Dean Spanley: a tale about reincarnation

Taken from what is rapidly becoming one of my favourite periods of history, the late Victorian-Edwardian era, I read a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book and reviewed it in my post Victorian Spiritualism: Arthur & George. Soon after, and quite coincidentally, I saw the film Dean Spanley. I didn’t know of the Irish writer Lord Dunsany before and I had never heard of this slim novel written just before WW2.

Set in 1904, Dean Stanley was a rather bizarre story of a father-son relation­ship (Peter O'Toole & Jeremy Northam respectively) and some key people who touched their lives. Out of desperation at his father’s tetchy, critical behaviour, Fisk took his father to hear a lect­ure on spiritualism by Indian Swami Prash (Art Malik). There they met the peculiar Dean Spanley (Sam Neill) and a rough Aust­ralian call­ed Wrather (Bryan Brown). Wrather could procure anything a soul might crave, if the money was right. Since what Dean Spanley craved was rare Hungarian golden dessert wine Tokay, that is what Fisk paid for.

Fisk Snr and Jnr at the lecture on spiritualism

The film's most important scene was a formal dinner for the 4 men, well lubricated by Tokay. In the semi-gloom around the din­ner table, a drunken Dean “revealed amazing and cathartic connections from the past” that eventually intrigued the group. As a result of the group’s relationship, the father-son’s own emotional relationship was changed forever. The NZHerald thought Dean Spanley was a sweet, if somewhat sticky, tale of redemption and friendships renewed – somewhat like the Tokay. But more importantly for me, The NZHerald also thought the script made the absurd vaguely coherent.

But dream-like perceptions and drunken memories of some imagined past are not much to hang a film on. I was very interested in these educated men, living quite formal and prescriptive lives, becoming involved in spiritualism. broadcastellan blog wrote in Best in Show: Dean Spanley as Out-of-Homebody Experience that film was actually inspired by My Talks with Dean Spanley, a casual, witty discourse on reincarnation and the transmigration of souls. Even with the excruciating pain of having lost a son in the Boer War, why didn’t Fisk Snr simply refuse to go along with the irrationality of it all?

A Persistent Vision blog in Dean Spanley (2008) (SIFF 2009) put it down to a strange, wonderful clash of the absurd and coherent. I presume that meant that proper Victorian-Edwardian gentlemen could deal with rationality and spiritualism concurrently, and not see anything strange about the two themes. There seems to be no other explanation that I can see.

Rural photography; seductive advertising

I don't approve of the advertising industry at all. It knowingly encourages conspicuous consumption, poor dietary habits in primary school children, sexual stereotyping, waste of the world's limited resources (plastic, packaging) and pollution. I rarely watch television that has paid ads, and I never listen to radio that accepts paid advertisements - only the ABC, BBC etc.

Now I have to admit that somewhere, sometime, somehow the advertising industry will hit pay dirt i.e they will find an image/sound/smell/taste that appeals to even the least receptive person. For me, it is this magazine advertisement for Montana wine from New Zealand.

Montana wine advertisement in an Australian women's magazine, 2009 (cropped)

The image presents a simple table in the open country side, with the sun slipping behind the distant hills at dusk. No humans, no animals, no cars, no buildings and no food. But the promise is of glorious scenery, fresh air, twenty of your closest friends, great food and wine, pure colours and no worries about your boss, your mortgage or apologising to the children's high school teachers.

Of course I understand that food doesn't simply appear on a table in a country field - a team of people would have to buy it, cook it in a tent, serve it to the guests and then clean up after. Nonetheless as a piece of visual art, the photographic image is well crafted. As a piece of clever advertising, it is very seductive.

Huguenots and the South African Cape

With the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, French Protestants were stripped of any protect-ion they may have had in Louis XIV’s France. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the exiles' large communities in England, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland, but then people started talking about the small Hug­ue­n­ot diaspora in South Africa. I searched the other blogs and found a little eg The du Preez Family blog in Huguenot Exodus (1688 & 1689)

Cape of Good Hope and the Western Cape region

In fact the Dutch East India Co./VOC, under Jan van Riebeeck, had already made a permanent Calvin­ist settlement on the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived with five ships in Cape Town bay in 1652. Cape Town’s settlement was a predominantly as an interim port for VOC ships, en route from Europe to Asia. In order to fully stock Cape Town’s port, the VOC admitted good Protestant citizens who could settle as farmers and provide the food and drinks. As early as 1671 the first Huguenot refugee, Francois Villion/Viljoen, arrived at the Cape.

Clearly the Dutch East India Co. encouraged the Huguenots to emigrate to the Cape because they shared Calvinist beliefs. But they also recognised that most of the Huguenots were exper­ien­ced farmers from parts of France that specialised in wine growing. After their arrival at the Cape, the immigrants were expected to make a living from agric­ulture, business or by practicing a trade. If they decided to farm, they were allotted farm land without cost. As soon as a few families settled, they laid the first stone of the Cape’s Dutch Reformed chur­ch 1678, built and later renovated in the typical Cape Dutch style.

An agent was sent out from the Cape Colony in 1685 to attract more settlers and new immigrants began to arrive eg in 1686 the brothers Guill­aume and Francois du Toit reached South Africa. Timing was everything! With the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many a French Protestant was looking around for a home. By 1688-9 the 201 Hug­uenot families who arrived were just large enough to leave an impression on the young settlement at the Cape, only 70 km outside Cape Town.

Franschhoek Valley, site of Huguenot vineyards

In 1688, French Huguenot refugees were given land by the Dutch government in a valley called Olifantshoek/Elephant's Corner. The name of the area soon changed to Le Quartier Francais and then to Fransch­hoek Valley. That year a group of c200 French Huguenots arrived from La Motte d'Aigues in Provence and other areas. As described by fellow blogger A Post-Modern Protestant in Paris in his post South African Wine a French Protestant Heritage, they specialised in vineyards.

When the de Villiers brothers arrived at the Cape with a reputation for viticulture, and in time, the brothers planted many thousands of vines at the Cape. They moved from the original farm that they had been granted, La Rochelle, to finally settle on individual land grants near Fransch­hoek in places they named Bourgogne, Champagne and La Brie. Lucky were the passing ships that stopped in Cape Town.

Huguenot Monument in Franschoek, 1945

Individual arrivals contin­ued on and off until the end of Company-supported emig­rat­ion in 1707. Undoubtedly these French Huguenot exiles created fertile valleys out of the tough land they had been given in the Cape. But the white pop­ulation in the Cape was small, so they soon married their children and grandchildren into the fam­ilies of other colon­ists. And it didn’t help that the Dutch East India Co. insisted that schools taught exclusively in Dutch. By the mid C18th the Huguenots ceased to maint­ain a distinct ident­ity. Within two generations even their home language largely disappeared.

What is left now? Some important surnames, today mostly Afrik­aans speaking, remain in families who had French-speaking great great grandparents eg Cronje/Cronier, de Klerk/Le Clercq, de Villiers, Terre-blanche and Viljoen/Villion. Plus a number of wine farms in the Western Cape still have French names, as do their products.

La Motte winery, named for the settlers' French home.

Then there is a large monu­ment, Huguenot Monument in Franschoek 1945, commemorating the arr­iv­al of the Huguenots in South Africa, that wasn’t inaug­urated by Dr AJ van der Merwe until 1948. The cen­tral fe­m­ale figure stood for religious free­dom, denied the Huguenots in their beloved France but offered by Dutch South Africa. A useful analysis of the Huguenot Monument can be found in the Franschhoek blog. Finally the Memorial Museum of Franschhoek next to the monument celebrates the his­tory of the French Huguenots who settled in the Cape.

Bacardi Rum's building resurrected in Havana

With an ever-increasing European demand for sugar came the need for a larger work force and that need was met by bringing slaves from Africa to the Americas. Rum distilleries sprung up in the Caribbean and North America. This rum was then shipped around the Americas and to Africa where it was used to pay for new African slaves, bound for the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. The trade of slaves, molasses and rum was very lucrative.

Bacardi Rum Building, built in 1930 in Havana, as it looked in 2001

Emigrating from Spain to Cuba in 1830, Don Facundo Bacardi and his family worked hard establishing themselves as business owners in Santiago de Cuba. Life must have been brutal, but Cuba had become the largest producer of sugar in the Caribbean. In 1862 the family bought its own rum distillery in Santiago and called it Bacardi. When Don Facundo’s sons took over, the secret rum formula was improved even further. During the 1880s and 1890s Emilio Bacardí (1844–1922) and his family were heroic supporters of Cuban freedom and independence.

By the end of the century Cuba had become very wealthy from exporting sugar, rum, tobacco and bananas, and the tiny island was a ready target for predatory super powers. Hundreds of thousands of Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army of locals who therefore had to use guerrilla tactics to save their own homeland. The Spanish military governor of Cuba herded the locals into fortified camps where a quarter of a million Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease.

Spain and USA declared war on each other in Ap 1897. A year later the war ended when the two countries signed the Treaty of Paris; Spain ceded Puerto Rico and other, more distant islands to the USA. But what a nightmare for Cuba. From 1898-1902, and again from 1906–1909, Cuba was occupied by the USA. Under Cuba's new constitution, the USA retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations! Self-government was not restored to Cuba until 1909.

central tower, Mexican free-tailed bat symbol 

During the time of Prohibition (1920 on), Emilio Bacardi and the next generation of the family exacted revenge on the USA government. Cuba had become a popular destination for American tourists and by the 1920s the family was inviting those same tourists to come to Cuba to beat Prohibition at home. These were the boom years for Cuba, when Deco became the symbol of a vibrant future, with its distinctive buildings and colourful, extravagant shapes.

The Bacardi Building is one of Havana’s principal landmarks, standing on the western edge of the city’s historical centre. Its architect, Esteban Rodríguez Castells, originally won the international competition for its construction with a neo-Renaissance proposal. But after visiting the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, he completely reworked his design into the Art Deco style. Located on the Avenida de Belgica/Belgium, the Bacardi building of 1930 is one of Havana’s first sky scrapers (12 storeys high) and remained the highest point in Havana for a long time.

Cubaism (Cuba Tourism) described the building in great detail. The façade was lavishly decorated with red Bavarian granite, inlaid with brass embellishments. The upper floors and the tower, both raised in a pyramid shape, were of the exquisite and bright design that combined blue and dun stripes with bright gold panels. The upper part of the building was faced with glazed terracotta reliefs of geometric patterns, flowers and female nudes by the American artist Maxfield Parrish.

Its sumptuous interior details included blue mirrors; stucco reliefs; brushed and polished brass; mural paintings; mahogany and cedar panelling; stained and etched glass; richly coloured inlaid marble from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Belgium and Hungary. The lamps and other fittings throughout the building were of course in the most modern Art Deco style. The colour of the ceramic flagstones covering the upper floors was bright yellow, referencing the white and gold rums exported by Bacardi.

1930s advertisement for Cuban Bacardi Rum. Note the yellow and the bat.

The building’s central tower was crowned by a three dimensional Bacardi bat, a figure that appeared throughout the building. I presume Bacardi rum featured the Mexican free-tailed bat as its icon because the bats were great pollinators of the sugar cane and because they devoured the insects that damaged sugar cane. In addition, as would be found in any Art Deco building, the decorations included sun-bursts, fans, waves, spirals and geometric patterns, and Art Deco roses, pineapples and other tropical fruit. And there were many other Art Deco objects, both functional and decorative, like lamps, lift doors and iron grills.

The company opened rum production facilities in Mexico in 1931 and Puerto Rico in 1936, as well as the New York based imports company in 1944. After the Cuban revolution, the company moved from Cuba to its Mexico and Puerto Rico factories, and build new facilities and offices in the USA, the Bahamas and Bermuda. Bacardí family members were now reputed to be strongly right wing and anti-Cuba, having close ties to the American right wing and to the CIA.

bar, mezzanine floor

In any case there was no money in the island nation for supporting its architecture, once the USA's obscene and brutal embargo on Cuba started in 1960. There was barely enough money for the 11 million Cubans to have food and medicine. Buildings start to moulder and crumble, including the once beautiful Bacardi edifice.

In 2001 the building was largely restored by an Italian firm to its original condition, including the beautiful marbles and Cuban Art Deco accessories. And then the work was completed in 2003 by the Office of the City Historian of Havana. The building is now the headquarter for representative agencies of tour operators. Visitors can inspect the lower floors and enjoy the bar located on the mezzanine floor, but cannot go up to the top storeys.
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Ground floor entrance, iron grills and marble floor

I have not yet seen the book Havana Deco, written by Alonso, Contreras and Fagiuoli. Published by WW Norton in 2006, the book explains the relationship between Cuban culture and the development of the Deco style there. The book places a heavy emphasis on Edificio Emilio Bacardi's exterior and interior because it serves as a good example of Cuba Deco.

Barcelona, Hemingway and absinthe

I am interested in the Bar Marsella for two important reasons. Firstly it is apparently the oldest bar in Barcelona, opening for business in 1820. Secondly it is apparently where Ernest Hemingway could be found, drinking his absinthe, any night of the week during his period in Barcelona. I know that Hemingway was in Spain for considerable periods during the 1920s and at least twice during the late 1930s, so the connections are possible. And there are definitely references to absinthe in  For Whom the Bell Tolls,  Death in the Afternoon and other of his stories.

And not just Hemingway. I would love to know if Oscar Wilde, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec socialised in Bar Marsella, as suggested. Toulouse-Lautrec certainly loved the green drink and created cocktails based on absinthe, but I can't find any specific references to him being in Barcelona.

Bar Marsella

Original Victorian chandeliers, hanging from the shiny ceiling, spread an eerie glow onto the faded bar mirrors, the woodwork and the customers. Lisa Abend noted that there is another glow; the infamous absinthe spirit casts its greenish glow from tables everywhere, including those being used by groups of rowdy students on their Gap Year abroad. I assume their parents don’t realise what their sons and daughters are up to.

Absinthe is unpalatable by itself, so a ritual is required. Each glass of absinthe comes with a lump of sugar, a fork and some water. The drinker holds the sugar on the fork, over the glass, and drips the water onto the sugar until it dissolves into the absinthe, which then changes colour. The warm glow that results is the famous absinthe Green Fairy that writers wrote about and the artists painted. Since Bar Marsella had always and still has a faded bohemian atmosphere, we can assume people visit now for the decadent history of decades past.

Matt Skinner was particularly fascinated with the eating and drinking habits of Barcelona. Noone eats dinner before 9 PM and so the later one gets to Bar Marsella, the better. 11 PM seems perfect. As I am definitely a night person and resent bitterly having to start my day before noon, this is the city for me. However I know why France, Netherlands, Switzerland and other countries permanently banned absinthe between 1910-1914 and I am far too alarmed about potential brain damage to try the drink myself.

Degas, The Absinthe Drinkers, 1876, Musée d'Orsay Paris

Picasso, The Absinth Drinker, 1901, Melville Hall Collection, New York

Both Degas' and Picasso's drinkers may have been creative, bohemian people, socialising in creative, bohemian Paris, but they looked bleary eyed and very sad. Toulouse Lautrec's drinker, on the other hand, was well dressed and looked in control of his environment.

Toulouse Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Cafe, 1893, Cleveland Museum of Art

Thank you to the readers who discussed the paintings and decorative arts associated with absinthe drinking in restaurants and bars. The ritual certainly created a demand for specialist art objects that can be examined in their own right - spoons, glasses, carafes etc. Furthermore there were beautifully designed posters and other commercial ephemera that survived since the Belle Epoque. One wonderful site is Absinthe Originals.

Onlinecollege org published an annotated list of their "15 Most Famous Cafes in the Literary World". As you would expect, La Rotonde and Le Dome Cafe in Montparnasse won first and second place respectively but La Coupole only came 12th and Bar Marsella failed to win a guernsey at all.

Prince Ludwig of Bavaria's wedding in 1810

The original Oktoberfest occurred in Munich in October 1810 as part of the public celebrations of a very special wedding, that of Crown Prince Ludwig (1786 – 1868), later King Ludwig I, and Princess Therese of Saxe Hildburghausen. Although the marriage had naturally been arranged for political purposes, most historians suggest that it turned out to be a very happy one. Anyhow, the citizens of Munich were invited to join in the festivities which were held over five days on the fields in front of Munich's gates. There was food and drink, but the main event of that distant festival appeared to be a horse race.

Bräurosl beer tent

By the next year, 1811, the programme was already starting to expand. An agricultural show was added to the horse race, I am assuming with an eye to boosting Bavarian agriculture. In 1816, carnival booths appeared; the main prizes beautiful decorative objects like jewellery. Swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and wheelbarrow races entertained the crowds. In time Munich’s town council took over management of the festival and in 1819, Oktoberfest became a formal and annual event. It was changed to September, I am guessing, because October is a bit too cool and a bit too unreliable, weatherwise.

Since 1850, a “wedding” parade has become a yearly event and an important component of the Oktoberfest. There is nothing quite as awesome as seeing 8,000 Bavarians in traditional costumes walking through the centre of the city. According to Daniel Wroe, real Lederhosen, the traditional Bavarian men's clothing, are still made from deer leather, not the cheaper cow leather. They last a lifetime and are often passed from father to son.

Oktoberfest musicians (Life Magazine)

Improvement followed improvement. In 1880, the electric light made the 400 booths and tents blaze brightly at night. In 1881, booths selling Bavaria’s favourite snack foods opened. Beer was first served in glass mugs in 1892. But the humble beginnings had long been inadequate; by the end of the 19th century, people wanted more sophistication, and much more space. The small booths were expanded into large beer halls and large groups of professional musicians were included in the entertainment. Tree climbing games were no longer the cultural highlight of the festival.

brewery horses on parade

In 1887 the Entry of the Oktoberfest Staff and Breweries began, a vast parade where the breweries competed with  great teams of decorated horses and the Oktoberfest bands marched. This event always took place on the first Saturday of the Oktoberfest and was used to mark the official opening of the festivities. In 1908, the festival built the first roller coaster found on German soil and best of all, in 1913, the huge Bräurosl opened for business. This was the largest Oktoberfest beer tent, holding some 12,000 revellers.

Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese's wedding, 1810 

Only six Munich breweries - Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten -were formally sanctioned to serve beer at the festival. But for most people, that is enough. Luckily Oktoberfest beer steins were typically made from heavy glass, with a decorative brewery logo on the side, and big enough to hold a litre of beer! These days, once the beer has been consumed, steins can be purchased in the tents.

Over the decades the festival was occasionally cancelled, because of an epidemic sweeping the city or because German-French warfare had broken out. But mostly the tradition was so entrenched and so loved that it went ahead regardless. Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen would not recognise the Oktoberfest today. The city hopes this year to break both its visitor record of 7.1 million and its beer drinking record of 6.9 million litres.

One litre beer steins

Charles II recipe book by Robert May

The earliest hardback cookbook I have seen was written up by Fragments, published originally in 1610. Called Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen Or The Art of Preserving, Conserving, and Candying, the book invited the reader "To make Marmelate very comfortable and restorative for any Lord or Lady whatsoever".

Then something even more wonderful emerged. The Daily Mail 18th Dec 2009 reported that auctioneer Charles Hanson was stunned to unearth a copy of The Accomplisht Cook, Or The Art And Mystery Of Cookery, published 1665. It was in a trunk full of books that he was examining when clearing a house in Derby.

Charles Hanson found a Restoration treasure

Readers might not expect me to write about cook books. But I found many blogs who were delighted with the May book and its recipes eg Gherkins & Tomatoes blog, lostpastremembered blog, Save the Deli blog and The Old Foodie blog.
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This book was the first substantial recipe book to be published in England and ran to 5 editions. So it was special back in the 1660s, and is even more special now. Few books were published during the Civil War so when this book was printed after the 1660 Restoration of Charles II, it would have been read by the upper classes and used within court and for important social occasions. The book boasts a number of illustrations, also a rare feature for the time.

Robert May might have been a professional cook who specialised in preparing grand dishes for the great and the good, but even so, the variety of May’s dishes was huge. Other cookery books in that era were almost entirely focused on fruit, conserves and confections. Some household books were largely medicinal.

What is known about Robert May 1588-1685? He was the son of Edwarde and Joan Mayes and came from a family of noted chefs. His father Edwarde was the chief cook at Ascott Park, working for the Dormer family, so Robert was "bred up in this Art". Lady Dormer obviously placed great value in food; at the age of 10, she sent young Robert to France to train for 5 years. 

Cheesecake recipes

Why would anyone send a 10 year old abroad? Note that the Dormers were Catholic, a family able were able to successfully retain their faith with minimal persecution during a very troubled century. Perhaps she thought she could protect Robert’s Catholicism better in a Catholic country. Perhaps she though that French food was the standard to which young chefs should aspire.

Upon his return to England he finished his long apprenticeship in London working for Arthur Hollinsworth, then returned to the village of Wing in Bucks, becoming one of the five cooks reporting to his father at the Dormer family’s estate at Ascott Park. After Lady Dormer's death, Robert moved around the country serving in other aristocratic households. His was a long life and a long professional career.

The Accomplisht Cook, Or The Art & Mystery of Cookery was first written in 1660 when May was already 72 years old, and in it he shared his experiences and many secrets of his profession. May acknowledged the end of the Puritan Commonwealth, noting that his recipes 'were formerly the delights of the Nobility, before good housekeeping had left England.' His books give directions for many extravagant meat dishes, including a pastry stag filled with blood-like claret, a tortoise stewed with eggs, nutmeg and sweet herbs, and a 'pudding of swan' made with rose water and lemon peel.

May’s was consciously a book for the upper class gourmet, but he was aware that many of his readers were not rich enough afford such luxuries. Very cleverly, I thought, May specifically ensured that many of the dishes were relatively modest.

Along with recipes and general technical commentary, the book contained Robert’s effusive record of his indebtedness to the Persons of great Honour in whose households he had been privileged to serve.

The author wrote the book in Sholeby in Leicestershire. He identified himself as an Englishman who profited much in his cooking by living in France and by consulting Spanish cookery. As well as French recipes, he added recipes from Britain, Spain and other nations.

The British Library’s page noted that May was clearly indebted to French master chefs cooking in French aristocratic courts, but was careful not to overplay their influence, and thus run the risk of offending his English readership. So in the book’s preface he had a few digs at the French. “To all honest well intending Men of our Profession, or others, this Book cannot but be acceptable, as it plainly and profitably discovers the Mystery of the whole Art; for which, though I may be envied by some that only value their private Interests above Posterity, and the publick good, yet God and my own Conscience would not permit me to bury these my Experiences with my Silver Hairs in the Grave: and that more especially, as the advantages of my Education hath raised me above the Ambitions of others, in the converse I have had with other Nations, who in this Art fall short of what I have known experimented by you my worthy Country men. Howsoever the French by their Insinuations, not without enough of Ignorance, have bewitcht some of the Gallants of our Nation with Epigram Dishes, smoakt rather than drest, so strangely to captivate the Gusto, their Mushroom’d Experiences for Sauce rather than Diet, for the generality howsoever called A-la-mode, not worthy of being taken notice on. As I live in France, and had the Language and have been an eye-witness of their Cookeries as well, as a Peruser of their Manuscripts, and Printed Authors whatsoever I found good in them, I have inserted in this Volume.”

This extraordinary man died in 1685, aged 97. His book will be auctioned at Hanson's of Lichfield, early in 2010. A facsimile of the 1685 edition, incorporating Robert May's last amendments from 1665 and a great deal of biographical information, can be bought, or read on-line.

Two worthwhile blog posts have appeared recently, of great interest to foodies.  Cardinal Wolsey posted an article on the Tudor Kitchens cookery project at Hampton Court Palace. I would love to have been there! And Two Nerdy History Girls wrote that the very scholarly John Evelyn was so devoted to his vegetarianism that he wrote an entire book on the subject: Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets. Published in 1699, the book suggested what kinds of plants and herbs to include in a salad garden, their cultivation, and recipes. Note the 1699 publication date - so soon after Robert May's book.

C18th Pleasure Gardens; fashions, food, drink, dancing, music

The latter C17th was the heyday of the Covent Garden coffee-houses, the best known being Wills in Great Russell St. Wills achieved great fame when it became the haunt of London's lit­erati, with the poet John Dryden being the resident man of letters. For 30 years, Dryden ser­ved as an inspiration to literary men in Lon­don: including Pepys and Pope, but not Jonathan Swift who apparently dis­liked Wills. In add­it­ion to ser­ious discussion of lit­erature, Dryden did satirical entertainment for the other patrons.

Coffee houses located in Westminster were frequented by polit­icians. Co­ffee houses near St Paul's Cathed­ral were loved by clergy and intellectuals who gathered to discuss theology and philo­sophy. But there were two great problems with the coffee houses. Firstly they were most suited to day time, intellectual activities, and were rather unsuited to night time, social activities. And secondly the so­cial code of the period excluded women from coffee-houses. [Later in the C18th, cof­fee houses declined but that was because regular gent­lemen's clubs arose in their stead, offering better facil­ities].

Which were Britain’s first Pleasure Gardens? The New Springs Gardens (later Vauxhall), south of the Thames, were probably opened in 1660, in perfect time to cele­b­rate the restoration of the monarchy. Admis­sion was free in the early years, with food and drink being sold to support the venture. There was one compulsory cost; the gardens could only be reached by water via a 6d boat ride, at least until West­min­s­t­er Bridge was built later on.

The new entertainment centres took hold in the public imagination very quickly and within a year or two, Samuel Pepys was already charm­ed by pleasure gardens in his diary. A very pleas­ant evening of danc­ing, strolling & watching fireworks, said he, would end with tea.

In 1729 merchant Jonathan Tyers bought the Vauxhall Gardens, built supper boxes, painted blinds and raised thousands of lamps.  In a rotunda designed by James Paine, an orchestra performed new pieces. The Gardens were central to the dissemination of Rococo in the public fancy, gentle and romantic.

The fashions at Vauxhall, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1779

The pleasure gardens of Ranelagh, in Chelsea, also opened for private pleasure in the C17th. But it wasn’t until 1741 that Ranelagh’s house and grounds were purchased by a group headed by owner of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and subsequently opened to the pub­lic.

Early American Gardens blog was a fine source of inform­ation about British pleasure gardens. Considered more fashion­able than Vauxhall, and with a more expensive entrance fee, Ranelagh was influent­ial, introd­ucing the masquerade to the new middle class. Like Vaux­hall, Ranelagh was in the Rocco style, and featured an impressive rotunda and a Chinese pavilion as well as several walks and a lake. More than Vauxhall, it had a reputation for being a convenient and popular place for courtship and romantic assignations. But Vauxhall had tightrope walkers, hot air balloon ascents, fireworks and a totally modern rococo Turkish tent.

The rotunda and Ranelagh, by Canaletto, 1754

Ranelagh featured a circle of boxes in the rotunda interior, as you can see in the Canaletto painting, which was decorated with paint­ings and lamps. Above the first level, another tier of boxes could seat 8 people and were lit by a circle of 60 upper level wind­ows. The centre was discovered to be poor placement for the orchestra, and so from the beginning was used instead as a fireplace for cool even­ings. The Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens was always an important venue for musical concerts, so it was a terrible shame when the rotunda was finally closed in 1803 and soon demolished.

George Frideric Handel might have been born German, but his works flourished in Brit­ain. In 1738 the whole of cultivated London flocked to New Springs, by now called Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, to ad­mire a statue erected to their beloved compos­er. His greatest works, written in the 1730s-40s, were triumph­antly acclaimed in Ox­ford, London and Dublin eg Esther, Messiah, Zadok the Priest.

Huge crowds could be accommodated at Vauxhall. In 1749 a rehearsal of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks attracted 12,000 very well dressed citizens. Many of the best known musicians and singers of the day performed at the Gardens. Social life was very pleasant for the nobility and the gen­try; the pleasure gardens in London provided the same pleas­ant walks and amusements as the Tivoli Gardens did for Copenhagen.

A French visitor (published in The Gentleman's Magazine 1742) raved. He noted in particular a magnificent orchestra that rose to the roof, from which hung several large branches holding thousands of candles enclosed in crystal-glasses, to light and adorn the spacious rotunda. Behind a handsome banqueting room, he said, a pavilion beggared all description, noble in design and elegant in its decorations.

Regency Reader blog discussed Regency Hot Spots: Vauxhall Gardens and Georgian Ranelagh Gardens ... , suggesting that cheap admission and accessibility by a burgeoning middle class made Vauxhall a hot spot during the Regency era. Fountains, cascades and walkways were illum­inated with colourful lights. Orchestras played, fireworks often sounded, and light refreshments and cold suppers were served from menus. People could enjoy in supper alcoves, decorated with cont­emp­orary paintings like those of Hogarth. Why Hogarth? Hogarth pro­moted native English artists, like himself, over imported contin­ental tal­ent. Importantly for this topic, Hogarth help­ed to decorate Vaux­hall Gar­dens, giving artists public exposure before art museums arrived.

Graphic Arts blog wrote in Vauxhall Gardens (Graphic Arts) c1779 by Thomas Row­land­son that the figures were caricatured but ident­if­iable, including Mrs Weichsel singing from the balcony and Mr Barthel­emon leading the orch­estra. Below was a supper party with James Bos­well, Dr Samuel Johns­on, Mrs Thrale and Oliver Goldsmith. We know Boswell did indeed frequent Vauxhall and said “I am a great friend to pubic amusements; for they keep people from vice.” Playwright and columnist Captain Topham was looking through a spyglass at the Duch­ess of Dev­onshire and her sister, Lady Duncannon. To the right, the Prince of Wales/later George IV flirted with his ex-mistress, actress Perdita Robinson, who remained rather coyly on the arm of her husband.

Other pleasure gardens opened. Marybone Gardens were officially opened as a venue for concerts and other entertainments in 1738 by a tavern owner, although the site had been used as a private pleasure garden since the restoration of the monarchy. The blog called Jane Austen’s World, in 18th & 19th Century Pleasure and Tea Gardens in London, said there were at least 200 outdoor pleasure gardens and tea gardens around London by the Edwardian era! Open only for a short season each year, proprietors of the less spectacular gardens had to earn enough income to keep their establishments open and competitive.

"A view of the Or­ches­t­ra with the Band of Music, the Grand Walk &c in Marybone Gardens", engraving from a drawing by J Donowell, 1761.

Possible references:
1] Coke, David and Alan Borg Vauxhall Gardens 1661-1859, Yale UP, 2011
2] Downing, Sarah J English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860, Shire, 2009.
3] Scott, Walter Green retreats; story of Vauxhall Gardens, 1661–1859, Odhams Press, London, 1955
4] "A letter from a Foreigner to his friend in Paris", in The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol 12, August 1742.