A Musical Scraper: Sullivan’s Wit in Bohemian London

Browsing an old copy of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine (Autumn 1996, p.11) recently, I came across a noticeably short, but I think witty anecdote about Sullivan and fellow composer, the Sir Alexander Mackenzie [1]. The story is preserved in Mrs Clement Scott’s illuminating Old Days in Bohemian London published by Hutchinson in 1919.

But first, a little context. Margaret Scott, née Brandon was the widow of the influential Victorian theatre critic Clement Scott. Her book offers a vivid, affectionate portrait of London’s theatrical world, drawing on decades spent alongside her husband at the centre of late‑Victorian and Edwardian stage culture. She recounts the personalities, salons, and bohemian circles that shaped Scott’s career, preserving anecdotes about actors, managers, and the social rituals of opening nights. The memoir blends personal reminiscence with cultural history, illuminating the networks and friendships that sustained the theatrical profession.

Clement William Scott was one of the most formidable and controversial theatre critics of late‑Victorian London, a man whose first‑night verdicts could make actors tremble and managers’ despair. Born in 1841, he began his career as a civil servant before drifting, irreversibly, into journalism and the theatre world. His criticism for The Daily Telegraph, which he joined in 1871, became famous for its florid style, acerbic wit, and absolute certainty of judgment.

Scott also wrote plays, adaptations, travel writing, and lyrics (including the once‑ubiquitous “Oh Promise Me”). His influence was immense, but so were the quarrels he provoked: he clashed with William Archer, Henrik Ibsen, and George Bernard Shaw. A disastrous 1898 interview, in which he attacked the morals of theatre people, especially actresses, effectively ended his career and left him impoverished in later life. He died in 1904, leaving behind a legacy both brilliant and bruised.

Mrs Clement Scott wrote:

An amusing story went the round about Arthur Sullivan and Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

They were going out to dinner one night in Savile Row. Neither of them could remember the number.

" How can I recollect numbers?" said Sir Alexander. " All I know is the door scraper is E Flat."

Away they went kicking the door-scrapers along the row.

"Here we are, this is E Flat!" exclaimed Arthur Sullivan. And it was the house right enough.

It is a perfect snapshot of the "Bohemian London" the Scotts inhabited: a place where even a mundane door scraper was judged by its tone, and where the most powerful critic in England was just another guest at the table.

Old Days in Bohemian London: Recollections of Clement Scott, Mrs. Clement Scott (ed.), London: Hutchinson, 1919, p.158.

Notes:

[1] Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1847–1935) was a Scottish composer, conductor, and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, central to Britain’s musical renaissance. A champion of national style, he blended Scottish idioms with late‑Romantic orchestral colour. His operas, violin works, and choral pieces earned international respect, and he tirelessly promoted younger British composers throughout his long career.