London's
Tea Gardens
An essay by William B Boulton
Visit
page one, two,
three, four,
five, six,
seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven
South
London, however, was not without its open air attractions, which
had a flavour of their own, differing widely from that of the
places we have already considered. The attractions of the South
London districts were less simple and less respectable. With
an unconscious humour, many of them advertised their mineral
waters in competition with the spas of the north; waters pumped
from wells which would fill at a few feet below the surface
of what was practically the huge marsh between Rotherhithe and
Vauxhall; waters which Dr. Rendle opines could have been nothing
more than the mere soakage of a swamp.
But
their main attractions were more or less feeble imitations of
the glories of Vauxhall, and their patrons were, speaking generally,
of a less innocent cast of mind and less easily amused than
the citizens who flocked northward to Islington or Hampstead,
or westward to Marylebone. One of the chief of the South London
group which shared with the peerless Vauxhall the distinction
of an approach by water, was Cuper's Garden, on the south side
of Waterloo Bridge, through the very centre of which modern
progress drove the Waterloo Bridge Road. Cuper's Garden took
its name from an old servant of the Howard family, who, just
at the end of the seventeenth century, laid out a big patch
of the marsh land with walks and bowling-greens, contrived to
give it some flavour of dignity and distinction by dotting the
place with mutilated statues presented to him by his patron
upon the demolition of Arundel House, and opened the place as
a public garden, which had a measure of success for some sixty
or seventy years. At first music and dancing were "the
chief attractions, and 'prentices and sempstresses the chief
of its patrons, and there is a not untuneful set of verses which
reflect some of the simple joys of those early days, beginning:
"'Twas down in Cupid's Gardens
For pleasure I did go,
To see the fairest flowers
That in that garden grow."
But
under subsequent proprietors, notably one Ephrain Evans and
his widow, the place developed more upon the lines of Vauxhall,
with orchestras, fireworks, and illuminations, and promenades
under the trees, where "pretty young women were accustomed
to parade dressed like young men, and wearing swords."
Such diversions at times attracted a deal of fashionable company,
Horace Walpole and the Prince of Wales among others, who gave
distinction to the assembly and occupation to the pickpockets.
It
was upon that rock of careless management that Widow Evans,
"a well-looking, comely person," finally split, when
the Act of 1752 established authorities for the" better
regulating of places of public entertainment," and licences
became necessary for such as Widow Evans. Cuper's Garden was
refused a licence amidst the lamentations of the widow, who
was forced to retire upon the tavern and a mere tea garden.
The widow was apparently a woman of some resource, for when
her orchestra was thus silenced she advertised her tea and the
subdued attractions of the place, with the remark that there
still "remained some harmony from the sweet enchanting
sounds of the rural warblers."
Finch's
grotto was another South London garden in what is now the Southwark
Bridge Road, where the proprietor, Finch, inheriting a house
and garden, was not long in discovering the inevitable spring
of medicinal water, and made "a grotto and a natural and
beautiful cascade," aspired to the dignity of season tickets,
and returned a modicum of refreshment, "half a pint of
wine, cake, jelly, or cyder," in exchange for the one shilling
admission. Stray royalties, like the wild York and the silly
Gloucester, would come to listen to the music at Finch's, or
perhaps to gaze at the singers of such beauty and notoriety
as Sophia Baddeley of Drury Lane and Vauxhall, the heroine of
many wicked stories of those days.
The
present Spa Road, Bermondsey, takes its name from Bermondsey
Spa Gardens, where Mr. Keyse, the self-taught painter, enclosed
some acres of waste ground, discovered the usual spa, and with
pis pictures of green-grocers' stalls and butchers' shops, his
cheery personality, his cheery brandy, his lamps in imitation
of Vauxhall, his prima donnas and burlettas, contrived to keep
the place open for thirty yearS.
At
the Helena Gardens, Rotherhithe, the tradition of the at fresco
lingered perhaps latest of all. There singers warbled and dancers
capered, infant prodigies of six delighted or bored audiences,
and orchestras scraped until the year 1881. At the Belvidere
Gardens, just above Cuper's Garden, on the Thames, the proprietor
advertised" the choicest river fish which they (his patrons)
may have the delight to see taken." The Flora Gardens,
the Temple of Apollo, and the Temple of Flora were classically
named establishments near what is now the Westminster Bridge
Road, one with an "Apollonian promenade and a pallid moon
between brilliant transparencies," and claiming credit
for" the superior excellencies of music and wines, and
the chastity and dignity of the place," all of which virtues
and advantages, however, did not avert the suppression of the
place by the magistrates in 1793. The Dog and Duck, St. George's
Spa, on the site of the present Bethlehem Hospital, was an al
fresco entertainment which had its origin in the popular sport
of duck hunting, ran through the whole gamut of mineral water,
tea gardens, musical entertainments, and fireworks, and expired
finally in an atmosphere of raffishness and blackguardism.
To
conclude, and not to omit mention of any notable district which
was a centre of at fresco entertainment, we may notice the little
group of tea gardens for which Chelsea was famous: Strombolo
House, the beauty of whose fireworks enabled the proprietor
to charge the high price of half a crown for admission, and
anticipate the glories of the Crystal Palace to-day; Jenny's
Whim, with its bowling-green, cock-pit, and ducking-pond, its
alcoves and prim flower-beds, its pond where mechanical mermaids
and fishes rose at intervals to the surface, and its recesses
where Harlequin and Mother Shipton started up when an unseen
spring was trodden upon by the visitor.
Carry
on to page eleven
Please
also visit Old London Maps
on the web as many of the maps
and views available there have plans and depictions of gardens
from
the medieval period through to the late nineteenth century.
Copyright
© Sara Douglass Enterprises Pty Ltd 2006
No material may be reproduced without permission
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