Commodious Furniture

In times when flushing toilets were rare and indoor plumbing even rarer, people used a close stool instead. This was an enclos­ed cab­in­et at chair-height with a hole in the top; then the entire unit was covered on top by a hinged outer lid. A ceramic chamber pot sat inside the close stool.

17th century close stool, oak

The close stool gave way to the night table or night commode, Vict­orian terms that readers will be more familiar with. The night commode, however, had two advantages over the close stool. Firstly it was a closed cabinet and chamberpot that sat next to the bed. This would have been particularly important in winter. Second­ly its marble or timber top served as a washstand for a basin and water pitcher. By Victorian times, hygeine was seen to be more important, as well as more pleasant.

Presumably families with access to good quality furniture in the rest of their home would have selected top quality close stools and commodes.

Georgian close stool, mahogany with leather book lid.

I have seen many close stools and night commodes over the years, but I have never seen one like a night stool that was on offer at Sotheby’s London in April 2009 (Classic English Furniture: The Norman Adams Legacy 1923-2009). The mahogany stool and hinged lid had a large, shaped apron on all sides to hide the enclosed pot, and stood on cabriole legs with pad feet. But the lid wasn’t timber or tapestry as we'd normally expect. Instead it had been crafted in the form of a large leather book with marbled pages.

Country Life, reviewing the piece 6/5/2009, said it "was perhaps intended for a bibliophile too immersed in his studies to leave the library for relief". I thought it was the most wonderful literary reference I've seen in furniture.

Victorian night table, walnut and marble top

A Connoisseur’s Corner discovered an 18th century chair that was originally the toilet of a cashed-up Philadelphia gent. The deep side panels along the seat frame concealed the chamber pot that would have been inserted in the well of the wood platform. The upholstered seat was placed on top, partially to hide the chamber pot and partially, I would imagine, to look attractive. In the inter-war period a dealer converted the object into a proper drawing room chair by reducing the length of the apron around the seat frame and by eliminating the platform into which the chamber pot would have been inserted.

C18th Pleasure Gardens: Love in a Cool Climate

Pleasure gardens in a cool climate could only have been used for a short season each year. In Copenhagen, for example, locals and tour­ists knew exactly the dates when Tivoli Gardens opened and closed each year. Yet I cannot find the definitive seasonal dates for Vauxhaul or Ran­elagh and only one source even suggested an opening date each year (1st May). I will write to Vic at Jane Austen's World for information.

In the meantime, many questions remain:
a] how did potential customers know when the gardens were open? Was there advertising in general newspapers? In more exclusive sites?

b] if it rained or was too cold on a particular summer evening, did the customers not turn up? If they turned up anyhow, were there spaces in­side warm buildings where they could eat, drink and listen to music?

c] if the season each year was too short, how did owners make enough money to keep the gardens fully functioning?

d] only one source mentioned a handsome banqueting room where, pres­umably, people would eat as if it was a large, public restaurant. This was very different from an intimate box for 8 people where Sam­uel Johnson and his intimate friends used to sup together.

e] how did the gardens’ owners maintain a high standard of clientele? Was there a guard at the entrance, asking people in tacky clothing to go home? Was the entrance fee high enough to keep out all but the most comfortable of families.

Ran­elagh Gardens Chelsea, in The Gentleman's Magazine c1760, Published by Sylvanus Urban Gent., London

Barbara at the Early American Gardens blog provided some useful answers. “Since you have read Green Retreats & other sources, you know that the gardens were usually owned by those who also had a hand in other businesses, especially entertainment enterprises. They factored the weather into their operating expenses.

Audiences in London had been accustomed to going out to entert­ain­ments in large numbers for decades before 1660. In 1600, there were about 200,000 people living in London and its environs. By that year, there were several public playhouses (including The Globe) and per­for­mances at court, plus troupes of transient players passing through. A conservative estimate has over 3,000 Londoners attending the theater each day, 15,000 per week.

The public pleasure garden with its drinks, skits and games would be an additional venue for a public which had a tradition of going out and which had lived under some strict social controls for a while. Seems like 1660 was just the perfect year to open a public pleasure garden and begin celebrating. Emblems in Commercial Pleasure Gardens

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.