Cremorne and the later London gardensWroth, Warwick William
History
Cremorne and the later London gardens
Wroth, Warwick William
London (England) -- History -- 1800-1950; Parks -- England -- London
{19} Entertainments under Baum: Simmons’s balloon ascent, June 29, 1874;
Audrian the dog-faced man, and his son, from a Russian forest, 1874;
Boisset family, gymnasts, 1874; De Vere, conjuror, 1877; Doughty’s
performing dogs, 1877.
{22} Percy Fitzgerald in _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1880, ‘Cremorne to
Westminster.’
{24} In October, 1904, this nursery was advertised for sale for building
purposes, 100,000 feet and 900 feet frontage, but at the present moment
(April, 1907) it has not yet been built over. In the rear of Messrs.
Wimsett’s, and also on the site of Cremorne, was the nursery-ground of W.
J. Bull, but since 1897 this space—an acre and a half—has been covered
with flats and other buildings. The iron entrance-gates (see
Frontispiece) now stand in Tetcott Street, on the premises of the Royal
Chelsea Brewery (Welsh Ale Brewery, Limited), not far from the site of
Cremorne.
{25a} Blunt’s _Chelsea_, p. 19.
{25b} About 1809 the Manor-House had been occupied by James Pilton,
manufacturer of ornamental works for country residences (fences,
summer-houses, etc.), and the grounds were neatly laid out as an open-air
showroom, with a small menagerie and aviaries. A view of the garden and
house from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ is here reproduced. See also
Faulkner’s _Chelsea_, 1829, ii., p. 215.
{28a} Blanchard says the theatre became absorbed in a building known as
the Commercial Room (? the present Welsh Chapel in Radnor Street). By an
evident slip he speaks of ‘Rodney’ instead of Radnor Street.
{28b} There were a number of minor gardens in Chelsea and Pimlico, in
the latter district the Gun and the Monster being the best known. Two
others may be briefly noticed:
NEW RANELAGH AND MINOR VAUXHALL, MILLBANK.—These gardens were near the
river, and occupied a small space between the Belgrave Docks Wharf and
Ranelagh Road. Part of the engineering works of James Simpson and Co.,
Limited (101, Grosvenor Road, Pimlico), now covers the site. They were
advertised from about 1809. In the summer months (1809, 1811) there were
‘grand galas’ and balls, with concerts, and fireworks by Signora Hengler,
the fireworker to Vauxhall Gardens. The admission tickets for the balls
were neatly executed (see pp. 27, 28), but cost only 2s. 6d., and the
dancers can hardly have been of the rank of the famous Chelsea
‘Ranelagh,’ which had come to an end in 1803. In 1810 and 1811 the
proprietors gave a silver cup for sailing matches. The gardens retained
some popularity till about 1829 (_Picture of London_; tickets, cuttings,
etc., in the writer’s collection).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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