Lily Allen played a secret gig last night at intimate venue The Tabernacle in London’s Notting Hill, dressed as Queen Victoria.

The starlet played a selection of songs spanning both her albums to an excitable crowd of fans dressed as the capital’s underground stations from Angel to Bank.

It emerged that the Tabernacle was the place where the young Lily made her first precocious stage appearance, as a frog. “I was always cast as a boy or as something crap,” she said.

The singer was dressed as a modern-day Victoria for the Myspace Secret Show in black lace and an uncomfortable-looking corset, which didn’t stop her from leaping energetically around the stage.

During the acoustic set she lit up a cigarette, flouting the smoking ban, although she appeared not to actually inhale it. “Boo,” booed a disapproving teenager. “No, not boo,” Lily quipped. “It’s jazz!”

Backed by a full band, Lily bantered with her audience and showed her rebellious streak was intact. “Don’t worry, it’s only plastic,” she said facetiously to a security guard as she offered her glass of wine to a stunned looking student.

Her set list was varied, from the sprightly Smile and LDN to the more mature The Fear, as well as her cover of the Kaiser Chiefs’ Oh My God and a bit of drum and bass thrown in for good measure.

(by Kate Horstead)