ring, but still proved to be uneconomical and quickly closed again. Renamed the Alhambra, it reopened as a theatre and music-hall in which form it endured until the 20th century. In 1854, the Great Globe was enough in the public eye to inspire an entertainment by James Robinson Planché at the Haymarket: Mr Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe, but by 1862, there was little question of it continuing to operate even if the Tulks had not been keen to exercise their option to buy. In 1861 in The Adventures of Philip, Thackeray noted that he had heard that the Globe was "coming to an end". The agreement with the Tulks expired in April 1862, and in the same month, Henry Webb threatened legal action because of Wyld's failure to remove the building and restore the gardens. Wyld was somewhat hamstrung as he had sold the building to William Wilde, the proprietor of the Alhambra, but Wilde had failed to pay and it took two court cases before Wyld regained possession in August. He immediately sold it to a contractor for demolition. In October the building was torn down and the globe itself broken up and sold for scrap. By November the site was completely cleared. Disposal Wyld's deal with the Tulks had included a promise to restore the gardens, but he showed no signs of making good on the agreement. Stripped of the buildings, the gardens quickly reverted to their former dilapidated state. Even before the globe was dismantled, the building and gardens had deteriorated to such a degree that, speaking in Parliament in July 1861, Lord Overstone commented that "in addition to the unsightliness of the structure that had been created in the centre, and the accumulation of everything that was filthy, unseemly, and improper which existed in the enclosure, scenes took place there at a late hour which were most discreditable to the Metropolis". The statue of George I was dug up and re-erected, but it had suffered from its ten years underground. The rider may have already been stolen and sold for scrap, and the horse quickly became a target for vandalism; the legs were removed and body was painted with black and white spots. John Augustus Tulk, who had exercised his right to buy half the gardens, was keen to build on the land and proposed creating a covered market to encompass the square and the