Cuper’s Gardens | The Gardens Belief
Any guesses as to the place this little home was? You may assume someplace quiet, leafy and rural however even in 1755 when the portray was accomplished I believe that wasn’t actually true and there’d have been extra folks round than only one lady along with her umbrella and basket.
You’ll additionally in all probability be shocked to know that hidden away behind the home was as soon as a group of classical vintage statues [mostly broken] and later a lot of wine barrels [mostly full]! You may need a greater thought of the place it was, particularly when you’re a Londoner, if I let you know it was close by of each St Paul’s Cathedral and Somerset Home…
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel
by Daniel Mytens c1618. NPG
The portray really reveals the doorway to Cuper’s Gardens which was one of many very first industrial pleasure gardens within the metropolis and stood roughly the place the Nationwide Theatre and southern finish of Waterloo Bridge stand in the present day. Sadly there are nearly no photographs, and even descriptions of the gardens till after their demise so there aren’t fairly so many fairly photos on this week’s put up.
The positioning was described in 1559 as “three acres of medowe” in “the bishopp of Canterburyes marshe.” After a number of adjustments in possession it was bought in 1589 “as an excellent backyard”, and after a number of extra adjustments it was purchased in 1634 by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who already owned a lot of land within the space, in addition to Arundel Home on the Strand on the reverse facet of the river. He quickly leased this plot to his gardener, Abraham Boydell Cuper.
We don’t know what Cuper initially deliberate to do with the land however it’s price stating that the south financial institution of the river had lengthy been a spot of recreation and resort, but additionally had a barely disreputable fame. It was the location of bull and bear baiting rings [which can be seen on the right of the map] in addition to theatres, taverns and brothels. A part of the rationale for this was that it was outdoors the regulatory management of the Company of London.
There may be nonetheless no signal of something on this element from Faithorne and Newcourt’s Precise Delineation of London, surveyed within the 1640s though not revealed till 1658. Arundel Home could be seen on the prime centre with the location of the gardens virtually precisely reverse on the south financial institution.
Maybe as he gazed throughout the river from Arundel Home Cuper aimed to boost the tone of the realm and create one thing barely much less risqué and extra salubrious in addition to worthwhile. Sadly So far as I’m conscious there are not any descriptions of the gardens however some remnant of that earlier “nice backyard” could have survived and he could properly have determined to make use of the land for rising greens and fruit for the market. Nevertheless it’s equally seemingly that he was trying to maximise his revenue from the location.
In different market gardening areas round London such because the Neat Homes, we all know that the gardeners used their land for leisure functions too, having fish ponds or maybe an area for bowling, and infrequently serving refreshments, typically even from their very own breweries. This follow was satirised on the stage in performs like The Asparagus Backyard by Richard Brome – and there was, in reality, an actual Sparagus Backyard on the South Financial institution not removed from Cuper’s.
Brome’s play centres across the different ways in which gardeners may earn cash from their backyard grounds. Because the gardener’s spouse says pointedly:it’s not “your durty sparagus, your artichoaks, your carpes, your tulips, your strawberries, that may convey you in 5 hundred pound a yr” earlier than occurring to ask “What did the wealthy outdated Service provider spend upon the poore younger gentlemans spouse within the yellow bed-chamber?” I say no extra!
So my guess is that in these early days that Cuper ran it as a primary market backyard the place guests have been allowed the backyard to walk, calm down and possibly take pleasure in some refreshments even when not the all different types of leisure. Since first penning this put up I found that the Museum of London has a token that price a halfpenny, issued by Abraham Cuper for admission to the gardens dated 1666 BUT to my shock it was for entry to “Arundel Gardens”. There appear to be two potentialities. Both Arundel Home was not completely occupied by the Howard household at this level so he could have exploited their absence OR I believe extra seemingly he initially named the gardens on the opposite facet of the river after his patron and that the identify was modified later. It’s price noting the “brand” of Cupid together with his bow and arrow.
For extra on supplementary sources of revenue see The Neat Home Gardens by Malcolm Thick,1998
The concept that it was a minimum of partly a market backyard is supported by the truth that though I can’t discover Abraham’s identify within the membership data for the Worshipful Firm of Gardeners, his son Bodwyn was a member by 1650 and served as grasp in 1661/62. By this time the Firm was largely comprised of economic market gardeners.
There may be, nonetheless, one other risk, additionally noticeable throughout different market backyard websites, and that’s as a substitute of rising carrots and beans gardeners would develop bricks and mortar. Cuper could properly have had that concept for a part of the land as he accomplished precisely that elsewhere. Through the Civil Warfare a number of sections of the south financial institution have been developed illegally with an official report of 1660 itemizing numerous individuals who had constructed homes and wharves alongside the riverside. The Cuper household had by then acquired one other 7 acres on lease and had constructed 13 small tenements.
A market backyard in Lambeth , element from Hollar’s Prospect of London 1647
What we don’t know is when the gardens really “formally” opened or assumed any official standing. Some accounts counsel the early 1640s after Cuper acquired the lease from Thomas Howard, others put the date as late as 1691 when his son and different family members have been working it. My guess is that the gardens have been opened earlier than the Civil Warfare however solely on a small scale after which advanced regularly however actually solely taking off after the Restoration.
The Folly, anon 1710 within the river reverse the location the place Blackfriars Bridge now stands. Picture scanned from The Pleasures of London [full ref below]
There was a industrial benefit to opening a spot of recreation subsequent to the river the place Waterloo Bridge now stands. One other extraordinary function of Thameside life was “The Folly”, a big floating restaurant or tavern that moored close by Cuper’s land, roughly reverse Somerset Home.
Little or no is thought about its origins however it was definitely a industrial lure because it in all probability acted as a floating brothel too. It was visited by Pepys in 1668 and perhaps that Cuper thought that his backyard may entice clients who may in any other case have gone straight to the boat.
Now we have to backtrack a bit and for causes which can quickly develop into obvious I hope, return to the 1620s and the story of Thomas Howard, Abraham Cuper’s employer and landlord.
Marmora Arundelliana
Howard, usually referred to as the Collector Earl, had travelled to Italy and picked up a lot of classical statues and different antiquities, additionally shopping for others by means of English retailers, diplomats and brokers throughout Greece and the japanese Mediterranean world. These have been used to embellish Arundel Home and its grounds creating what’s regarded as the primary sculpture backyard in England. A list of the gathering –Marmora Arundelliana – was drawn up and revealed by John Selden in 1628. Howard continued accumulating till his demise permitting Henry Peacham to remark that the earl “hath ever since continued to transplant outdated Greece into England.” In all it included “thirty-seven statues, 100 and twenty-eight busts, and 2 hundred and fifty inscribed stones, unique of sarcophagi, altars and fragments”.[Some of the story of how these got to London can be found by following this link].
Howard died in Italy in 1646, and left all the pieces to his spouse. Nevertheless when the Civil Warfare broke out the home, most of its contents have been seized by Parliament and a list taken of the “a number of goodes, picktures, and statues.” The home grew to become a barracks for Parliamentary forces and one can solely assume that, as in related circumstances, each the home and backyard suffered significantly by the hands of the army,
After the Restoration the home was returned to the household and handed into the palms of Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk who had no nice curiosity within the marbles, so when John Evelyn visited in 1667 he noticed what was left of those “valuable monuments, miserably uncared for and scattered up and down the backyard…exceedingly impaired by the corrosive air of London.” Evelyn persuaded the duke to offer some to the College of Oxford the place they will nonetheless be seen within the Ashmolean Museum.
The Duke determined to demolish outdated Arundel home and redevelop the location, with a smaller smarter home for himself overlooking the river, and new streets of homes on the remaining, as was the destiny of just about all of the aristocratic homes alongside the Strand within the later 17thc.
A number of the remaining Arundel marbles have been bought however the remaining left to their destiny both within the backyard or underneath a colonnade on the location of the brand new ducal home. This was not a good suggestion as a result of “the emptying of the home was carried on with such remissness, that damaged statues and sarcophagi, remnants of the Arundel assortment, have been discovered ten years later within the cellars of the newly-built homes in Norfolk Avenue.” Moderately than take away the particles the workmen clearing up merely threw all the pieces over the backyard wall the place it landed on the colonnade which collapsed underneath weight breaking extra of the statues beneath! Even after that one of the best of the stays have been bought to Sir William Fermor, who took them to his nation seat, at Easton Neston, close to Towcester. Then to return to the primary a part of our story most of what was left was given by the Duke to Abraham Cuper’s son Bodwyn who had in all probability taken his father’s place as gardener, and brought to the pleasure gardens throughout the river.
Cuper’s Bridge touchdown stage and the Feathers Inn [on the right] xxx
The gardens had stayed comparatively small till this level however in 1686 Bodwyn and his household took a lease on one other 7 acres of floor from the Archbishop of Canterbury and integrated most of them into the backyard. By this level too there are a number of different family members concerned within the Gardeners’ Firm. A touchdown stage, quickly referred to as Cuper’s Bridge, was constructed to function the riverside strategy to the gardens and a partnership appears to have been shaped with a tavern referred to as The Feathers on the riverside.
It was clearly a worthwhile enterprise. Bodwyn Cooper died in 1689. He had been admitted to the Gardener’s Firm in 1650 and was made grasp in 1661/2, however was additionally a member of the Vintners Firm. He left 4 kids and his will suggests he was a minimum of comfortably off. His eldest son Isaac took over the working of the gardens which have been described in 1708 by Edward, Hatton as “nice Gardens and walks with Bowling Inexperienced… the place a most of the Westerley a part of the city resort for diversion in the summertime season.”
from John Rocque’s 1746 Survey of London
As could be seen on Rocque’s survey of 1746 the backyard plan was lengthy and slender. A tree-lined path led from the river and the Feathers Tavern to a central walkway with serpentine pathways on both facet, lined the fragments of the Arundel Marbles. There was a bowling inexperienced and an rectangular pond. Though the banks of Thames have been lined with timber yards and wharves the remainder of the encircling space was nonetheless largely market gardens.
A lot although one may prefer to assume, like Hatton, that Cuper’s gardens have been respectable locations, like most industrial pleasure grounds they suffered from a disreputable fame and have been also known as Cupid’s quite than Cuper’s. Maybe that was a part of their enchantment, though I believe that’s merely a mirrored image of the Cupid brand on their admission token.
The marble fragments could have been a little bit of a multitude however in 1717 they attracted the eye of two art-lovers John Freeman Prepare dinner, of Fawley Courtroom at Henley and Edmond Waller of Beaconsfield. It could appear that the Cupers didn’t have a way of historical past – or perhaps simply most popular the cash so lots of the marbles have been bought for simply £75 and brought away. They have been “rediscovered” within the Nineteen Sixties and a few them discovered their approach to be a part of the others within the Ashmolean whereas others discovered totally different properties together with one piece of a column taken for use as a backyard curler. [Don’t be too shocked – that was a common fate for such things in the 17th and 18th centuries]
Shortly afterwards in 1719 the then head of the household Isaac Cuper died, however it’s clear he had enhanced the household fortunes even additional. Describing himself as a gentleman his will bequeathed a number of leases, together with those on the gardens and a minimum of ten homes to his widow. His son John was left extra land and homes in addition to “free entry to the bowling greens and the gardens I left to my spouse” together with his pals and servants “to bowl, walke or work upon the identical” and to have the ability to take away stuff by means of the again gate, and liberty of cartway main from the wharf.” Isaac additionally left him a ship, the “Richard and Anne”, whereas His daughter Elizabeth obtained but extra leases on lands.
Quickly after Isaac’s demise the Cupers appear to have taken a again seat though they retained possession of the lease, and administration handed to Ephraim Evans. He improved the gardens including a skittle floor, and constructing an orchestra the place a band performed from six till ten o’clock. Watchmen have been appointed shield the clientele on their approach to and from the gardens and to maintain unhealthy firm out. In 1740 Evans died, however his widow, identified universally as “The Widow” carried on the enterprise. She marketed common live shows and elaborate firework shows which as earlier posts present have been very talked-about on the time.
They have been nonetheless probably hazardous occasions to stage.
Kentish Weekly Submit 2 June 1750.
Handel’s “Fireplace-Musick” from his opera Atalanta was carried out with “Fireplace-Wheels, Fountains, giant Sky-Rockets… performed off the highest of the Orchestra. and attracted a modern Clientele, together with the Prince and Princess of Wales, and plenty of “nobleman and their girls. ”
Ipswich Journal – Saturday 21 Might 1743. British newspaper Archive
Within the latter yr the gardens, which had all the time attracted pickpockets and different undesirable clientele regardless of the shilling admission cost, grew to become what Thomas Pennant referred to as “the nice resort of the profligate` of each sexes.” fell underneath the ban of a brand new Act “for the higher stopping thefts and robberies, and for regulating locations of publick leisure and punishing Individuals preserving Disorderly Homes”. It required premises for public leisure to be licensed and the magistrates refused to grant one to Mrs Evans. For just a few years she continued to run the place as an unlicensed tea backyard in reference to the Feathers Tavern, with occasional non-public night live shows and firework entertainments open solely to subscribers, however it lastly closed in 1760. It’s unclear what occurred subsequent however the gardens frequently talked about within the press, and it appears a timber yard was constructed in addition to pumping equipment to produce water to Lambeth.
In 1761 the lease of the gardens was purchased byJesus School who bought the lead from the roof of the “Nice Home” and felled a number of the bushes, whereas the home close to the doorway and different outbuildings have been let loose as tenements. The next yr the school granted a 20 yr lease to Mark Beaufoy who cleared the location and constructed a a distillery for the manufacture of vinegar and “British Wines” utilizing imported dried grapes from Spain and Portugal which “admirably mimicked” overseas wines resembling Madeira and Frontignac in huge portions.” Thomas Pennant estimated there have been vats for 58,000 gallons.
In 1813 Jesus School bought the unique 3 acres to the Strand Bridge Firm which had been set as much as assemble the brand new Waterloo Bridge and related roads. The Feathers was demolished and rebuilt close by however demolished once more in 1951. By then no matter remained of the gardens had disappeared, though the identify lingered on for some time longer and is recalled virtually with nostalgia.
Morning Herald (London) – Friday 28 June 1822
For extra data see a very good place to begin is James Stephens Curl’s Spas, Wells and Pleasure-Gardens of London, 2010; along with the hyperlinks above different helpful sources are Survey of London, vol.23; David Kerr Cameron, London’s Pleasures: From Restoration to Regency, 2001.
Any guesses as to the place this little home was? You may assume someplace quiet, leafy and rural however even in 1755 when the portray was accomplished I believe that wasn’t actually true and there’d have been extra folks round than only one lady along with her umbrella and basket.
You’ll additionally in all probability be shocked to know that hidden away behind the home was as soon as a group of classical vintage statues [mostly broken] and later a lot of wine barrels [mostly full]! You may need a greater thought of the place it was, particularly when you’re a Londoner, if I let you know it was close by of each St Paul’s Cathedral and Somerset Home…
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel
by Daniel Mytens c1618. NPG
The portray really reveals the doorway to Cuper’s Gardens which was one of many very first industrial pleasure gardens within the metropolis and stood roughly the place the Nationwide Theatre and southern finish of Waterloo Bridge stand in the present day. Sadly there are nearly no photographs, and even descriptions of the gardens till after their demise so there aren’t fairly so many fairly photos on this week’s put up.
The positioning was described in 1559 as “three acres of medowe” in “the bishopp of Canterburyes marshe.” After a number of adjustments in possession it was bought in 1589 “as an excellent backyard”, and after a number of extra adjustments it was purchased in 1634 by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who already owned a lot of land within the space, in addition to Arundel Home on the Strand on the reverse facet of the river. He quickly leased this plot to his gardener, Abraham Boydell Cuper.
We don’t know what Cuper initially deliberate to do with the land however it’s price stating that the south financial institution of the river had lengthy been a spot of recreation and resort, but additionally had a barely disreputable fame. It was the location of bull and bear baiting rings [which can be seen on the right of the map] in addition to theatres, taverns and brothels. A part of the rationale for this was that it was outdoors the regulatory management of the Company of London.
There may be nonetheless no signal of something on this element from Faithorne and Newcourt’s Precise Delineation of London, surveyed within the 1640s though not revealed till 1658. Arundel Home could be seen on the prime centre with the location of the gardens virtually precisely reverse on the south financial institution.
Maybe as he gazed throughout the river from Arundel Home Cuper aimed to boost the tone of the realm and create one thing barely much less risqué and extra salubrious in addition to worthwhile. Sadly So far as I’m conscious there are not any descriptions of the gardens however some remnant of that earlier “nice backyard” could have survived and he could properly have determined to make use of the land for rising greens and fruit for the market. Nevertheless it’s equally seemingly that he was trying to maximise his revenue from the location.
In different market gardening areas round London such because the Neat Homes, we all know that the gardeners used their land for leisure functions too, having fish ponds or maybe an area for bowling, and infrequently serving refreshments, typically even from their very own breweries. This follow was satirised on the stage in performs like The Asparagus Backyard by Richard Brome – and there was, in reality, an actual Sparagus Backyard on the South Financial institution not removed from Cuper’s.
Brome’s play centres across the different ways in which gardeners may earn cash from their backyard grounds. Because the gardener’s spouse says pointedly:it’s not “your durty sparagus, your artichoaks, your carpes, your tulips, your strawberries, that may convey you in 5 hundred pound a yr” earlier than occurring to ask “What did the wealthy outdated Service provider spend upon the poore younger gentlemans spouse within the yellow bed-chamber?” I say no extra!
So my guess is that in these early days that Cuper ran it as a primary market backyard the place guests have been allowed the backyard to walk, calm down and possibly take pleasure in some refreshments even when not the all different types of leisure. Since first penning this put up I found that the Museum of London has a token that price a halfpenny, issued by Abraham Cuper for admission to the gardens dated 1666 BUT to my shock it was for entry to “Arundel Gardens”. There appear to be two potentialities. Both Arundel Home was not completely occupied by the Howard household at this level so he could have exploited their absence OR I believe extra seemingly he initially named the gardens on the opposite facet of the river after his patron and that the identify was modified later. It’s price noting the “brand” of Cupid together with his bow and arrow.
For extra on supplementary sources of revenue see The Neat Home Gardens by Malcolm Thick,1998
The concept that it was a minimum of partly a market backyard is supported by the truth that though I can’t discover Abraham’s identify within the membership data for the Worshipful Firm of Gardeners, his son Bodwyn was a member by 1650 and served as grasp in 1661/62. By this time the Firm was largely comprised of economic market gardeners.
There may be, nonetheless, one other risk, additionally noticeable throughout different market backyard websites, and that’s as a substitute of rising carrots and beans gardeners would develop bricks and mortar. Cuper could properly have had that concept for a part of the land as he accomplished precisely that elsewhere. Through the Civil Warfare a number of sections of the south financial institution have been developed illegally with an official report of 1660 itemizing numerous individuals who had constructed homes and wharves alongside the riverside. The Cuper household had by then acquired one other 7 acres on lease and had constructed 13 small tenements.
A market backyard in Lambeth , element from Hollar’s Prospect of London 1647
What we don’t know is when the gardens really “formally” opened or assumed any official standing. Some accounts counsel the early 1640s after Cuper acquired the lease from Thomas Howard, others put the date as late as 1691 when his son and different family members have been working it. My guess is that the gardens have been opened earlier than the Civil Warfare however solely on a small scale after which advanced regularly however actually solely taking off after the Restoration.
The Folly, anon 1710 within the river reverse the location the place Blackfriars Bridge now stands. Picture scanned from The Pleasures of London [full ref below]
There was a industrial benefit to opening a spot of recreation subsequent to the river the place Waterloo Bridge now stands. One other extraordinary function of Thameside life was “The Folly”, a big floating restaurant or tavern that moored close by Cuper’s land, roughly reverse Somerset Home.
Little or no is thought about its origins however it was definitely a industrial lure because it in all probability acted as a floating brothel too. It was visited by Pepys in 1668 and perhaps that Cuper thought that his backyard may entice clients who may in any other case have gone straight to the boat.
Now we have to backtrack a bit and for causes which can quickly develop into obvious I hope, return to the 1620s and the story of Thomas Howard, Abraham Cuper’s employer and landlord.
Marmora Arundelliana
Howard, usually referred to as the Collector Earl, had travelled to Italy and picked up a lot of classical statues and different antiquities, additionally shopping for others by means of English retailers, diplomats and brokers throughout Greece and the japanese Mediterranean world. These have been used to embellish Arundel Home and its grounds creating what’s regarded as the primary sculpture backyard in England. A list of the gathering –Marmora Arundelliana – was drawn up and revealed by John Selden in 1628. Howard continued accumulating till his demise permitting Henry Peacham to remark that the earl “hath ever since continued to transplant outdated Greece into England.” In all it included “thirty-seven statues, 100 and twenty-eight busts, and 2 hundred and fifty inscribed stones, unique of sarcophagi, altars and fragments”.[Some of the story of how these got to London can be found by following this link].
Howard died in Italy in 1646, and left all the pieces to his spouse. Nevertheless when the Civil Warfare broke out the home, most of its contents have been seized by Parliament and a list taken of the “a number of goodes, picktures, and statues.” The home grew to become a barracks for Parliamentary forces and one can solely assume that, as in related circumstances, each the home and backyard suffered significantly by the hands of the army,
After the Restoration the home was returned to the household and handed into the palms of Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk who had no nice curiosity within the marbles, so when John Evelyn visited in 1667 he noticed what was left of those “valuable monuments, miserably uncared for and scattered up and down the backyard…exceedingly impaired by the corrosive air of London.” Evelyn persuaded the duke to offer some to the College of Oxford the place they will nonetheless be seen within the Ashmolean Museum.
The Duke determined to demolish outdated Arundel home and redevelop the location, with a smaller smarter home for himself overlooking the river, and new streets of homes on the remaining, as was the destiny of just about all of the aristocratic homes alongside the Strand within the later 17thc.
A number of the remaining Arundel marbles have been bought however the remaining left to their destiny both within the backyard or underneath a colonnade on the location of the brand new ducal home. This was not a good suggestion as a result of “the emptying of the home was carried on with such remissness, that damaged statues and sarcophagi, remnants of the Arundel assortment, have been discovered ten years later within the cellars of the newly-built homes in Norfolk Avenue.” Moderately than take away the particles the workmen clearing up merely threw all the pieces over the backyard wall the place it landed on the colonnade which collapsed underneath weight breaking extra of the statues beneath! Even after that one of the best of the stays have been bought to Sir William Fermor, who took them to his nation seat, at Easton Neston, close to Towcester. Then to return to the primary a part of our story most of what was left was given by the Duke to Abraham Cuper’s son Bodwyn who had in all probability taken his father’s place as gardener, and brought to the pleasure gardens throughout the river.
Cuper’s Bridge touchdown stage and the Feathers Inn [on the right] xxx
The gardens had stayed comparatively small till this level however in 1686 Bodwyn and his household took a lease on one other 7 acres of floor from the Archbishop of Canterbury and integrated most of them into the backyard. By this level too there are a number of different family members concerned within the Gardeners’ Firm. A touchdown stage, quickly referred to as Cuper’s Bridge, was constructed to function the riverside strategy to the gardens and a partnership appears to have been shaped with a tavern referred to as The Feathers on the riverside.
It was clearly a worthwhile enterprise. Bodwyn Cooper died in 1689. He had been admitted to the Gardener’s Firm in 1650 and was made grasp in 1661/2, however was additionally a member of the Vintners Firm. He left 4 kids and his will suggests he was a minimum of comfortably off. His eldest son Isaac took over the working of the gardens which have been described in 1708 by Edward, Hatton as “nice Gardens and walks with Bowling Inexperienced… the place a most of the Westerley a part of the city resort for diversion in the summertime season.”
from John Rocque’s 1746 Survey of London
As could be seen on Rocque’s survey of 1746 the backyard plan was lengthy and slender. A tree-lined path led from the river and the Feathers Tavern to a central walkway with serpentine pathways on both facet, lined the fragments of the Arundel Marbles. There was a bowling inexperienced and an rectangular pond. Though the banks of Thames have been lined with timber yards and wharves the remainder of the encircling space was nonetheless largely market gardens.
A lot although one may prefer to assume, like Hatton, that Cuper’s gardens have been respectable locations, like most industrial pleasure grounds they suffered from a disreputable fame and have been also known as Cupid’s quite than Cuper’s. Maybe that was a part of their enchantment, though I believe that’s merely a mirrored image of the Cupid brand on their admission token.
The marble fragments could have been a little bit of a multitude however in 1717 they attracted the eye of two art-lovers John Freeman Prepare dinner, of Fawley Courtroom at Henley and Edmond Waller of Beaconsfield. It could appear that the Cupers didn’t have a way of historical past – or perhaps simply most popular the cash so lots of the marbles have been bought for simply £75 and brought away. They have been “rediscovered” within the Nineteen Sixties and a few them discovered their approach to be a part of the others within the Ashmolean whereas others discovered totally different properties together with one piece of a column taken for use as a backyard curler. [Don’t be too shocked – that was a common fate for such things in the 17th and 18th centuries]
Shortly afterwards in 1719 the then head of the household Isaac Cuper died, however it’s clear he had enhanced the household fortunes even additional. Describing himself as a gentleman his will bequeathed a number of leases, together with those on the gardens and a minimum of ten homes to his widow. His son John was left extra land and homes in addition to “free entry to the bowling greens and the gardens I left to my spouse” together with his pals and servants “to bowl, walke or work upon the identical” and to have the ability to take away stuff by means of the again gate, and liberty of cartway main from the wharf.” Isaac additionally left him a ship, the “Richard and Anne”, whereas His daughter Elizabeth obtained but extra leases on lands.
Quickly after Isaac’s demise the Cupers appear to have taken a again seat though they retained possession of the lease, and administration handed to Ephraim Evans. He improved the gardens including a skittle floor, and constructing an orchestra the place a band performed from six till ten o’clock. Watchmen have been appointed shield the clientele on their approach to and from the gardens and to maintain unhealthy firm out. In 1740 Evans died, however his widow, identified universally as “The Widow” carried on the enterprise. She marketed common live shows and elaborate firework shows which as earlier posts present have been very talked-about on the time.
They have been nonetheless probably hazardous occasions to stage.
Kentish Weekly Submit 2 June 1750.
Handel’s “Fireplace-Musick” from his opera Atalanta was carried out with “Fireplace-Wheels, Fountains, giant Sky-Rockets… performed off the highest of the Orchestra. and attracted a modern Clientele, together with the Prince and Princess of Wales, and plenty of “nobleman and their girls. ”
Ipswich Journal – Saturday 21 Might 1743. British newspaper Archive
Within the latter yr the gardens, which had all the time attracted pickpockets and different undesirable clientele regardless of the shilling admission cost, grew to become what Thomas Pennant referred to as “the nice resort of the profligate` of each sexes.” fell underneath the ban of a brand new Act “for the higher stopping thefts and robberies, and for regulating locations of publick leisure and punishing Individuals preserving Disorderly Homes”. It required premises for public leisure to be licensed and the magistrates refused to grant one to Mrs Evans. For just a few years she continued to run the place as an unlicensed tea backyard in reference to the Feathers Tavern, with occasional non-public night live shows and firework entertainments open solely to subscribers, however it lastly closed in 1760. It’s unclear what occurred subsequent however the gardens frequently talked about within the press, and it appears a timber yard was constructed in addition to pumping equipment to produce water to Lambeth.
In 1761 the lease of the gardens was purchased byJesus School who bought the lead from the roof of the “Nice Home” and felled a number of the bushes, whereas the home close to the doorway and different outbuildings have been let loose as tenements. The next yr the school granted a 20 yr lease to Mark Beaufoy who cleared the location and constructed a a distillery for the manufacture of vinegar and “British Wines” utilizing imported dried grapes from Spain and Portugal which “admirably mimicked” overseas wines resembling Madeira and Frontignac in huge portions.” Thomas Pennant estimated there have been vats for 58,000 gallons.
In 1813 Jesus School bought the unique 3 acres to the Strand Bridge Firm which had been set as much as assemble the brand new Waterloo Bridge and related roads. The Feathers was demolished and rebuilt close by however demolished once more in 1951. By then no matter remained of the gardens had disappeared, though the identify lingered on for some time longer and is recalled virtually with nostalgia.
Morning Herald (London) – Friday 28 June 1822
For extra data see a very good place to begin is James Stephens Curl’s Spas, Wells and Pleasure-Gardens of London, 2010; along with the hyperlinks above different helpful sources are Survey of London, vol.23; David Kerr Cameron, London’s Pleasures: From Restoration to Regency, 2001.
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