Wooden and canvas box for a rain machine used for theatrical sound effects at the Cripplegate Institute theatre. Perhaps originally from the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, which closed as a theatre in 1923.

Canvas-covered wooden box containing dried peas or gravel, which pivots on a metal slat on a wooden base, to produce the sound of rain.

Given by the Reverend Canon Brian Cook

This rain box, along with a gun rattle (S.386-2002) and a wind machine (S.387-2002), was used by the drama department of the Arts Educational Schools when they moved from Piccadilly to the Old Cripplegate Institute. Cripplegate Institute had a well-equipped theatre which was working in the early 1900s, originally including backcloths and wing borders. Some of the grid ironmongery and other bits of equipment were marked 'Britannia' so the donor felt it possible that the stage machinery also originated from the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, which operated from 1841 until 1923 when it became a cinema.

S.388:2-2002