Aldridge decided to spend the summer of 1858 in Britain, possibly for family reasons. His wife Margaret, at sixty years of age, was no longer a hardy traveler and had fallen ill in Pest. His eleven-year-old son Ira Daniel, who did not now accompany his parents on tour, had been enrolled at the Collegiate School of Camden Town, presumably as a boarding student, and he may have needed a home for the summer holidays. Also, Aldridge may have been feeling tired out and ready for a rest.

In early June London's Sunday Times announced that “Mr. Ira Aldridge has just returned to the metropolis after a most successful tour through the principal towns of Germany, Hungary, and Poland.” The report went on to describe his enthusiastic reception in these towns, the awards and testimonials he was given by resident royalty, especially in Saxe-Meiningen, and his induction as an honorary member of the Imperial and National Hungarian Histrionic Conservatorium in Pest and the Imperial Orphan Institution in Buda. “He returns again to the Continent by special engagement, after a lapse of a few months of repose and quiet.”

Aldridge was already busy seeking engagements for that next foreign tour, as this letter, written for him in German, attests:

While resting in London, Aldridge nonetheless was quite willing to do a few favors for his friends. Samuel Lane, the lessee of the Britannia in Hoxton, was planning to rebuild, remodel, and vastly enlarge his theater, and he asked Aldridge to participate in a farewell benefit for one of his actresses, Miss C. Borrow, on June 23, the last night before he closed his theater so refurbishment could begin.