Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework MakingBrock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
History
Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework Making
Brock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
Fireworks
The Mulberry Gardens, Clerkenwell, were among the earliest to make
fireworks a feature. Displays took place from the opening in 1742, and
ten years later Clanfield gave a display each evening.
Two neighbouring taverns, “Lord Cobham’s Head” and the “Sir John
Oldcastle,” had displays from 1744, and in 1751 “New fireworks in the
Chinese manner” were announced at the latter establishment.
The New Wells, in the same neighbourhood as the foregoing, had had
a display as early as 1740, but it appears to have been of a scenic
nature, representing the Siege of Portobello.
The “Star and Garter,” Chelsea, advertised displays by Signor Genovini
of Rome, in 1762, and “Jenny’s Whim,” in the same neighbourhood, had
displays somewhat earlier, the place having been established as a
pleasure resort by a pyrotechnist.
Cromwell Gardens, in the vicinity of the present Cromwell Road, had
what appears to have been a small display in 1784.
Rossi and Tessier, the pyrotechnists of Ranelagh, gave displays at
the Bermondsey Spa Gardens in 1792. A representation of the Siege of
Gibraltar was given, and on September 28th of that year, “by special
desire the Battle of the Fiery Dragons, and the line comet to come from
the Rock of Gibraltar and cause the Dragons to engage.” Brock also gave
displays here later.
Finch’s Grotto Gardens, whose site is now occupied by the headquarters
of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Southwark, had occasional displays
of fireworks about 1770, as did the Temple of Flora in the Westminster
Bridge Road, about the same date. Clithero advertised a display of
fireworks at Jamaica House, Rotherhithe, in 1762.
A Peace Celebration display is announced for February 7th, 1749, to “be
play’d off this evening in the Field adjoining to the Tavern called
Bob’s Hall.”
In 1788 Astley senior advertises, to take place at the Royal Grove
and Astley’s Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge, a “Double Display of
Fire-Works.... Numerous Devices prepared in the usual way from Powder,
etc., which will be alternatively played off with the new-invented
Philosophical Fire-Works, under the direction of Mons. Henry, the
inventor and Professor of Natural Philosophy from Paris.”
The same year he announces a display “on the Thames immediately after
Astley’s Exhibition in Honour of His Majesty’s Birth-day,” and
concludes by saying “the Fireworks are made under the Direction of Mr.
Astley, by Messrs. Cobonell & Son, who will let them off on the Thames
this evening at different signals from Mr. Astley, Sen., who will be
mounted on the Gibraltar Charger, placed in a Barge, in the Front of
the line of Fireworks.”
[Illustration: Firework Temple at Vauxhall, 1845. From a woodcut in
“The Illustrated London News.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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