and converted into an entertainment venue, where it regularly filled with 2,000 revellers — and played host to the likes of Champagne Charlie and the British Barnum.

In 1877 it was badly burned in a fire, but founder John Wilton re-fitted the venue and in 1878 it reopened. After the two World Wars the hall was used by missionaries and in the 1950s Sunday school classes were held — occasionally attended by the odd drunken sailor. It was around this time that a room containing 200 pint glasses from the 1800s was discovered.

Nowadays, owing to health and safety regulations, only forty per cent of the building is in use — and it cannot remain open all year round. Wilton's is the only surviving giant music hall from this period, making it a unique and valuable historical asset, with your vote it could not only survive, but be transformed to it’s former glory and used by Londoners again!

Presented by Griff Rhys-Jones, each house in Restoration has a celebrity backer, and Wilton’s is Rory Bremner, who says: “To me, Wilton’s Music Hall is more than a building, it’s a living, breathing theatre.

“It’s a place where dreams were made and where people were inspired. It survived fire, it survived planning applications, it survived slum clearances. It’s only enemy now is neglect, but you can make it live, you can make it breathe for a new community by giving it a new life and by giving it your support.”

The ten-part series will feature buildings from castles to cottages across the UK and will focus on a different region each week. The final show climaxes with a magnificent live event at the Tower of London where a nationwide vote will decide which building will be restored.