The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century — John Shaqi
The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth centuryWroth, Warwick William
History
The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century
Wroth, Warwick William
London (England) -- History -- 18th century; Parks -- England -- London -- History
Still farther north were Belsize House, with its fashionable gambling
and racing; the popular Wells of Hampstead, and the Kilburn Wells. The
Spaniards, and New Georgia with its maze and mechanical oddities, were
Sunday attractions in Hampstead for the good wives and daughters of
tradesmen like Zachary Treacle.[4]
Chelsea could boast of at least two gardens in addition to the famous
gardens and Rotunda of Ranelagh. In Pimlico was Jenny’s Whim. At
Brompton, the Florida (or Cromwell’s) Gardens, a pleasant place, half
garden, half nursery, where you could gather cherries and strawberries
“fresh every hour in the day.”
London south of the Thames was not less well provided for. Nearly
opposite Somerset House were Cuper’s Gardens (_circ._ 1691–1759).
Lambeth had its wells and its Spring Garden (Vauxhall Gardens). In St.
George’s Fields and Southwark were the mineral springs of the notorious
Dog and Duck; the Restoration Spring Gardens, and Finch’s Grotto
Gardens. Farther east were the Bermondsey Spa, and the St. Helena
Gardens at Rotherhithe.
Such was the geographical distribution of the London pleasure gardens.
“A mighty maze--but not without a plan.” Or, at least a clue to their
intricacies may be found by arranging them in three groups, each with
its distinctive characteristics.
In our first division we may place pleasure resorts of the Vauxhall
type, beginning with the four great London Gardens--Cuper’s Gardens,
the Marylebone Gardens, Ranelagh, and Vauxhall itself. These were
all well-established in popular favour before the middle of the last
century, and all depended for their reputation upon their evening
concerts, their fireworks,[5] and their facilities for eating and
drinking. Ranelagh relied less on the attractions of its gardens
than did the other resorts just mentioned. Here the great Rotunda
overshadowed the garden, and the chief amusement was the promenade
in an “eternal circle” inside the building. Except on gala nights of
masquerades and fireworks, only tea, coffee and bread and butter were
procurable at Ranelagh; and a Frenchman about 1749 hints at more than a
suspicion of dulness in the place when he comments “on s’ennuie avec de
la mauvaise musique, du thé, et du beurre.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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