'Professor' John Henry Anderson (1814-1874), the Scottish magician and theatrical entrepreneur was better known as 'the Wizard of the North'. He settled in London in 1840 where he performed at the New Strand Theatre. In August 1845 he opened his own 5,000-seat theatre the City Theatre on Glasgow Green, where from 8th to 19th September 1845 he engaged an operatic company headed by the well-known tenor Sims Reeves. The theatre burned down in November 1845, only four months after its opening, but through the assistance of friends Anderson started a new London company at Covent Garden Theatre in 1846 and went on to perform around Europe, and in 1849 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In his later years Anderson's daughters Helen and Alice appeared onstage with their father, and they went on to become magicians themselves. Miss Anderson is billed here as 'The Second Sighted Sybil'.