William Hogarth at Vauxhall Gardens: sex, art, music

London was a dirty, chaotic city in the second half of the 17th century. Vauxhall was then a rural hamlet on the south bank of the Thames, and Vauxhall Gardens was merely a square plot fringed by trees. Nothing special, except that people came out of the city to breathe the fresh air, walk and amuse themselves.

The grand walk in the centre of Vauxhall gardens

The pleasure gardens that grew up, from 1661 on, asked a fairly modest fee for admittance and entertainment. Each evening there were organised entertainments which were clean cut and fun, unlike the horrendous bear baiting and other disgusting entertainments offered in the city. However some entertainment raised well plucked eyebrows - the popularity of Vauxhall, especially its secluded paths and gardens, made it an ideal place of business for the working girls of London.

Clearly Spring Garden, as it was first called, must have been a great place for entertainment. This was where Samuel Pepys made his choice of the Ladies of the Night and where King Charles II courted his mistresses (sequent­ial­ly?). It is not hard for us to imagine enthusiastic crowds, squashing onto the river boats every summer evening, holding the shilling entrance fee in their sticky hands.

My earlier post, on pleasure gardens and the society that frequented them, started in 1729 when the young businessman Jonathan Tyers (1702-67) took over the lease to Vauxhall Gardens. He wanted his pleasure garden to become an elegant, civilised and civilising environment.

Tyers transformed what was essentially a plantation of trees into a space for performance and display, with specially designed pavilions, grottoes, sculptures and illuminated serpentine walks. Masquerades, gymnasts and magicians were impressive. Fireworks displays apparently stopping street-smart Londoners in their tracks.

The octagonal Orchestra was a building designed for the performance of music in the open air that opened in 1735. Around it in colonnades, Tyers built rows of supper-boxes where people could enjoy the music while eating and drinking. With 100,000 visitors each season, the gardens offered musicians their first mass audiences.

With Hogarth's (1697-1764) help, these green, clean pleasure gardens became egalitarian spaces where the middle classes could mix with the intelligentsia and the minor nobility. And the not-so-minor nobility; Frederick, Prince of Wales and his entourage loved going to Vauxhall.

People could enjoy in supper alcoves, decorated with contemporary paintings and sculptures. Why did Hogarth make the art choices? Because Hogarth, who was a friend of Jonathan Tyers, had recently married and moved to lodgings in South Lambeth!  Hogarth wanted to help decorate Vauxhall Gardens, giving other artists invaluable public exposure. Tyers was delighted, and in return he presented Hogarth with a lifetime pass to the gardens.

The relationship seemed to work well. David Coke (History Today, May 2012) was convinced that Tyers became one of the greatest patrons of contemporary British art and music. He argued that Vauxhall Gardens were central to the dissemination of Rococo in the public mind, at least in London. Tyers selected architecture, paintings, sculpture, furniture, tableware, lighting and music such that his gardens actively promoted the British rococo style. The artist who most benefited from Hogarth's campaign was Francis Hayman, who had four rococo paintings commissioned by Tyers for the Prince's Pavilion.

For Londoners from 1730 on, it must have seemed like stepping into an ethereal dream world, with wafting music and 20,000 glittering oil-lamps in the trees. I like the saying: music, wine and moonlight. They should have added “sex”, both paid for and free.

Music room in Vaux Hall Gardens by H Roberts, 1752. Photo credit: History Today

Now comes the interesting part. Hogarth understood that art was became increasingly commercialised, viewed in shop windows and taverns, and sold in printshops. New customs were emerging. So Hogarth’s idea was to paint and engrave modern moral subjects; to treat the canvases as his stage and the models as his story's characters. It must have been successful since today Hogarth is best known for his modern moral subjects, of which he sold engravings on subscription.

I understand why Hogarth would want create series of tragic and funny moralising stories, but did the sexy and glittering society who frequented the pleasure gardens give a fillip to his popular Modern Moral series? If Vauxhall, the very place Hogarth had helped make popular and successful, was one of the sources of his vigorous satirising of the manners and values of the day, it seemed strangely like biting the hand that fed him. Nonetheless the dates of these “moral lectures” were intriguing. Harlot's Progress prints appeared for the first time in 1732. The Rake's Progress prints were delayed somewhat but appeared in 1735. Marriage à la Mode appeared a few years later.

one print from William Hogarth's series called Harlot's Progress

Tyer and Hogarth died almost at the same time (1767 and 1764 respectively), so their careers overlapped perfectly with the greatest decades of Vauxhall’s long existence.

The most useful reference is David Coke’s essay "Vauxhall Gardens" in Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England, published by the Victoria and Albert Museum London, 1984. Also see Vauxhall Gardens: A History, written by David Coke and Alan Borg, and published by Paul Mellon Centre in 2011. The Works of William Hogarth: in a series of engravings, by John Trusler 2007, is wonderful.

Hotel Lutetia Paris - Belle Epoque or Art Deco?

Paris' Hotel Lutetia, built in 1910, is now over 100 years old. From the first details of the 1907 commission, the facade was supposed to set the tone and reflect the hotel’s prestigious character. Note the elaborate sculpture created by Léon Binet and the stained glass windows. Slightly decadent, to be sure, and very Belle Epoque.

This ornate building is located on 45 Blv Raspail in the 6th Arrondissement. Undoubtedly pre-World War One visitors would have loved the Saint-Germain-des-Pres district, the River Seine, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. In fact 1910 was the very year that the hotel's neighbour, Le Bon Marche department store, began selling classy fashions to those who could afford them.

Hotel Lutetia, Saint-Germain-des-Pres

In its own historical documents, the hotel records that the famous brasseries and cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, such as Le Procope, Le Lipp, Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, became a melting pot of intellectual debate. Café society started in the late C19th and continued to blossom in the C20th. This Left Bank area become the centre for Bohemian literary, musical and artistic types, including Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Dancer Josephine Baker, who moved to Paris in 1925 to perform at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, made Hotel Lutetia her second home. Picasso painted Guernica in his atelier in Rue des Grands Augustins. Baldaccini César's sculpture of Gustave Eiffel was added to the hotel interior, to stress the connection between the hotel and its Saint-Germain-des-Prés artiness.

Eventually the good times came to an end in Paris. The French government evacuated Paris in June 1940 and Hotel Lutetia was one of the hotels requisitioned by the Gestapo during Germany's occupation of the city. Hotel Lutetia was not the only famous hotel taken over by the German forces - Hotel Meurice on the Right Bank, for example, was the site allocated to the German military. I am not familiar with this murky part of the Lutetia’s history, so I recommend you read Quazen. After Paris was liberated, the Lutetia clearly had a more optimistic and helpful role to play; it became a centre for family searches and reunions.

Hotel Lutetia, Deco bar and lounge today

Eventually the Lutetia returned to its real role in history as a splendid hotel.

In the late 1980s, designer Sonia Rykiel opened a boutique in the building, and supervised a major redesign of the interior, restoring the splendid Art Deco of earlier decades. Athletic, naked Deco women in bronze hold up lamps; the Lalique crystal chandeliers are classy; and plush red velvet furniture looks intimate. Hundreds of art objects were placed throughout the hotel’s public spaces and 231 rooms.  And like the Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel in Paris, cabinets displaying Louis Vuitton accessories are placed alongside the reception desk.

The centenary celebrations in 2010 were very colourful! Now only one question remains. The hotel was opened for business in 1910 and Art Deco was not popular until 1925 and throughout the 1930s. So what did the interior of Hotel Lutetia really look like, in its original state?

Trains, whales, wines and wild New Zealand scenery

The rail journey offered by Coastal Pacific was the longest railway construction project in New Zealand, starting in 1875. Prior to its completion, there was no direct train service that ran between Picton and Christchurch.

The Coastal Pacific train with coast on one side, snowy mountains on the other

I had been on a scenic railway tour in the south island of New Zealand before, but I had assumed that the massive death toll and destruction from the Christchurch earth quake in 2011 would have ended the Picton-Christchurch trip. As Anthony Dennis reported, however, the Coastal Pacific journey is up and running again, better than ever.

The Coastal Pacific train journey travels between the delightful port of Picton and Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city. This journey is a scenic feast of New Zealand, with the Kaikoura mountain ranges on one side of the train and the Pacific Ocean coast line on the other. The scenery along this rugged coastline is enjoyed via either the large panoramic windows in the normal carriages or an open air, breezy viewing carriage.

The Coastal Pacific train takes visitors through some of New Zealand’s finest horticultural and farmland areas, to see amazing wildlife such as dolphins, seals and penguins.

Whale watching in Kaikoura, on board the Tiki Touring boat

Along the way the train passes though Kaikoura. As far as I can see in the town’s web pages, Captain Robert Fyfe became Kaikoura's earliest European settler in 1843. He established Waiopuka, the first shore whaling station near where his house, built in 1860, can still be visited. Other whaling stations soon followed at South Bay, but after 1850, whale numbers steadily declined and the industry became uneconomic. Today all marine mammals are protected in New Zealand.

The town actively promotes itself a popular stop off for those passengers who choose to immerse themselves in the sheer drama and beauty of this place with its majestic alpine scenery, beautiful rugged coastline, Maori culture and amazing ocean wildlife. Visitors can and do break their journey to sail on the whale watching boats or to swim with the dolphins, literally.

vineyards in Blenheim

Or jump off at Blenheim to see the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. Built around one of the world’s largest collections of original and replica World War 1 aircraft, the collection includes rare, crafted trench art, personal items belonging to the Red Baron and realistic scenes created for the Knights of the Sky exhibition.

The service runs in both directions between Christchurch and Picton daily, stopping enroute for passengers at Rangiora, Waipara, Mina, Kaikoura, Seddon and Blenheim. The trip takes 5 hours 20 minutes, one way, with new café cars to sample the local food and wine.

 New Zealand's South Island.

I have marked Picton, Blenheim, Kaikoura, Waipara, Rangiora and Christchurch

From May to September, KiwiRail’s Coastal Pacific train service between Christchurch and Picton will operate a reduced winter timetable i.e only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. So while winter scenery is more spectacular, summer is the most flexible time to travel.

Family health and the Peckham Experiment: 1926-50

Throughout the history of this blog, I have been interested in a growing medical concern for fresh air, sea-water, sun, beach huts, walking gardens, pavilions, pleasure piers, lidos, healthy food and physical fitness.  The problem was that wealthy families could always afford to pay for holiday time in a spa resort or a vigorous ski holiday in the Alps. But what happened to families with inadequate housing, no paid holidays in the fresh air and little access to lidos and pleasure piers?

Swimming pool and diving platform, designed by architect Owen Williams in 1934.

Pioneer Health Centre was specifically set up by a husband and wife medical team (Dr George Williamson d1953 and Dr Innes Pearse d1978) in Peckham, a working class suburb of South London. Motivated by modern ideas of hygiene and good health, the founders wanted to study how light, air, openness and vigorous exercise could be enjoyed by working families and could influence their health outcomes. They did not want to run an illness service; rather they insisted on promoting conditions for personal, family and social well-being.

From 1926-9, the project was started in a small way in St Mary's Road, to serve families living within walking distance. The initial data were written up by the doctors and funding was sought to build a larger centre. Pioneer Health Centre then re-opened in 1935 in a purpose-built piece of modernist architecture.

I am impressed by how the architect, Owen Williams, used modern techniques so that the architecture could play an active role in the Pioneer Health Centre’s philosophy. For example the walls of glass around the Centre were intended to
a] maximise the natural light and
b] retain a structural transparency, representing informality and a welcoming attitude to the community.

The large swimming pool was covered by a glazed roof; all windows could be fully opened, allowing natural air to circulate inside. A flat roof alongside the pool provided ample space for open-air gym classes, as we can see from the photo. Older children had a covered playground that opened directly onto the lovely gardens.

Drs Williamson and Pearse recruited 950 local families to be part of the health-care experiment. For a shilling a week, the families had access to a range of activities eg physical exercise, swimming, games & workshops. Perhaps locals couldn't afford a shilling a week, but the goal was to make the health centre feel like a club which belonged to the families, not an outside charity.

Members were asked to take part in a formal health check each year, and their health was informally monitored as they participated in activities from week to week. The only traditional health treatment on offer was contraception.

Gym class on flat roof top

The core facilities were accommodated by the architect eg cafeteria, games rooms, pool, nursery and gym. The members were actively encouraged to initiate their own choice of classes and activities, using the facilities offered by the Centre at no extra cost eg dress making, ballroom dancing. Self help was the buzz word.

According to Transition Town Tooting, the doctors also recognised the importance of good nutrition, and had a farm providing the centre with fresh, organic produce.

The Centre closed down during World War Two, but was restored and reopened as soon as the soldiers had been demobilised. Alas the bright and breezy Centre finally closed in 1950. It failed for different reasons: firstly it was concerned exclusively with the study and cultivation of health, not with the treatment of disease; secondly it was based exclusively on a limited suburban locality; thirdly its basis was contributory and not free; and finally it didn’t conform to the newly developed NHS structure. But what an amazing concept it had been between 1926 and 1950.

scalloped-glass bay windows right across the front of the Pioneer Health Centre (Pioneer Health Foundation photo)

The old archives from the Pioneer Health Centre, including the medical data collected during the experimental years, are now in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.  And a review document, called The Pioneer Health Centre Peckham London, was published in 1949 by the National Trust for the Promotion and Study of Health. For an excellent analysis of the rather radical politics involved in self help and in cooperative health facilities, see Anarchism and the welfare state: the Peckham Health Centre by David Goodway.

Bauhaus in Britain; Chermayeff and Bexhill-On-Sea

I was very interested in Bauhaus architectural students who moved to Britain, as soon as the Bauhaus was closed down (in 1933). Serge Ivan Chermayeff (1900–96) was exactly the same age and nationality as many of the Bauhaus architectural students, but he in fact moved from Grozny in Russia directly to London. Thus we know that he did not spend any years studying at The Bauhaus in Germany. However we do know that in 1931, Chermayeff and two other English architects travelled together through Germany, and spent time at The Bauhaus, talking with English undergraduates who were studying there.

In the 1920s, professional organisations of young architects were al­ready emerging in Berlin and other German cities. Zehnerring/Ring of Ten was an org­anis­at­ion of Berlin architects set up in 1923 to prom­ote the Bauhaus notion of modernism architecture. Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) was one of these German architects who was thrilled to join Zehnerring, but within a few years he fled Germany while getting out was still a possibility.

Serge Chermayeff went into private architectural practice is 1930 and a couple of years later, he welcomed Erich Mendelsohn into the practice. Of these two Jewish architects safely working in Britain, Mendel­sohn was older and more famous, but Chermayeff spoke English better and had citizenship. Their combined goal was to design significant archit­ect­ural works in the British modernist movement, a la Bauhaus.

Looking to the beach from the Bexhill-On-Sea pavilion

Bexhill, a small beach resort town between Eastbourne and Hastings, already had a high-class entertainment venue: the Kursaal in De La Warr Parade. The mayor of Bexhill in 1932, who happened to be 9th Earl De La Warr, suggested the town needed a more modern, more invit­ing pavilion. What he wanted was an enclosed structure or winter garden, behind the existing colonnade. The town largely supported this project, as long as the new building maintained the existing character of the town.

The Bexhill Borough Council set up an architectural competition in 1933 and prepared a brief that indicated that a modern building was required. 230 architectural designs were submitted, exhibited and assessed, and the winning entry was declared to be that submitted by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff.

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Bexhill social life in summer evenings

Building work began in Jan 1935, using perhaps the first welded steel frame building in Britain. The aesthetics taught at The Bauhaus were well suited to the Bexhill Pavilion, focusing on long, low concrete surfaces, industrial designs, with expansive metal-framed windows and concrete-steel materials. The glass-encircled staircase towers above the headland on which it stands.

If the streamline extended verandas, glass tower and deckchairs reminded the viewer of a ship, it was not coincidental. Firstly Bexhill On Sea was a beach resort town. Secondly 1930s modernist architecture, especially Deco, was besotted with ships (as well as trains and fast cars), as shown by Art Deco Buildings.

When the money ran out, the plan to redevelop the Colonnade, a swimming pool and modernist statue was abandoned. Nonetheless the completed project was opened in Dec 1935, in the presence of royalty.

In the 1930s the modern style of the building was probably something of a shock to the good (staid?) burghers of Bexhill. And there was also some resentment over the cost of the project. However in the end it became much loved. graveney marsh blog has an enticing image of the sea, taken from inside De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill.

I hadn't discovered why this coastal resort fell out of love with its treasure, then The Knowledge Emporium blog showed how de la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill was damaged when a nearby hotel was bombed during the war. Afterwards, in the tough postwar era, the pavilion was simply neglected.

By the 1980s, the De La Warr Pavilion was granted a Grade I listed Building status and plans were formulated to restore the building. In 2005, after an extensive programme of restoration and regeneration, the De La Warr Pavilion reopened as a large, cont­emporary arts centre. 70 years after the building was designed by Chermayeff and Mendelsohn, the De La Warr Pavilion is the most famous spot in Bexhill. And much to my pleasure, it is one of the best early examples of the Bauhaus style of architectural modernism in Britain.

What do bloggers think of the pavilion now? 60 going on 16 blog examined the architecture, loved it, then headed for the cafe, opting for tea, cake and sea views out on the first floor balcony. Despite not spending much time with the art as expected, it was an excellent experience.

Bexhill Pavilion and art centre, in 2005

For scholars of The Bauhaus, it is interesting to know that Laszlo Moholy Nagy's successor at the head of the Ins­t­itute of Design in Chicago was the very same Serge Chermayeff who had moved to the USA during WW2. Chermayeff, the man who had never studied at the Bauhaus, remained true to the Institute’s orig­in­al Bauhaus goals. Some of materials related to the De La Warr Pavilion were archived in the Serge Chermayeff Papers in Columbia University New York.

Portmeirion, Wales - a delight for all

Portmeirion is located on a peninsula, just south of Porthmadog in North West Wales. From the hotel, the visitor can see Tremadoc Bay, nestling in the far larger Cardigan Bay. The River Dwyryd passes the village, leaving a wide sandy expanse at low tide. At high tide, the waters reach right up to the coastal paths, changing the cut-off land into an island.

The small settlement that existed on the peninsula was called Aber Iâ. When a mansion was built there in c1840, it took the place's name, Aberia.

Portmeirion from the air

The English-born and educated, Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978) bought Aber Iâ from his uncle, Sir Osmond Williams. As a professional architect, Clough’s goal was to take a naturally beautiful location and develop it, without spoiling the landscape, river, sands, coastal paths and views that made the site so special. Inspired by the Mediterranean-like setting, like his favourite Italian resort Portofino, Clough was passionate about the protection of national parks and the preservation of fine old buildings.

The Hotel Portmeirion

Clough started to establish Portmeirion as a Mediterranean coastal hotel resort in 1925. The splendid 19th century mansion was converted into The Hotel Portmeirion which opened in 1926 to Clough's design and has been the focal point of the village ever since. The curvilinear entrance, that housed the reception area, was added in the 1930s.

Clough soon began building or converting some extra cottages, to give additional accommodation. The Mermaid and White Horses cottages were improved and the main building programme continued until WW2. The remains of the semi-derelict harbour structure Fort Henry still exists, having been designed by Clough for bathing, boating, suntanning and socialising.

Castell Deudraeth

After WW2, construction continued for 20 years so today there are many more buildings within the Portmeirion village. There was a fortified Victorian mansion called Castell Deudraeth, near the hotel complex, that Clough would have liked to incorporate into the village. Alas it didn’t happen until after the original dreamer’s death – Castell Deudraeth underwent major renovation in the 1990s and re-opened in 2001 as an 11 bedroom hotel and restaurant. Its architectural heritage has been preserved, including the welsh oak and slate floors, baronial stone fire surrounds, oak panelling and plasterwork cornices.

However Clough did live long enough to be knighted for his services to architecture and the environment, in 1971. Portmeirion’s grounds are now designated a Conservation Area and most of the buildings have been Grade II registered.  The Ship Shop, for example, was originally the stable block for the Aber Iâ estate, built c1850.

But this is no ordinary village. Virtual Tourist says the place was built to a slightly smaller scale than was usual with inter-war developments, and although the self catering cottages are all real and the exquisite little shops and tea rooms are open for business, nobody actually lives there. Employees staff it and tourists throng to it, but residential guests are the only visitors Portmeirion allows overnight. At night the gates are shut and paying guests are free to roam through their own private dreamland. It's wonderfully romantic and is a splendid base from which to explore North Wales.

Portmeirion village and gardens.

I have run into the Williams-Ellis family in my research twice before, in totally different contexts. Firstly Clough’s wife, Amabel Strachey, was a cousin of author and Bloomsbury figure Lytton Strachey. Her parents were friends of other members of the Bloomsbury Group and Rudyard Kipling was godfather to one of the children.

Secondly Clough Williams-Ellis and his wife had a number of children. Their elder daughter, Susan Williams-Ellis, used the name Portmeirion Pottery for a ceramics company that she created with her husband in Stoke-on-Trent in 1961. To tie Susan’s history back to Portmeirion village, visitors will find a shop specialising in Portmeirion Pottery. Susan and her husband Euan also designed and painted the colourful mural of vines and cupids with a fountain and white doves on the courtyard side of one of the village's buildings, the Ship Shop.

I recommend the book Portmeirion, written by Jan Morris, Alwyn Turner, Mark Eastment and Stephen Lacey.  Published by the Antique Collectors' Club in 2006, it aimed to cover the whole story of Clough Williams-Ellis, the village, the extensive gardens both at Portmeirion and at the Williams-Ellis family home and Portmeirion Pottery.
                  

The Ship Shop (above)   Portmeirion beach and tower, by Christine Matthews (below)

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Pubs: Britain's greatest contribution to world peace

The book Licensed to Sell – The History and Heritage of the Public House showed that the great boom in pub building came at the close of the C19th when designers used gas lighting on mirrors and plate glass to develop an inviting and seductive appearance. Furthermore the materials that helped to create the typical image of the Victorian pub were readily available to designers and builders: woodwork, metalwork, ceramics and plaster.

The Falcon, Clapham Junction, built in 1887

The vital task taken on by by Geoff Brandwood, Andrew Davison and Michael Slaughter was to describe the long history of the public house and to examine how changing attitudes were reflected in its design and planning. And the information on Demonising Drink was very welcome. The Drink Question seemed to have a powerful influence on the various political parties and on drink-related legislation in the late Victorian decades. However it seems counter-intuitive that the Liberal Party was associated with temperance and the Conservative Party was seen as the friend of big brewers.

All writing about the visual arts, be they paintings, architecture or the decorative arts, needs to be visual. With lush photos, this book beautifully memorialised and celebrated the various styles of pub building, from rich and gaudy to sleek and modern. My particular favourite was The Salisbury in London, a 1890s pub-hotel that had every known architectural element thrown onto the façade – Flemish gables, mullioned windows, wide arches on the ground floor and red and yellow brick work. What a treat.

Turk's Head, Middlesex, an Edwardian pub

What the authors brought to public attention was that the number of pubs has halved since their late C19th glory days, when there were some 100,000. Alas just 250 have retained all their original Victorian architecture, furniture and decorative elements. And worse still, English Heritage has listed only 20-30 pubs for protection in the last decade. Since World War Two ended, period fittings have been ripped out of the traditional pub by big breweries who wanted up-market bars, with utterly impersonal interiors. The old colourful tiles, painted glass, timber panels and gilded woodwork were modernised! In a section that “England England” readers will admire, the authors noted that genuine features were discarded, only to have mock heritage reintroduced a few years later.

All readers interested in architectural and literary history will acknowledge that this is no mere drinking issue, since pubs have been woven into the fabric of some of Britain’s most loved novels – think of Dickens’ pubs. But I cannot help but wonder if today’s drinkers and socialisers care that under 4% have interiors of any historic value that are still intact.

The Princess Louise, Holborn, built in 1872 

Now I may be generalising from my own experience to that of the entire reading public, but I assume most readers do not read a textbook like a novel i.e from cover to cover. I hop and jump around the chapters, according to interest. Thus the Contents Page needs to signpost the material carefully. Alas in this book I cannot tell the difference between the chapters headed The Emergence of the Pub, Development of the Pub, and Planning of the Pub. The index was excellent, fortunately.

As a devoted pub patron but by no means a scholar of pub architecture, I loved the new material that I had never read before e.g that playing billiards in a licensed house required a separate licence for each table in 1845. Were billiard players a potentially dangerous lot? Then there was other material that I instinctively knew but was pleased to have confirmed e.g that many pubs had a club room, usually situated on the first floor. The pub functioned as the social centre of a community, before WW1. Finally there were familiar paintings, drawing and literary quotes that I was very familiar with e.g Pepys and Hogarth.

Licensed to Sell – The History and Heritage of the Public House by Geoff Brandwood, Andrew Davison and Michael Slaughter. It was published by English Heritage in 2011. Many thanks to Inbooks of Brookvale NSW for the copy.

It would be fascinating to follow this book up with The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200-1830 by Peter Clark. They do not cover the same eras, but drinking is drinking. And for blog readers, a swift one... focuses largely on breweries, pubs, clubs and festivals of Yorkshire. Tired of London, Tired of Life is also excellent. He recommends at the Half Moon Herne Hill, built  in 1896 and designed by architect J. W. Brooker. This beautiful Grade II listed pub still has its attractive interior intact.

Thomas Cook, inventor of the package tour.

We know that during the C18th, only privileged young Europeans could fill their time between university education and career with an extended tour of Italy. Only the upper class had the time and the money to travel, and the classical education to interest them in Italy.

But by the early C19th the industrial revolution created a new market for travel: improved roads dramatically shortened journey times; industrial expansion generated greater wealth in the cities (not for everyone); and a limited working week brought with it the concept of leisure. Steam-driven vessels began to link Dover and Calais in 1821, and by 1840 an estimated 100,000 travellers were using them annually. In the same year the steamship Britannia crossed the Atlantic in 14 days. Steamers started to ply the Rhine in 1828, the Rhone and the Danube a few years later. And the spread of railway systems speeded up, democratised and extended the range of travel.

Cook's Excursionist poster

Thomas Cook (1808–92) was born in Melbourne Derbyshire. Brought up as a strict Baptist, Thomas joined the local Temperance Society at 17. Over the next few years he spent his spare-time preaching, campaigning against the demon alcohol and publishing Baptist and Temperance pamphlets. In 1833 Thomas married Marianne Mason and had a son.

In 1841 while walking to Leicester, Thomas decided to arrange a rail excursion from Leicester to a Temperance Society meeting on the newly extended Midland Railway. So he chartered a special train and charged his 570 customers 1 shilling, to cover the costs of transport and food. They travelled in open tub-type carriages, walked into the town centre, and enjoyed tea and games in the town's park.

Although his profit margins were small, the venture organising cheap train travel for working families was a great success and Cook decided to start his own business running rail excursions. Within 3 years of that historic 1841 temperance trip, Midland Counties Railway Company had a permanent arrangement with Cook who had to find sufficient passengers to fill the train.

In 1846 he took 500 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland. They each paid a guinea to travel by train & steamer to Glasgow and Edinburgh, where they had vouchers for their hotels and were greeted with brass bands and cannons firing. Cook found many opportunities for people to uplift themselves culturally and morally via excursions to other places. Another of his greatest achievements was to arrange for 165,000+ people to attend the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.

He soon went up-market and by 1865 was escorting to Italy “clergymen, physicians, bankers, civil engineers and merchants.” So up-market that in 1865 Cook moved his business to London. His son John managed the London office of the company that became known as Thomas Cook & Son. They organised personally conducted tours throughout Europe and procured hotels for tourists making independent trips.

Naturally Cook and his excursionists were attacked by traditionalists as “hurried observers, visible representatives of a modernity that was bringing intrusive crowds into formerly self-sufficient villages, towns and regions.” Times were changing. The new tourists, those “red-nosed people carrying red books [Murrays] in their hands”, were by virtue of travelling in a certain organised way, “incapable of the appropriate aesthetic response to the places they visited. They profaned the very sanctity of the monuments they visited”. Speed was seen as nasty.

Tour books included images of the sites the tourists would visit eg sphinx

International success happened when they arranged tours to Egypt. The Suez canal, which opened in 1869, was the door to the Empire of the East, and became a turning-point for Cook tourism. Egypt became a favoured winter holiday destination for wealthy travellers. This was due to the improvements in transportation AND to the status of Egypt as a British protectorate. During the fashionable winter season, Cairo was the playground of all cosmopolitan Europeans, as well as the new middle class tourists who were eager to participate.

By 1880 the Egyptian Government was so pleased with the Cooks’ operation that they granted them exclusive control over all passenger steamers on the Nile. In return, the Cooks undertook in 1870 to invest large sums of money in rented steamers, owned by the Ottoman sultan’s viceroy, and to manage the service.

By the 1870s Cook's Tours offered hugely successful trips to all parts of the world, opening up the Grand Tour to the middle classes. By 1872 Thomas Cook & Son was able to offer a 212 day Round the World Tour for 200 guineas. The journey included a steamship across the Atlantic, stage coach across the USA to the westcoast, paddle steamer to Japan and an overland trip across China and India. Posters and advertisements depicted the more exciting places that the tour would visit eg Cook’s Excursionist and Home and Foreign Tourist Advertiser. Guide books were sold in their shops, chockablock with details about booking, transport, hotels, tourist sites, health care, diet, dress and financial arrangements. Most travel needs could be found as well.

British tourists visiting Giza

By the time Ottoman power was coming to an end, Turkey was seen as exotic and artistic. Certainly Istanbul was becoming an important destination in the 1860s and 70s, but it boomed once the Oriental Express went on its maiden voyage in 1883. The return trip was of course fearfully expensive, but it was so famous and luxurious that there was always a long waiting list for tickets.

Thomas Cook retired in 1879. While Thomas had maintained the grand view, John was innovative and  understood that no detail was too small in the travel industry. At a time when popular tourism had been frowned upon, Thomas had struggled to make it acceptable, while John (after 1865) strove to make it respectable. They had succeeded in making travel easier, cheaper and safer for millions of people via what we would now call The Package Tour.

There was no problem in changing the management over to John Mason Cook and HIS sons. John had an ability to organise on a large scale, so he set about transforming his father’s business into a global name. Thomas died in 1892, his legacy for travel around the world assured.

Thomas Cook building in Leicester, built in 1894

There are several memorials still standing. Melbourne Derbyshire has the Memorial Cottages which were built in 1890-1 by the Cooks. They include 14 cottages, bake house, laundry and Mission Hall, and still provide accommodation for some of Melbourne's senior citizens. Thomas' birthplace in Quick Close Melbourne was demolished in 1968. In Leicester, Cook’s other house still stands, as does his statute outside Leicester rail station.

Built as a memorial to The Man himself, the 3-storey Thomas Cook Building in Leicester (photo above) was designed by Joseph Goddard with carved archways that are separated by small stone balconies and columns. The four stone friezes depict four of Cook's significant trips between 1841-91.

statue of Thomas Cook, by James Walter Butler, outside Leicester Railway Station

modernism at The Festival of Britain 1951-2011

I was too young in 1951 to worry about anything more pressing than jacks and hoola hoops, so I an grateful for the history re-presented in Susan Gilchrist: Festival of Britain 60th Anniversary Exhibition.

The Festival of Britain was a celebration that was held on the South Bank of the River Thames in London from May to Sept 1951. The date was special since the Festival celebrated the centenary of the first ever World Exhibition, held in magnificent Crystal Palace back in 1851.

Transport Pavilion, Festival of Britain

Just a few years after WW2 ended, Britain still laboured under a huge war debt and war-time rationing was still in force. This festival was a concerted attempt to lift the spirits of the nation; it was to be "a tonic for the nation".

But more than that. Much of London was still in ruins from the bombs and redevelopment was badly needed. So the Festival was particularly focused on promoting better-quality design in the post-war rebuilding of British cities.

Construction of the South Bank site opened up a new public space, including a riverside walk, which had been previously been filled with warehouses and pretty tatty housing. I don’t suppose all families were delighted to see their housing go, tatty or otherwise. And opposition to the project came from people who believed that the £8 million should have been spent on housing.

The official opening was in May 1951. The principal exhibition site was on the south bank of the Thames near Waterloo Station. Other exhibitions were held in Poplar East London (Architecture), Battersea Park (Festival Gardens), South Kensington (Science) and Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall (Industrial Power) as well as travelling exhibitions. Outside London, major festival activities took place in widely spread cities like Cardiff, Bournemouth, York and Inverness. The Festival ship HMS Campania took a travelling version of the South Bank exhibition to several ports, including Dundee, Newcastle, Plymouth, Bristol, Belfast and Glasgow. Red double decker buses, filled with festival exhibition spaces, toured Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

So how utopian was The Festival? The layout of the South Bank site was intended by the organisers to showcase the principles of urban design that might predict the post-war rebuilding of London and the creation of the new towns. These included multiple levels of buildings, elevated walkways and avoidance of a street grid. Most of the South Bank buildings were International Modernist in style, rather unusual in pre-1939 Britain.

Dome of Discovery, Festival of Britain

The Dome of Discovery was then the largest dome in the world. It was constructed from concrete and aluminium in a modernist style and housed many of the festival attractions i.e exhibitions on the theme of discovery — the Living World, Polar, the Sea, the Earth, the Physical World, the Land, Sky and Outer Space.

Skylon, Festival of Britain

The Skylon was an unusual steel tower supported by cables that became the centrepiece and lasting symbol of the Festival of Britain; it stood on London's South Bank between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The 90 ms high Skylon was built of a steel lattice work frame, pointed at both ends and supported on cables slung between 3 steel beams. Even better, the aluminium louvres over the frames were lit up from within at night.

Royal Festival Hall had initially been launched by the Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1949, on the site of the C19th Lion Brewery building. Built for the London County Council by architect Leslie Martin, Royal Festival Hall visitors were awestruck by the separation of the curved auditorium space from the surrounding building. The building was officially opened in May 1951. The inaugural concerts were conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Adrian Boult.

The arts were important, especially sculptures from Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Jacob Epstein. And their pieces were spread around, placed on prominent areas around the Southbank. An exhibition of sculptures was specifically organised by the Arts Council in Battersea Park. And there were two exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery as part of the Festival Programme: a display on the History of East London and a separate display of craft and popular art forms.

Note the colossal stone relief by ex-pat Austrian sculptor Siegfried Charoux. This work, The Islanders, was to be read as a symbol of the struggle and resilience of the British people. A temporary work, it was mounted on the side of the Sea and Ships Pavilion and later probably destroyed.

How popular was the Festival? 18 million people visited the 2,000 local events that together made up the Festival of Britain. 55 principal events took place all over the UK, mainly exhibitions and arts festivals. In the five months from May to September, people paid millions of pounds to see the events, making very nice profits for the nation. Profits from the Festival were retained by the London County Council and were used to convert the Royal Festival Hall into a concert hall and to establish The South Bank.

As with many world fairs from 1851 on, The Festival of Britain facilities might well have been pulled down. But when Winston Churchill became prime minister once again in October 1951, he expressed his loathing for the Festival in general and the modernist, so-called socialist architecture in particular. He made it the first act of his newly-elected government in Oct 1951 to clear the South Bank site. Skylon was toppled into the Thames and cut into pieces, on Churchill’s specific orders. The Dome of Discover, which had became such an iconic structure for the public, was demolished and its materials sold as scrap.

So apart from the Royal Festival Hall, the built architecture of the South Bank was destroyed immediately after the events. The cleared site is now the location of the Jubilee Gardens, near the London Eye. Luckily in 1988 Festival Hall was designated a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected.

The Festival of Britain created a new audience for architectural modernism. The architects did indeed show, by their design and layout of the South Bank Festival, how modern town planning ideas could be implemented. So it was appropriate that a number of modernist buildings on the main South Bank site became iconic symbols of The Festival. One historian noted that the Festival Style of local modernism did have an impact architecture and interior design in the 1950s, especially in the office blocks and cafes of the New Towns.

Right now (April-Sept 2011) the Southbank Centre London is celebrating the 60th anniversary of The 1951 Festival of Britain. The Royal Festival Hall houses the Museum of 1951, a temporary exhibit featuring memorabilia, artworks, personal histories, models, memories and photographs. Taking pride of place at the festival is John Piper’s mural The Englishman’s Home, a 50’ long celebration of English architecture and one of the only surviving artworks from the 1951 nation-wide festivities.

original designs by Robin and Lucienne Day, displayed in Chichester in 2011
 
One decorative arts exhibition was held in Pallant House Gallery, Chichester during the first half of 2011. Robin and Lucienne Day: Design and the Modern Interior, consisted of three rooms of Lucienne’s textiles and Robin’s furniture, arranged chronologically and starting with the 1951 Festival of Britain which launched their careers. Believing in the transformative power of modern design to make the world a better place, Robin had designed furniture for the Royal Festival Hall, and had displayed his steel and plywood furniture in the Homes and Gardens Pavilion, along with Lucienne’s textiles.

Being a post-WW2 baby myself, the 1950s was my least favourite design era ever, but I very glad Pallant House Gallery displayed the Days’ important work.

What was/is a Winter Garden?

By 1800, doctors had already began to extol the virtues of drinking spa water and bathing in sea-water. Royalty loved their sea holidays and so set a trend for more average families. For residents of Bristol and Bath, Weston-super-Mare was the nearest coastal village within easy reach of a road. In the early 19th century, Weston-super-Mare was still a very small Somerset town, yet it became a thriving Victorian seaside resort of 20,000 people.  So we can confidently propose that Weston’s success came out of the growing Victorian era passion for holidays by the sea.

Construction of Weston’s first hotel, now the Royal Hotel, started as early as 1808. And Howe's spa baths opened in July 1820, complete with lodgings built for the invalids, a refreshment room and reading room. But it wasn’t until the opening of the railway in 1841 that thousands of visitors came to the town from Bristol and beyond, on work outings and bank holidays.

As with other coastal resort towns, Weston needed a pleasure pier, and like the piers at Hastings and Eastbourne, Birnbeck Pier was designed by Eugenius Birch. Birnbeck Pier was completed in 1867, offering everything a holiday maker might want - amusement arcades, tea rooms, rides and a photographic studio.

Weston's Winter Garden Pavilion

The town's Seafront Improvement Scheme of the 1880s developed the sea walls and long promenade that are still in use today. But local businessmen wanted tourists to come right into the centre of town. Business must have been brisk - 15,000 passengers arrived on the steamers on each summer bank holiday! Soon it was decided to build another pier, closer to the town centre; the Grand Pier opened in 1904, offering a large theatre rather than more low brow amusements.

After the devastation of World War I, the town decided they needed new and exciting facilities i.e a Winter Garden and Pavilion complex. What is a winter garden? I don’t think many Australians would have heard of it.

The winter garden dates back to the early modern era where European nobility liked to build a large conservatory. An outside buiding, the conservatory was attached to the main palace, usually featuring large windows and a glass roof. It had two functions: to house luscious plants that wouldn’t normally grow in that climate and to become an extension of the sociable living space.

By the later Victorian era, winter gardens were no longer restricted to private residence; many were built for the wider public, for social gatherings. The Crystal Palace opened in 1851, for example, full of  iron and shaped glass. The gardens still sustained semi-tropical plants and birds through the colder months but they could now include theatres, tea rooms and other commercial outlets.

By the late 19th century, winter gardens had three defining factors:
1. they continued to grow warm-climate plants in a cool country;
2. they had space for music, pleasure and strolling inside the building; and
3. they were made of vast areas of glass to maximise the natural light and the natural views.

So Weston needed a venue specifically designed to provide entertainment and greenery all year round, regardless of the weather. The popular architectural style for seaside facilities in the 1920s was the classical or neo Georgian, and Weston-super-Mare wanted lots of classical pillars. The front façade had to be striking.

In July 1927 the Winter Gardens and Pavilion were officially opened in a very grand ceremony by Ernest Palmer, deputy chairman of the Great Western Railway. The complex could not have been placed in a better location: along Royal Parade, next to the Town Square Gardens and in a prominent position at the heart of Weston's seafront. UK Historical Photos shows how extensive the planted grounds behind the Winter Garden building were.

The gardens behind Weston's pavilion in 1927

These Winter Gardens were expanded and refurbished in 1989. The balls and tea dances still take place, but now the conference market is more important. The piers in Weston were not so fortunate.

Weston-super-Mare was not the only British town that had a winter garden. Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens opened in 1846 as a museum. In 1879 the Museum moved to a new larger building that included a library and winter garden based on the model of the Crystal Palace.

The People's Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow is a complex that was opened in 1898. The ground floor  contained reading and recreation rooms, while the upper floors had a museum and an art gallery. The Winter Gardens are in a glass confection at the back of the building.

Morecambe Winter Gardens Lancashire, which were built as the Victoria Pavilion Theatre in 1897, were extended to a grand Winter Gardens complex complete with baths, bars and a ballroom.

People's Palace and Winter Gardens, Glasgow, opened 1898

The Southport Winter Gardens was a Victorian entertainment complex, built under impressive glass domes, in Merseyside Lancashire. The original winter gardens had every entertainment facility possible, a theatre, aquarium, zoo, conservatory, music halls and walk ways. The Winter Gardens were opened in the late summer of 1874, being made up of two connected sections: a] The huge Pavilion and b] the huge, glass Winter Garden. Ever flexible, the Winter Garden was later converted into a ballroom and roller skating rink, and the Pavilion became a cinema.

The Winter Gardens complex in Blackpool was officially opened in July 1878. The original intention was "to place on the land a concert room, promenades, conservatories and other accessories calculated to convert the estate into a pleasant lounge, especially desirous during inclement days". Building went on apace. The Pavilion Theatre came first, then the Opera House Theatre opened in 1889 and the Empress Ballroom was built in 1896. Even during the Inter-War years, bars and halls were being added.

These pleasure complexes, and others, have been greatly changed since their heyday in the late 19th century. Southport might have been Britain’s first seaside Winter Garden, but it didn’t prevent demolition. The Winter Gardens were razed just before WW2 (1933) and the Pavilion after WW2 (1962). The splendid Rothesay Winter Gardens on the Isle of Bute were built in 1924 when Bute was popular with tourists. After decades of dereliction, Rothesay's winter gardens were redeveloped in the 1990s; at least people can use the 90-seat theatre/cinema now.

Southport Winter Gardens, opened 1874

St Moritz: white turf racing

By 1883 it looked as if Davos had positioned itself as the premier resort for fun-loving snow-sports fans in Switzerland's winter wonderland. Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, amongst others, sang the praises of Davos' crisp mountain air and perfect snow.

But it was St Moritz that became the primary alpine health resort, the place where large scale winter sport and tourism were founded. You would think it would be enough that St Moritz had an idyllic lakeside setting at a high altitude, health-giving mineral springs and 320 days of annual sunshine - the place was snowy bliss on earth. But no, they wanted something very special.

As I found in an early post, the First Cresta Run took over two months to build, and was completed in January 1885.

skijoring today

In 1906, St Moritz again invented a brand new and scary winter sport called skijoring. Nowhere else in the world did thoroughbred horses run their race with jockeys being pulled behind the horses, not sitting on the horses’ backs. The race followed a 10 ks route by road from St. Moritz to Champfèr, and the participants did not start all together, but individually at one-minute intervals.

Ever since skijoring was transferred to the racecourse, it has been run like any other horse race – in a group, horse against horse. This demands a great deal of skiing prowess on the part of the athletes, as well as firm control of the horses. As the organisers admit, the start of the race can be very dangerous. At that point, the reins can easily get tangled up or the thoroughbred horses may not know in which direction they are supposed to run. Chaos can reign, and does.

skijoring, 1928, demonstration sport

The racing programme became enlarged over the years. As well as skijoring, St Moritz has had a galloping event since 1911; a wild, snowy 1,100-m sprint on the flat. In 1922 steeplechasing was added. If you think that steeplechasing in the snow is reckless, I wonder what the competitors' insurance companies think.

In 1923, 5 years before the first ever Winter Olympics were held, they considered the idea of skijoring becoming an Olympic discipline. When the 1928 Winter Olympics were finally held, in St Moritz of all wintry places on earth, skijoring was indeed a demonstration sport. Even today, the organisers still think it is a shame that this mixture of skiing and horse racing has been OFF the Olympic programme agenda since the very beginning of the Winter Games.

white steeple chasing

At least the jockeys wear ski goggles and motocross face masks as protection on the icy track. But what do the horses do, when it is -20c outside? And how do the horses handle the high altitude and the lower oxygen levels?

Although the quality of the horses used in these races has improved and the safety of the 2,700 ms long racecourse on the 60 cm thick ice has been increased, most mothers would not want their children to get involved in skijoring. The rider needs strength, balance and heaps of luck to manage the compressed turf, high speeds and falling snow. Summerhill blog rather tellingly described the participants as courageous young men and women who don skis and are drawn behind horses, at cheek-wobbling speeds.

white trotting

white turf racing on the flat

Trotting races have been added more recently to the St Moritz calendar.

These days, the busiest horse racing season in St Moritz starts in late January every year.  During February,  the White Turf Events take place in front of  some 10,000 spectators for each of the three days of the racing carnival. And record-breaking prize money is awarded to each successful owner, jockey and trainer.

St Moritz hotels

Even the hotels have been serving sports-loving or health-seeking guests since the mid 19th century. As the first guest house in St Moritz, for example, the Kulm Hotel opened for business in 1856. The hotel is appropriately located in a quiet, sunny setting with fine view of the Upper Engadine valley, lakes and mountains.

To show how utterly glamorous the winter sports were, Pullman Editions has a collection of original winter sports posters called Art Deco in the Alps, designed and printed in the 1927-37 period. I have selected those posters that were identifiably advertising winter sports in St Moritz and not, for example, in Davos or Gstaad.