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Gould’s Hall On The Esplanade, Ladysmith

Black and white photograph of a light coloured two-storey wooden rectangular building with pitched roof and large rectangular windows staggered between levels surrounded by open space occupied by scrub bushes and tree stumps. Other wooden buildings of similar construction are in the background.

Source: Ladysmith Archives

Date: Circa 1900

The large white building on the Esplanade was one of the first to be built in Ladysmith. Isaac Gould ran a store on the ground floor and rented out a large hall on the second floor for community gatherings. It was one of the premier dance and theatre venues in town.

It was also used for political rallies in 1903, with very large crowds attending. This prompted a Royal Commission into its safety – which was answered by the owner Isaac Gould publishing a letter in the Nanaimo Free Press May 29th 1903 stating that ‘the building is guaranteed to stand a deadweight of 930,000 pounds and that it has held 735 and 850 people respectively at two political meetings and over 200 couples at dances.” It must have been jammed!

Whatever its actual capacity, the building safely continued in use for over three decades. A Shell service station now stands on the site. A photograph of the inside of the hall in 1920 is provided in the gallery for the story page ‘Port City’.