An archive recording the glory days as well as the decay and near collapse of Wilton’s Music Hall has been acquired by the V&A theatre collection.

The archive includes a tattered and yellowed campaign poster, showing a shattered window in a mouldering brick wall, a reminder of the half century of attempts to save the rotting building, which claims to be the world’s oldest Victorian music hall. The poster will need expensive conservation work before it can be preserved as a precious relic.

Archivist Sabrina Offord said: “Normally we wouldn’t even try to save a piece of paper in this state, but its state after being moved from noticeboard to noticeboard over the years is part of the story.”

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