Vauxhall Gardens

“ The sale of Vauxhall Gardens in August 1859, or perhaps the closing of Highbury Barn in 1871, may be held to mark the final disappearance of the London Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth century. “St. George’s Fields are fields no more!” and hardly a tree or shrub recalls these vanished pleasances of our forefathers. The site of Ranelagh is still, indeed, a garden, and Hampstead has its spring and Well Walk. But the Sadler’s Wells of 1765 exists only in its theatre, and its gardens are gone, its spring forgotten, and its New River covered in. ”

“ I got home about three, and at last fell asleep in reality. I dreamed that Vauxhall Gardens were entirely built over, covered with finished and half-finished houses, in streets and terraces; and that I was actually reposing at that moment in No. 16, Arrack-place, looking upon Sky-rocket-crescent. Methought there was a universal complaint among the inhabitants, of supernatural noises in the night. Not a wink was to be had for the tunings of musical instruments, the calling for waiters, the shouting of "encore," the mingling of thousands of voices ”

“ They were not afterwards regularly opened, but speculators were forthcoming who ventured to give entertainments for a few nights in each year, 'for positively the last nights,' until 1859, when the theatre, orchestra, and all the fittings were sold by auction. On July 25 in that year the trees were felled and the site handed over to builders. Vauxhall Gardens had a longer existence than any public gardens in England, and assisted in maintaining a taste for music as a source of rational enjoyment, although they did little or nothing towards promoting its advancement. ”

“ The picture introduces us to the gate of Vauxhall Gardens; the light-hearted visitors are quitting the entertainment. The wise virgins are carefully wrapped up with cloaks, hoods, scarves, and muffs, and duly lighted home by cautious guardians carrying lanterns. ”

“ Gardens. [315] At this time they were open in the afternoon and evening, and visitors to Vauxhall Gardens sometimes had refreshments there in the arbours and tea-room while waiting for Vauxhall to open; or adjourned thither for supper when tired of the larger garden.
In August 1796 a silver cup given by the proprietor was competed for on the river by sailing boats. In [284] 1797 a ten years’ lease of the gardens and tavern was advertised to be sold for £1,000.
From 1800 to 1825 the gardens were much frequented by dwellers in the south of London. ”

“ The music houses first mentioned were sometimes supported by subscription; and from them originated three places of public entertainment well known in the present day; namely, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Sadler's Wells.
IV.—ORIGIN OF VAUXHALL.
Spring Gardens, now better known by the name of Vauxhall Gardens, is mentioned in the Antiquities of Surrey, by Aubrey, who informs us, that sir Samuel Moreland "built a fine room at Vauxhall, (in 1667,) the inside all of looking-glass, and fountains very pleasant to behold; which," adds he, "is much visited by strangers. ”

“ Old houses there were before the great increase began, but they exist no more; the place is dull; in parts it{113} is dirty; everywhere it is without character or distinction. It has, however, a pretty park called after the famous Vauxhall Gardens, on whose site it stands. The park is new, but it is well laid out and planted; already it is a pretty piece of greenery, and, with Kennington and Battersea Parks, offers a much wanted breathing place for the multitudes of that quarter. It is adorned, or enriched, or ennobled, by a statue of Henry Fawcett, who died in a house on this spot. ”

“ It was probably some years before this that Roubiliac had obtained employment from Mr. Jonathan Tyers, who in 1732 had become the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens. The 'New Spring Gardens at Fox Hall' had in the previous century been a resort of Mr. Samuel Pepys, who has left on record his approval of the place. 'It is very pleasant and cheap going thither,' he writes in 1667, 'for a man may go to spend what he will or nothing, as all one. ”

“ In 1763 the Gardens and adjoining premises were taken at a yearly rent of £170 [104] by Thomas (“Tommy”) Lowe, the favourite tenor of Vauxhall Gardens, who had already appeared at Marybone Gardens in 1750. He engaged, among other singers, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Lampe, and the beautiful Nan Catley, then only eighteen. Lowe opened in May (1763) with a “Musical address to the Town,” in which the singers (Lowe, Miss Catley and Miss Smith) apologised for the absence of some of the attractions of Ranelagh and Vauxhall:—
Yet Nature some blessings has scatter’d around ”

“ The only part left uncovered by buildings is the Ashburton Nursery on the King’s Road front. Vauxhall Gardens had been closed some years so Cremorne was the only public gardens near London of any account.
A great impetus to all places of amusement was caused by the ’51 Exhibition in the Park. It was a grand year for all people in business in London for the visitors were immense from all quarters of the world, and you would meet in the streets the costumes of all the nationalities of the globe. ”

“ In our first division we may place pleasure resorts of the Vauxhall type, beginning with the four great [5] 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. ”

“ As has been seen in an earlier chapter, the great prototype of the pleasure gardens of old London, Vauxhall, outlived all its competitors for half a century. But upon even that favourite resort the changing manners of a new time had fatal effect. As knowledge grew and taste became more diversified, it became less and less easy to cater for the amusement of the many. ”

“ But you paid your shilling at the gate, or showed your silver ticket, and then passed down a dark passage into the full blaze of the gardens, lit with their thousand lamps. [327] This was the great moment, as every Vauxhall visitor from first to last, has testified. An impressionable young lady [328] found herself dazzled and confounded by the variety of the scene:—“Image to yourself ... a spacious garden, part laid out in delightful walks, bounded with high hedges and trees, and paved with gravel ”

“ Music is the food of love, and the Vauxhall songs were (as Mr. Dobson has remarked) “abjectly sentimental.” Incidents like the following described by an amorous advertiser in the London Chronicle for 5 August, 1758, must have been not uncommon at the gardens:—“A young lady who was at Vauxhall on Thursday night last in company with two gentlemen, could not but observe a young gentleman in blue and a gold laced hat, who being near her by the orchestra during the performance, especially [296] the last song, gazed upon her with the utmost attention. ”

“ The proprietors of gardens open in the evening found it necessary to provide (or to announce that they provided) for the safe convoy of their visitors after nightfall. Sadler’s Wells advertised “it will be moonlight,” [9] and provided horse patrols to the West End and the City. The proprietor of Belsize House, Hampstead, professed to maintain a body of thirty stout fellows “to patrol timid females or other.” Vauxhall—in its early days usually approached by water—seems to have been regarded as safe, but Ranelagh and the Marylebone Gardens maintained regular escorts. ”

“ During this period the character of the entertainments of Vauxhall and the arrangement of the gardens themselves, underwent no very material changes, [338] and people of all ranks frequented the place as of old. The singers, however, were more numerous, and there seems to have been a general tendency to stay late. In 1783, the concert began at eight and ended at eleven, and a London guide-book of 1786, [339] states that the company at that time seldom left the garden till two in the morning, if the weather was fine. ”

“ The Dark Walk of Vauxhall now began at the Submarine Cavern, passed along the left hand and eastern boundaries of the garden and terminated at the right hand end of the Grand Cross Walk, the last branch of it being thus identical with the Lovers’ Walk of old days. The Cross Walk was now usually denominated the Chinese Walk from its being lit with Chinese lanterns. Four cosmoramas had taken the place of its Ruins.
From an actual survey made by T. Allen, in 1826. ”

“ Among the numerous public places of amusement which arose upon the success of Vauxhall Gardens, which were first opened about 1661, was one in Lambeth Walk, known as Lambeth Wells. This place was first opened on account of its mineral waters, which were sold at a penny per quart. The music commenced at seven o'clock in the morning, and the price of admission was three pence. A monthly concert under the direction of Mr. Starling Goodwin, organist of St. Saviour's Church Southwark, was afterwards held here, and Erasmus King, who had been coachman to the celebrated Dr. ”

“ It's a pity," he added, "so good a piece of ground is no better employed;" but, apart from two or three places of that character, his al fresco amusements were exceedingly limited. It should not be forgotten, however, that the ale-houses of those days frequently had a plot of land attached to them, wherein a game of bowls might be enjoyed.
But the object-lesson of Vauxhall changed all that. From the date when that resort passed into the energetic management of Jonathan Tyers, smaller pleasure gardens sprang into existence all over London. ”

“ In 1846 an Act of Parliament empowered the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to form a park in the Fields, and in 1850 the Red House and its shooting-ground were purchased by them for £10,000. But the landlord (James Ireland) and the fair people had still two years to run. Mr. Ireland, on his part, considerably forced the pace, and made his garden into a minor Vauxhall, where we hear of balloons and fireworks, a ballet, a circus, a dancing-platform, and a tight rope. All this must have been on a humble scale, for sixpence and threepence were the highest charges. ”

“ Vauxhall, Belsize House, and the Spa Fields Pantheon, none of them in their day examples of austere morality, are now represented by three churches. From the Marylebone Gardens, the Marylebone Music Hall may be said to have been evolved. Pancras Wells are lost in the extended terminus of the Midland Railway, and the Waterloo Road runs over the centre of Cuper’s Gardens. Finch’s Grotto, after having been a burial ground and a workhouse, is now the headquarters of our London Fire Brigade. Copenhagen House with its fields is the great Metropolitan Cattle Market. The Three Hats is a bank ”

“ VAUXHALL IN 1850, DOYLE’S VIEW FROM Punch.
In October 1853, when the annual license for the Royal Gardens was applied for, great complaints were made of the nuisance caused by the bals masqués which lasted from 11 P.M. till 5 or 6 A.M., and were frequented by many disreputable characters. The license was renewed on the somewhat easy conditions that the fireworks should not be let off after eleven, and that the [324] gardens should close at three in the morning. In 1858, Mr. R. Duffell was the director. Monster galas were announced, and the gardens were opened on Sundays for a promenade. ”

“ The gardens were formed about 1661, and originally called the "New Spring Gardens," to distinguish them from the "Old Spring Gardens" at Charing Cross, but according to the present description by Pepys there was both an Old and a New Spring Garden at Vauxhall. Balthazar Monconys, who visited England early in the reign of Charles II., describes the 'Jardins Printemps' at Lambeth as having lawns and gravel walks, dividing squares of twenty or thirty yards enclosed with hedges of gooseberry trees, within which were planted roses. ”

“ The public amusements in this town are not on a very extensive scale, nor indeed are they much patronised. The Theatre is a handsome erection, situated in New-street, opposite the Post-office. Vauxhal Gardens are at Vauxhall, near the Birmingham and Liverpool Railway Station, and are open in the summer months. ”

“ The pleasantest feature of the garden was a promenade platform erected on piles over the Thames. Close by was the river entrance and the pier of the Vauxhall Hotel, at which the steamboats from Hungerford Market and the City landed visitors at about seven o’clock.
Brunswick House, an ugly but spacious brick mansion (No. 54, Wandsworth Road) , is still standing, and is now used as a Club for the employés of the London and South-Western Railway. The garden space is absorbed by yards and wharves.
[Bills and newspaper advertisements; a plan of the gardens, 1844; and a drawing.—W.]
p. ”

“ The admission, occasionally sixpence, was usually one shilling; half of which was sometimes returned in refreshments. Ladies and children generally came in half price. A diorama, and moonlight view of Holyrood were exhibited in 1830; and about the same time Miss Clarke made one of her ascents upon an inclined rope attached to a platform above the highest trees in the garden, reaching this eminence “amidst a blaze of light.” Here, too, in 1831 (August) , and also in 1836 and 1837, Blackmore of Vauxhall made some of his [139] “terrific ascents.” ”

“ At Vauxhall fireworks were not introduced till 1798, but illuminations were always a feature of the gardens.
[6] Bermondsey Spa and Finch’s Grotto, above mentioned, might be classed among the spas and springs, but their amusements resembled those of Vauxhall.
[7] Islington Wells, a song of all the virtues of those old waters newly found out. London, 1684 (Brit. Mus.) , cp. A morning ramble; or Islington Wells burlesqt. London, 1684 (Cunningham, London, 1850, s.v. “Islington”) .
[8] London Gazette, 24 September, 1685.
[9] Nearly all modern writers—Mr. ”