Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens was the most successful and longest-running amusement park in London . It was on the south bank of the Thames in Kennington , about across from what is now the Tate Gallery on the north bank. The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (formerly Spring Gardens ) are located on the site .
Opened in 1660, the Vauxhall Gardens closed their doors in the course of urban development at the time in 1859. Long, partly well-lit avenues were ideal for strolling; other parts of the park tempted visitors with their secret corners, scattered pavilions and supper rooms . In addition, musical entertainment was offered at a high level. Handel , for example , was extremely popular ; In his honor, a life-size statue was erected in the park in 1738, one of the first major works by Louis-François Roubiliac . Other attractions included regular fireworks and - from the late 18th century onwards - balloon flights.
The Vauxhall Gardens and its importance for the social life in London of that time is also found in the literature. Georgette Heyer , for example, moved the final scene of her novel “Die Vernunftehe” (1934), in which the couple finally found each other, to the amusement park. After all the people involved have arrived “by carriage and boat”, the writer also conveys some impressions of the entertainment offer and the design of the park with the plot: “… Arrived at the pavilion, they saw that, in addition to the ball and other entertainment, the An oratorio ( Susanna von Handel) was performed in the concert hall . ”In the further course of the action, (card) playrooms , hidden benches , small temples and arbours , paths illuminated by colored lamps and colonnades are also used .
The owners of Vauxhall Gardens went bankrupt in 1840 and the garden was closed. It was reopened in 1841, but finally abandoned in 1859. The area was completely built on in the following years. At the beginning of the 1970s, the development of the district was in decline and was demolished in the course of a slum renovation . The new owner, the London Borough of Lambeth , converted the area back into a public park, which opened in 1976 under the name Spring Gardens . In 2012 the facility was renamed Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens .
Following the London model, a wave of Vauxhalls spread first across England and then across the continent, encouraging a change in manners towards more sociability and pleasure at the same time as the emerging bourgeoisie refused to indulge in the pleasures of the simple To mix people who have always danced in the open air or under arbours erected in public places - instead one withdrew to specially erected rooms. The Vauxhall Gardens became the model for numerous similar institutions, many of which took the name of an institution in the east of Paris, the so-called Tivoli-Vauxhall , including the Tivoli in Copenhagen , which still exists today .
literature
- Melanie Doderer-Winkler, "Magnificent Entertainments: Temporary Architecture for Georgian Festivals" (London and New Haven, Yale University Press for The Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, 2013). ISBN 0-300-18642-8 and ISBN 978-0-300-18642-0 .
- Bamber Gascoigne: Encyclopedia of Britain . BCA, London, New York, Sydney, Toronto 1993, ISBN 0-333-54764-0 , p. 667.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vauxhall Gardens Brief History 1661-1859. David Coke, accessed November 24, 2016 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 12 ″ N , 0 ° 7 ′ 19 ″ W.