King Hall began to compose musical theatre early on. His father was also a composer, and it is unclear which of them supplied the incidental music for Dion Boucicault's "The Streets of London", a play performed first at the Princess's Theatre in 1864 when King Hall was 19. A contemporary review of the first production said that the composer won "the goodwill of the audience" by incorporating "the street tunes of the times". From 1867 ("Golden Moments Gallop for the Pianoforte") to the year of his death ("An Emblem of Life; A Duet for Female Voices"), his work appeared regularly in both England and America. Examples of King Hall's original compositions include his score for Edward Oxenford's humorous cantata "Beauty and the Beast" (1890), published by the London firm of Hutchings & Romer, and his series of six "society dances" published by Joseph Williams in the 1890s.