SAINT CECILIA'S HALL,
NIDDRY'S WYND, 22 MARCH 1774
A hundred and sixty-two years ago today the seeker after amusement in Edinburgh might have Seen wording similar to that given above, advertising an Edinburgh Musical Society Concert. This afternoon, as far as possible, a replica of that concert is being relayed from St. Cecilia's Hall. In the seventies of the eighteenth century the audience, including the performers, numbered between six and seven hundred. As the hall was seated for only five hundred, it was necessary, as the billing shows, to request ladies to appear without hoops.
Niddry Street today, in which St.
Cecilia's Hall stands, looks ordinary and unexciting, but it was here that distinguished companies used to assemble to listen to concerts of classical and national music rendered by the most eminent musicians of the time. It was here also that the first performance in Scotland of Handel's Messiah was given.