This cartoon by the prolific cartoonist Alfred Bryan (1852-1899) was produced to celebrate the opening of the Elephant and Castle Theatre in 1872 by the Victorian showman and entrepreneur Edward Tyrrell Smith (1804-1877). It shows Tyrrell, his body in the form of a castle, riding an elephant. He holds a banner marked ‘Success’. Smith opened the theatre in 1872 with a staircase connecting it to the station, taking advantage of the Chatham and Dover railway stop at the Elephant and Castle which he knew would easily attract customers travelling into the metropolis by railway. The theatre was destroyed by fire in March 1878.

E.T. Smith had an interest in a wide variety of theatrical concerns in London, including Vauxhall Gardens, the Marylebone Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, of which he became a lessee in 1852, the Alhambra Palace, which he opened as a circus in 1858, Cremorne Gardens, which he leased from 1861 to 1869, Astley’s Circus, of which he was the lessee from 1863, the Lyceum, which he leased from 1867, the Surrey Theatre from 1870 and Highbury Barn from 1871.