In the 1850s Bourke Street gained a reputation as a brash and crowded thoroughfare and the focus of Saturday night amusement. By the 1870s, bright with the glare of street lamps and boasting the latest shop-window displays, it was often compared to London's Oxford Street. Melbourne's first theatre opened in Bourke Street as the Pavilion in 1841, and by the late 1840s the eastern end was established as the city's principal entertainment zone. Famous Bourke Street theatres included the Theatre Royal, Opera House, Academy of Music, Apollo Hall, Haymarket Theatre, Salle de Valentino, Waxworks, Bijou and Tivoli. The decline of live theatre from the 1920s saw the congregation of cinemas in Bourke Street East. Theatres and public halls were complemented by other entertainments in the form of billiard rooms, cigar divans, rifle galleries, bowling alleys and sideshows. Bourke Street East between Elizabeth and Russell streets was the focus of street life, with bootblacks, spruikers, coffee stalls and temporary exhibitions taking up a pitch at every available corner. While the early evening crowd trod Bourke Street's pavements for entertainment or for show, the night-time street was also notorious for public disorder, fights, brothel touts and drinking and drunkenness. 〰️