On a recent walk around Lambeth I came across an information board marking the site (now an unprepossessing stretch of scruffy wasteland) of one of London’s foremost entertainment venues of the 18^th and 19^th centuries - Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.



Although pleasure gardens were really a fashion of the 18^th century (public sociability was à la mode in Georgian London), those at Vauxhall dated from a much earlier time. In 1665 Samuel Pepys records that he “took water to the Spring Gardens in Fox-Hall, and there stayed pleasantly walking, spending but sixpence till nine at night”. It was those same Spring Gardens that were to form the nucleus 70 years later of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens which were to become famous across Europe. In all, the gardens lasted about 200 years (1661-1859), longer than any of their competitors. The height of their popularity was reached in the early 1800s, with 20,000 people visiting on one night alone in 1826.



18thc. visitor arriving by 'wherry'
 



View of Grand Walk 1751 by Canaletto
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A contributory factor to Vauxhall’s continued popularity may have been that it was only accessible by water (there was no coach road to Vauxhall until c. 1760), which meant that their clientele were less likely to be troubled by ‘ruffians’ along the way. Other gardens offered escort services to and from the venue. Whatever the reasons for their popularity, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens were a sufficiently important part of London life to warrant being the subject of several paintings and engravings by Canaletto.

1740s panorama showing the Grand Walk, orchestra pavilion and supper boxes
 

The gardens occupied around 12 acres, laid out in gravel walks between rows of trees, with illuminated fountains and sculptures. The central space was called the ‘Grove’ and around three sides of this were colonnades containing supper boxes.

1752 engraving showing supper boxes



Interior of the Rotunda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were like theatre boxes, open at the front and large enough to seat six or eight people on fixed benches around a table. They were numbered but could also be identified by the painting hung in the back of each one (a kind of art gallery of their day). Guests could return here after promenading in the gardens or listening to the music. Open-air concerts were held mid-May to early September, moving into the Rotunda, 70 feet in diameter and nicknamed ‘The Umbrella’ because of the shape of its roof,  when the weather was poor. The Prince Regent had his own ‘Prince’s Pavilion’ facing the orchestra. Suppers were served from about 9 p.m., and consisted of light refreshments – thinly-carved cold meats and salads, pastries and cakes, as well as wines, beers, ciders and the famous ‘Vauxhall punch’.  

The orchestra

Promenading in the Grand South Walk

Contemporary accounts, this one an excerpt from Thomas Asline Ward’s diary of August1804, give a flavour of Vauxhall in its heyday: “After a long and fatiguing day’s business I accompanied Mrs D to Vauxhall Gardens, where a great number of people were assembled, it being a Gala Night on account of the Duke of York’s birthday. We first noticed the orchestra, which is erected amidst trees and ornamented by coloured lamps in various forms. When 10 o’clock arrived suddenly a bell rang which announced an exhibition of waterworks. After more singing, til 12 o’clock, the fireworks commenced. After this spectacle the gardens are generally a scene of merriment and jollity. The German, Turkish and military bands are stationed in various parts of the place, while parties of joyful visitors trip it on the light fantastic toe! Long covered promenades (with little cells in which were spread a profusion of refreshments) offered protection from the dire effects of the midnight air, which many, more ardent, braved in the dark green alleys, whose cool and kindly shade afforded a charming retreat to the lovers of darkness. The lights, the transparencies, the trees, the magic-resembling, fairy-like whole formed for me a truly new scene. Mrs D and I retired two hours before the usual time it closes, which is 4 o’clock.”

Throughout the gardens’ existence, it is the lights that people often remembered above all else. Images of the time show thousands of oil lamps (replaced by gas in 1846) arranged above archways and attached to trees all along the main walks.  During the serving of supper a whistle was blown to tell the lamp-lighters to run to their allotted stations around the Grove. At a second whistle they would light cotton-wool fuses which had been set up during the day to guide the flame from one oil-lamp to another. In this way thousands of lamps could be lit 'in an instant'– an effect which, before the days of electricity, must have been incredible.

Silver season ticket, designed by Hogarth

So what kind of people frequented these pleasure gardens? Although favoured with visits by royalty (George IV was a frequent visitor when Prince of Wales), London’s pleasure gardens – including Vauxhall - were used by all sections of the London public. Almost everyone, except the very poor, could emulate high society when promenading the grand walks at Vauxhall. As long as you could afford the ticket price and were respectably dressed, you were admitted. Admission was two shillings in 1792, 3/6 in the early 19th century, and 4/6 in the 1820s. Regular patrons could obtain silver ‘season tickets’ (some designed by the painter Hogarth) – in 1748 these cost two guineas.

Gradually, however, as the 19^th century progressed Vauxhall changed from being an elegant and fashionable rendezvous (with its own watchmen to keep out ‘undesirables’), into something much more populist: spectacular firework displays, high-wire artistes (in 1816 Madame Saqui gave the first of many performances, walking a tightrope tied to a 60ft mast to an accompaniment of fireworks), and  balloon ascents were all the rage. In 1836 three balloons took off and came down the next day in Weilburg in Germany, a trip of approx. 480 miles!

The 'Royal Victoria' balloon at Vauxhall in 1829

There were also circus performers, Indian jugglers, puppet shows, a Venetian pageant, equestrian shows and operetta. Vauxhall’s offering became more and more elaborate – in 1817 a mock-up of the Battle of Waterloo featured no fewer than 1,000 soldiers. But despite valiant attempts to draw in the crowds, the shine had clearly gone off the place by the time Charles Dickens visited in 1836. In ‘Sketches by Boz’ he writes that he “met with a disappointment at every turn”, finding peeling paintwork, dingy ornamentation and gloomy walks.

Over time, the gardens stayed open later and later, with masquerades often going on until the early hours. Perhaps inevitably this proved an attraction to society’s loucher elements, the dark recesses of the gardens providing ample scope for kinds of sexual goings-on. Soon the writing as on the wall for Vauxhall, its place usurped by the more exciting attractions of the gardens at  Cremorne and Chelsea. The final show was held in 1859, by which time other forms of entertainment were emerging: gin palaces, theatres and music halls. By the end of the 19^th century, Vauxhall Gardens had been completely obliterated, the area built over by the mainline railway into Victoria. Only a local public park, Spring Gardens, serves as a reminder of the area’s once glorious past.

 

References:
The Gardener’s London by Dawn Macleod (1972)

I never knew that about London by Christopher Winn (2007)

London in the 19^th century by Jerry White (2007)

London: The Illustrated History by Cathy Ross and John Clark (2008)

A London Year compiled  by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison (2013)

Bright lights, big city: London entertained  (1830-1950) by Gavin Weightman (1992)

The Image of London: views by travellers and emigrés 1550-1920 ed. by Caroline Bugler (1987)

Victorian London by Lee Jackson (2004)

David Coke’s website: www.vauxhallgardens.com/vauxhall_gardens_briefhistory_page.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
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