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18th & 19th Century Pleasure Haunts
The Origins of the Pleasure Gardens
Music-houses
Sir Samuel Moreland & Spring Gardens
Ranelagh
Arbours, boxes, musicians and waiters, and its famous Rotunda,
existed until the beginning of the 19th century - part became Chelsea Gardens
Vauxhall
The trees and the lanterns, the orchestras, the ballroom
outlasted Ranelagh, but eventually gave place to the bricklayers
The Pantheon
Powdered and plumed ladies, noble gentlemen
their place of encounter became a bazaar, a theatre
White Conduit House
The Charter House water supply
Merrie Islington, tea, fresh loaves and butter, music, cricket
Sadler's Wells
The Monks of St. John of Jerusalem
Gravel excavation and the finding of the well
Mrs. Cornely's
Carlisle House & Knightsbridge
From the sale of asses' milk to the debtors' prison at Newgate
A Tour of some Gardens in Middlesex
A particular 1834 viewpoint
(Written tongue-in-cheek...)
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From "The Book of Days" by Robert Chambers, 1832
"London was literally surrounded with these popular places of resort; as alluded to by the Prussian D'Archenholz, who, in his account of England [late 18th century], observes:
'The English take a great delight in the public gardens, near the metropolis, where they assemble and drink tea together in the open air. The number of these in the neighbourhood of the capital is amazing, and the order, regularity, neatness, and even elegance of them are truly admirable. They are, however, very rarely frequented by people of fashion; but the middle and lower ranks go there often, and seem much delighted with the music of an organ, which is usually played in an adjoining building.'
Now, owing to the altered tastes of the age, scarcely one of them exists, and they will be remembered only in the pages of the topographer." [and of the family historian! C.]
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