Brooklyn-born singer and dancer Adelaide Hall, who was based in the UK from the late 30s onwards and spent 55 years in London, is now the subject of a blue plaque, installed on 9 July 2024 at 1 Collingham Road, London SW5.
English Heritage, responsible for the installation, describe 1 Collingham Road as Hall’s “Kensington home of 27 years”. They say that according to the Kensington ratebooks Hall moved into the upper part of 1 Collingham Road on 21 July 1952 and stayed in the large 1870s corner house until late 1979. She told an an interviewer in June 1980 – an opinion that may no longer apply – “I do like London very much. I like it because it’s quiet – and I like the quiet life.”
According to Rightmove, who locate Collingham Road in Earl’s Court rather than Kensington, 1 Collingham Road last sold in August 1999 for £1,700,000.
Stephen Bourne, author of Sophisticated Lady – A Celebration of Adelaide Hall, called Hall “the real first lady of jazz”. Jack Seaton, the then chair of the British Music Hall Society, paid tribute to her in The Stage and Television Today in 1993, remembering his car rides with her from 1 Collingham Road:
“She was an amazing character – and a bit of a handful. She always wanted to be picked up in a car and would pile mountains of dresses into the back. You couldn’t move in the car for all her clothes. Then she would start eating chocolate biscuits while telling you about Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. You had the entire history of jazz from her with the biscuit crumbs on the floor … but we all loved her. Biscuits and all.”
