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.

Australian Bandstands in the Federation Era

Who in the blogging world might be interested in Victorian-era bandstands? Leaves of Grass blog has the most amazing coll­ection of Brasil’s bandstands I've seen. They had various shapes, colours and building materials, one more splendid than the next. Alas she did not include any building dates. Carol­ine's Miscellany examined the source of Taunton (1895) and Bridgwater (1908)’s late 19th century Bandstands. Her examination of British sites inspired my search for Australian equivalents. Clueless in Boston presented a truly lovely image of Parkman Bandstand 1912 in Boston Common.

The best collection of British Edwardian band stands is in Rose C'est La Vie blog. Rose loved the bandstands because "they're whimsical in design, sometimes oriental, sometimes wedding cakey, and evocative of the innocent pleasures of promenading on a fine day and settling down on a deckchair to listen to a very jolly brass band, a military orchestra, local musicians."

In my state, Victoria, Johnstone Park Geelong was created in March 1872. In December that year, the first band concert was held by a local military band. Then an octagonal wooden bandstand was built right in centre of the park as early as November 1873. As soon as WW1 ended, a war memorial was built in the centre of the park as a memorial to the fine young men killed in battle, and the old bandstand was modernised.

Geelong, Johnstone Park

The late 1870s saw the discovery of deep leads of gold in the Creswick region and these underground mines brought further wealth to the town. This enabled solid public buildings to be constructed, as well as the development of public open spaces, like Park Lake. Creswick Jubilee Bandstand 1879 was erected to celebrate Queen Victor­ia's Diamond Jubilee. It dominated the town's open area in the centre.

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Creswick Jubilee Bandstand

Oppos­ite the Beaufort gardens was an octagonal band rotunda 1903, build to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Reign. The Beaufort rotunda was crowned by an octagonal lantern with iron-grille décor­ation and a four-faced clock. Queen Victoria’s death created a virtual cottage industry. The rotunda built as her memorial and opened in Buninyong in 1901 was the earliest memorial in this state, and preceded the band­stands built in Beaufort 1903, Bendigo 1903, Geelong 1904 and Melbourne 1907.

An attractive and slightly differently shaped bandstand was built in Burra in 1911. This small South Australian town wanted to honour King Edward VII.

Beaufort Rotunda

Sturt St Ballarat already had beautiful blue gums, grown for 45 years before the first bandstand was designed. By 1905 the cent­re of Sturt St looked like an interlinked group of lovely gardens. The position was perfect. Queen Alexander Bandstand 1908 was named by the Duke of York after his mother, wife of King Edward VII. It was an innovative bandstand de­sign, using a polygonal form surmounted by a Moor­ish onion dome. The bandstand had very fine wrought iron decoration that, approp­riat­e­ly, included musical motifs. Built during the heyday of the band move­ment, it is now one of the few remaining examples of Edwardian band­stands in Victoria and reminds us of a popular form of outdoor entertainment.

For an amazing bandstand that looks like small Edwardian house, examine New Farm Park in Brisabne in Your Brisbane blog. The park was taken over in 1913 by the Council, and they added this handsome bandstand and a kiosk. It has more gables and more timber lace work than my grandmother's house.

Ballarat's Titanic Memorial Bandstand 1915 was another unusual example of creative bandstand design in rural Australia, an exotic composition with orientalist roofs. Designed by local architect, GW Clegg and man­u­factured at a local foundry, the Titanic Bandstand has survived well. It was created as a memorial to the SS Titanic disaster, in particular to those musicians who heroically continued playing as the unsinkable ship sunk.

Ballarat, Queen Alexander (left) and Titanic Memorial (right) bandstands *

Since the royals were 15,000 ks away and there were very few Australians lost on the Titanic, we might ask why there was a rush to spend community money on bandstands? Listening to music played by the town band was a popular form of amusement in the Edwardian period and most municip­alities thought the money would be well spent. And perhaps there was a pride in nationalism, in quietly and democratically uniting the Australian states into one Federation.

Or the connection to WW1. The Port Melbourne war memorial is an octagonal brick band stand with a metal roof and steps on the north side. An inlaid marble tablet from the Port Melbourne Women's Welcome Home Committee honours the gallant Australians who fought in the Great War 1914 - 1918.

The only bandstand and park image I have from the turn of the century was taken in Hyde Park Sydney.

Sydney, Hyde Park

These late Victorian and Edwardian structures, within their well-developed gardens, have now been given heritage protection. At the time, the bandstands, iron seating and garden displays must have given great pleasure to ordinary families, every summer.

Santa Barbara Mission, historical gardens

lawns around Santa Barbara Mission

Old Mission Santa Barbara, established in 1786 on the site of an old Indian pueblo, was one of the chain of 21 Franciscan Alta California missions established by the Spanish. Eventually they stretched up the Californian coast, along the 966ks-long el Camino Real. As with all the missions founded by the Spanish in this and other parts of New Spain, Santa Barbara arose from the need to control Spain's ever-expanding holdings.

But the government and Church also realised the colonies would require a literate population base that Spain could not supply. So some 300,000 indigenous Americans had to: learn Spanish, develop vocations and adopt Christianity.

Since 2003, Santa Barbara Mission has developed a special outdoor museum called La Huerta Historic Gardens. This orchard-garden was built as a collection point for the disappearing plants of California’s mission period, 1769-1834. Only plants that were specifically documented during the mission era are allowed in the Huerta.

La Huerta historic kitchen gardens, Santa Barbara Mission

As well as plants imported by the Spanish, the huerta also contains a collection of plants grown and used by the local indigenous people, the Chumash. Virginia Hayes showed that plants grown during the mission era have been discovered through research into the writings of the church officials, visitors and residents. They reveal an astonishing array of non-native as well as native plants that were cultivated on mission property eg corn, cauliflower, lentils and garlic which grew as early as 1769.

Next came grapes, barley, wheat, lettuce, figs, peppers, squash, pumpkins, beans and onions. Then apples, pomegranates and oranges. Herbs and medicinal plants such as basil, sage, thyme, cilantro, cumin, mint, lavender, rosemary, dill and valerian all grew in the Huerta.

Utilitarian plants valued for fibre included agave, cotton, flax and hemp. Palm fronds provided thatch and brooms. Gourds were cured and carved into bowls, acacia and Peruvian pepper tree sap was used for glue and castor beans were processed for medicinal oil. Native trees were harvested for their wood.

Today the Huerta is showing visitors that plants have always spread from country to country, bringing with them different cultural, medical and gastronomic benefits. The Spanish arrived in southern California with their plants already on board. As early as Columbus’ second voyage to Hispaniola in 1493, cuttings of 20 plant varieties were brought over on the 17 ships, as well as live stock.

La Huerta historic orchards, Santa Barbara Mission

Columbus also brought with him some cuttings of sugar cane which were planted in Santo Domingo. And Columbus took back New World exotica with him eg chilli peppers, cacao plants and maize.  Within just 20 years, crates of Hispaniola sugar were already being shipped home to the Iberian peninsula. Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, also became an influential sugar producer and these plantations had an enormous impact on the economy of the New World.

In my last Spanish Mission post I was fascinated to note that the goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. So crop farming was the most important industry of any mission. Each mission had to create its own kitchen gardens, orchards and vineyards. The Mission grape in particular became very famous in California. The Mission olive even more so.

Old Mission Santa Barbara still occupies over 10 acres of beautifully manicured modern gardens, lawns and rose bushes. It has a number of worthy aims, including being a spiritual centre; educating and serving; promoting the arts and cultural heritage; advancing ecumenism and being a reconciling presence in the community. But arguably their most important work is the Huerta project ie the repository garden for historic plants from the Mission era. As well as organised tours for students etc, there are Open House days where docents/volunteer guides take visitors around La Huerta.

Garden Design: Cloudehill

Cloudehill is a 2 hectare garden in the Dandenong Ranges, just on the edge of suburban Melbourne. Waverley Arts Society blog wrote Cloudehill Garden was a work of art. In the 1890s the Woolrich family cleared bush in Olinda to create a working fruit garden. Then in the early 1920s, they established Rangeview Nursery and developed a cut flower and foliage farm. The family prospered for many years, however in 1962 bushfires devastated the farm and the business languished.

Jeremy Francis had long sought land in the Dandenongs to create a garden. He was introduced to the owner Jim Woolrich, the last of the second generation of the family, and learned much of the history of the nursery trade. After Jim's death, the family offered the property to Jeremy and in 1992 Cloudehill was established. The new owner decided to create a Garden of Eden, based on the established design principles that arose out of Arts and Crafts gardens. Everything was planned: the paths, the trees, the flowers, the sculpture etc.

I'm not familiar with garden design principles, so Katya at Bosco Parrasio blog was super.  “Cloudehill is inspired by the famous arts and crafts gardens of England: Sissinghurst, Hidcote, Tintinhull and others. These, in turn, are derived from the renais­sance gardens of Italy such as Villa D'este and Villa Lante. Our green theatre is a tribute to those magnificent Italian hill gardens. Of course Cloudehill's location, with its gentle slopes, the dramatic forest to one side and exhilarating views to the mountains, provide plenty of inspiration and the placing of art works into the gardens give a contemporary twist to a classic design”. With the daffodils, she said, we see the change from the structured to the naturalistic.

See photos of Sissinghurst gardens, created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson, in Gardens of a Golden Afternoon. Examine Bishop's Gate which connects the Tower Lawn to the White Garden - the plants are not Australian, but the vistas and garden architecture are familiar.

Intelligblog noted that Cloudehill was laid out in about 20 rooms or garden compartments, all on different levels and linked by paths. Each compartment has its own theme, but there are also integrating elements, like brick and stonework, lined by herbaceous borders and clipped hedges that make each compartment feel an essential component of an integrated whole. Water features and art pieces were the modernising highlight for Nicholas.

VARPORIUM CENTRAL blog suggested “to see the perennial borders at their best on a clear morning after rain with the mist rising and melting is nothing short of miraculous. Flora Aik blog was just mesmerised with the estate.

If there is any disagreement, it is over the sculpture. In a new experimental part of the garden where it is too steep to walk, the new owner has used C17th Italian commedia dell'arte figures by Lazlo Biro to create what he hoped would be a really bold element and a wonderful focal point. Perhaps C17th gardens in northern Italy really did have lawned spaces where commedia dell'arte troupes played. But for me they didn’t fit into C21st Melbourne. The hugs garden pots, on the other hand, were wonderful.

p.s People interested in the art of landscaping might like to look at a blog called Corporate Stay Solutions.

The Little Red Book....... of garden design.

As 18th century started, splendid country homes in Britain had formalised French gardens with straight lines and clipped everything. But as the century progressed, English landscaping became influenced by the landscape paintings that thousands of Grand Tourists had loved in Italy. Claude and Poussin’s view of the Roman Campagna inspired naturalistic garden design by the great landscaping names of the era - Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, Lancelot Capability Brown, Henry Holland and Humphrey Repton.
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  Beaudesert, Staffordshire, a painting by Humphry Repton. 

Found in Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1816

The aristocracy wanted to build for themselves a peaceful Arcadian world that looked as natural and unplanned as God originally made it. The popularity of Capability Brown (1715-1783)’s serpentine style peaked in the 1760s and 1770s. So by the time Capability Brown died in 1783, he had bequeathed rural Britain an unbeatable legacy.

His design successor in the next generation was Humphry Repton (1752-1818) from Bury St Edmonds. Repton had written to many people he had known while he was living in Ireland, and had offered his services as an Improver of the Landscape. He soon had steady work including working on Cobham in Kent and Ashridge in Hereford. Sheffield Park Garden in Sussex, a beautiful location all year, was the result of both Brown’s work AND later Repton’s. The owners loved the lakes, cascades and waterfalls.

Repton went beyond the scope of Brown, to include a vision of the house itself and its place in the surrounding landscape. Sometimes that was literally so. In Sheringham Hall Norfolk, for example, Repton had responsibility for some of the architecture, as well as for the landscaping.

Landscapes of Taste,
written by André Rogger in 2007.

Repton coined the term Landscape Garden to describe the natural style of gardening which he felt required "the united powers of the landscape painter and the practical gardener." He introduced a softer Italian style to the English country homes, adding terraces, gravel walks, trellises, fountains and separate flower gardens. [Capability Brown would not have been pleased]. Repton also replaced the earlier classical ornaments with romantic structures like grottoes and fake ruins. We can best see this trend in the largely unchanged Repton gardens at Betchworth House Surrey.

In a sense, then, Humphrey Repton was the link between the Natural Landscape of the earlier decades of the 18th century and the return to Formality that characterised the end of the same century.

While designing a landscape for a client, Repton always created a Red Book of the estate. This was a slim volume bound in red leather and presented to the client. It contained Repton’s proposals for changes, outlined in copperplate and filled with maps, plans, drawings and water-colours to illustrate his ideas. More than a hundred of the Red Books survive, a clear indication of their importance to Repton’s 18th century clients.

I want to mention only four estates and therefore four Red Books. Repton said that one of his more important commissions was for Stoneleigh Abbey, and in his Red Book for that project, he expressed the quality of the site: “I look upon Stoneleigh Abbey as a place not to be compared to any other. Of course he WOULD say that, especially in a book that was handed to the proud owner of Stoneleigh. Sheringham Park in Norfolk received a similarly ringing endorsement. In his July 1812 Red Book, Repton described Sheringham as his favourite and darling child in Norfolk. Advertising hype was not invented in the 1950s!

I would love to have seen the Red Book for Sheffield Park Garden, had one survived.  Repton certainly visited several times in 1789 and 1790, and seems to have concentrated his efforts near the house where he created the loveliest lakes. Instead, Tim Longville recommended that we examine the Red Book for Mulgrave Castle in Whitby. In it, Repton delighted over the effect of the romantic scene in the glens, with fresh water rivulets and cascades.

Repton is largely known to history because he created, transformed or improved 200+ country homes. So what role did the Red Books play? To Repton, the Red Book was his main working tool. To the home owner, the book was a step-by-step album, documenting progress towards the final, gorgeous landscaping product. And to landscape historians the Red Books are historical texts in their own right, allowing an entirely new genre of landscape appraisal.

Repton also wrote five important books (eg Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening, 1794) which were published using the most valuable material from his Red Books. Read Landscapes of Taste: The Art of Humphry Repton's Red Books which was written by André Rogger and published by Routledge in 2007. Here Rogger argued that Repton’s main artistic achievement was actually the text-and-image concept of his Red Books, NOT his gardens.

Red Book for Vinters, Kent, 1797.

In Yale Centre for British Art.

In the top watercolour painting of Vinters in Kent, Repton gave the original view of the estate. In the bottom painting, he presented a watercolour, pen and ink view of the same estate in the future, assuming his landscaping design was fully adopted.

The High Line, New York: an urban park in the sky

The High Line was built under an agreement between the New York Central Railroad, New York State and New York City, to elevate dangerous and congesting railroad traffic ABOVE city streets. It was used to transport freight along the Westside waterfront, replacing the street-level tracks at 10th and 11th Aves. Built in 1929 at a cost of $150 million ($2 billion today), it originally stretched from 35th Street to St. John's Park Terminal, now the Holland Tunnel rotary. It mostly ran mid-block, designed to avoid dominating an avenue with an elevated platform. The warehouses and markets in the Meatpacking District were major users of the freight line.

The viaduct was raised off the ground in 1929, to serve the Meat Packing District

Actually The High Line was part of the larger solution, known as the West Side Improvement Project, which was completed in 1934. The West Side Improvement Project, which included the construction of the Henry Hudson Parkway, stretched for 21 ks; it extended from the  Riverdale section of the Bronx at its northern edge... to Spring Street at the south. It eliminated 105 street crossings, added 32 acres to Riverside Park, and brought food and merchandise into the city.

The rise of trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail freight on the High Line, and in the 1960s, the southernmost portion was torn down. The final train carried freight down the High Line in 1980. In 1993, more of the viaduct, between Bank and Little West 12th Sts, was demolished.

Although the elevated structure is basically sound, the abandoned 3 ks stretch of railroad viaduct was ugly and overgrown with weeds. Worse, it was accessible only to those who risked life and limb, trespassing on Railroad property. It was mostly forgotten, except by architects, conservationists and neighbours who were mesmerised by its solitude and wild quality.

In 1999 the Giuliani administration signed an agreement joining the property owners’ move to DEMOLISH the rusting and ugly High Line. So a community-based group, Friends of the High Line, immediately got itself established. Locals Robert Hammond and Joshua David created plans to turn the High Line into an elevated park or greenway, similar to an unused rail viaduct in Paris’ 12th arrondissement that became the Promenade Plantée. The Municipal Art Society, American Institute of Architects, the Society for Industrial Archaeology, the New York chapters of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects also urged preservation.

Sunbaking in the greenery, just next to where High Line meanders through Chelsea Market

In 2004, the New York City government committed $50 million to establish the proposed park. A design competition was conducted, attracting 720 entries from 36 countries, and in July 2004 the four finalists’ proposals went on display at the Centre for Architecture on LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village. The semi finalists included plans for all sorts of facilities - high-flying pools, wetlands, outdoor art projects, bicycle paths and nature trails.

At places where the High Line went through buildings, like the former National Biscuit Company building that is now the Chelsea Market, the decision-makers were open to commercial uses for the High Line. This was presumably to generate income to maintain the project.

In April 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided over a groundbreaking ceremony, marking the beginning of construction on the High Line project. By early 2007, most of the old rail tracks had been removed, making way for the elevated park.

By mid 2008 a natural oasis was created in an urban city. This southern section included five access stairways and three elevators. A hotel developer built The Standard Hotel,  straddling the High Line at Little West 12th St. The Gansevoort Street terminus at the south end of the High Line was considered for a new museum by a number of organisations.

The new Standard Hotel straddles the old High Line

In June 2011 another ribbon cutting ceremony to open the High Line's second section, from 20th Street to 30th Street, was held. This time the mayor, politicians and dignitaries were all there.

The High Line Channel features art films and videos, including historic works, new productions and curated series. During the High Line’s regular operating hours, the Channel can be viewed from the Seating Steps at West 22nd St.

Having a 22-block elevated urban park that connected neighbourhoods and provided a special sense of place… was a unique and transformative public experience. I actually believe it was a radical demonstration of people-power and local planning. What an interesting premise - that an open space can be at the heart of neighbourhood revitalisation.

Can there be further growth in the future? Of course. Someone may be inspired to built a beach on the High Line, or a golf course, or a music bowl. Architect Steven Holl hopes one day to make the High Line part of a green loop, connected to the new Hudson River Park by a series of pedestrian bridges that would soar above the fierce traffic of West Street. The sky is the limit!

The sense of wild plants has been maintained

And High Line has had important financial considerations as well. Like the Promenade Plantée in Paris, High Line has spurred the construction of domestic and commercial buildings in the surrounding area. 8000 construction jobs were created on High Line itself, and many more on other neighbourhood developments. Two million people a year visit the structure, half of them tourists. Needless to say, citizens in other American cities are now looking very carefully at their own rusty, industrial hulks.

C19th ferneries, greenhouses & conservatories

It is said that by the late Georgian years, everyone in England was becoming excited about the science of exotic plants: collecting, studying and classifying specimens from all over the world. In time it was ferns that fascinated country home residents and gentlemen botanists.

Bicton Park palm house, 1820

The Palm House at Bicton Park in Devon is the earliest glass structure I could find. It dates back to the 1820s and was amazingly constructed using 18,000 panes of glass. 1st Baron Rolle must have been passionate about things horticultural because he also commissioned a hermitage garden, rose gardens, fernery and a pinetum for conifers.

The architect, John Loudon, was said to make the domical conservatory his signature shape. He wrote booklets on the construction of hot houses in 1805, 1817 and 1818, and greatly influenced Joseph Paxton who erected his great conservatory at Chatsworth at least 15 years after Bicton Park was completed.

The availability of cast iron and mass-produced glass to build large glass houses for growing tender and exotic plants could not have come at a better time. The loveliest part of Syon Park's gardens was the Great Conservatory. The 3rd Duke of Northumberland commissioned Charles Fowler to build a new conservatory in 1826, one of the first of its kind to be built out of metal and glass. It was originally designed to act as a show house for the Duke's exotic plants and, like Bicton Park, is said to have inspired Joseph Paxton in his designs for the Crystal Palace.

Syon Park conservatory, 1826-30

Surgeon and amateur naturalist Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward soon realised that he needed to provide a special environment for growing these delicate plants, a micro-climate that was light, airy, warm, moist and pollution free. Not easily achieved, I'd imagine. But he soon popularised large structures for ferns that had glass panes in the sloping roof sections. These could be carried on ships returning from exotic locations, ensuring that collectors back home received their precious speciments in a thriving condition.

James Bateman and his wife Maria, who bought Biddulph Grange in Stoffordshire in 1840, had a passion for plants AND the money to make their botanical dreams come true. Of course it was not difficult when James' father made a fortune in coal mining... and left it all to James. Nonetheless Bateman had every single explorer and scientist who ever sailed to Egypt, China, North America and other lands bring back fabulous botanical samples. This Victorian plant-hunter became an expert botanist, especially re pines, orchids, dahlias, ferns, azaleas and rhododendrons.

In the late 1830s Joseph Paxton, 6th Duke of Devonshire’s estate manager, built a wonderful conservatory at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire (now destroyed). This was the largest glass building in the world, at the time.

Palm House, Kew, 1844-8

Temperate House, Kew, 1859-98

Besides educating visitors in the natural world, one of the functions of English green houses at the time was to display the exotic range of plants and flowers that flourished in the British Empire. Inspired by Chatsworth and by the passion for scientific knowledge, architect Decimus Burton and iron founder Richard Turner designed the much larger palm house in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in 1844-48. Palm House was 363’ long, 100’ wide, 66’ high. For big, beautiful photos of Kew Gardens, inside and out of the glass houses, see Architecture of Europe blog.

At Kew Gardens, this summer holiday, they are filling the Palm House with the sounds of the rainforest with Chris Watson’s Whispering in the Leaves sound installation, recreating the rainforests of South and Central America. The education, and the pleasure, continue at Palm House, 160 years after it all started.

In 1859, the Government allocated a substantial budget to build the Temperate House at the Botanic Gardens and directed Decimus Burton to prepare designs for the conservatory. The Treasury was clearly having budgetary problems but the building was finally completed in 1898. Temperate House was the greenhouse that had twice the floor area of the Palm House and is the world's largest surviving Victorian glass structure. It still contains plants from all the world’s temperate regions.

Crystal Palace, interior, 1851

Joseph Paxton achieved great fame by his designs for Crystal Palace, which housed the Great Exhibition in 1851 in Hyde Park London. Crystal Palace was another stunning cast-iron and glass building. It may not have looked very different from previous greenhouses in shape, but it was gigantic compared to earlier structures. It was five times as long as the Palm House in Kew and nearly twice as high.

A very fine collection of gardens was assembled at Tatton Park near Tatton Hall in the beautiful Cheshire Peak District. The first formal gardens were already well established and consisted of a walled garden to the south of the house, a formal semicircular pond to its north and formal lines of trees to the east and west.

But by the 1850s, the Egerton family needed a top quality fernery built, specifically to house their collection of ferns, especially tree ferns, from New Zealand and Australia. Tatton’s fernery and Italian garden, which first appeared in 1859, were designed by the very same Joseph Paxton. And Paxton’s assistant in the Tatton project was his son-in-law, George Stokes. Once again Paxton designed Tatton’s fernery to be a structure of glass and cast iron.

Tatton Park fernery, 1859.

Today the glass houses, fernery and showhouse at Tatton Park are open to visitors. The fernery still contains tree ferns and the showhouse has changing displays of flowering plants. How wonderful that Paxton could find it exactly as he had left it, 150 years ago.

Ballywalter Park conservatory, mid 1860s

Ballywalter Park is located on the outskirts of Ballywalter in Ireland. It is a classic example of an early Victorian county house in the palazzo style. A fine conservatory was added to the garden in the mid 1860s, containing important collections of rhododendrons and roses. The architect Sir Charles Lanyon had considerable experience in designing conservatories - his 1840 palm house at Belfast botanic garden was one of the earliest examples of curvilinear iron & glass construction. The delicate glass dome at Ballywalter Park is both functional and beautiful to look at.

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, exterior

The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, in the park of the Royal Castle in Brussels, were and are a vast complex of monumental heated green houses. The complex was originally commissioned by Belgian King Leopold II, designed by Alphonse Balat and built towards the end of the 19th century (1874-95). The total floor surface of this immense complex is 2.5 hectares so it requires a substantial amount of heating. Unfortunately these greenhouses are not open to the public for most of the year.

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, interior

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Now to something quite different. The first time I saw the Palmenhaus in Vienna’s 1st District, I thought it was a Paxton building... with the shape of Crystal Palace and the role of a greenhouse. The site had been occupied by a greenhouse which was from the 1823-6 era, built according to the designs of architect Ludwig von Remy. The architecture was in neo-Classical style and was actually inspired less by Paxton and more by the orangery of Schönbrunn, the Imperial Summer Palace in Vienna.

Palmenhaus Vienna, exterior and interior

At the turn of the century (1900-1), the first Palmenhaus greenhouse was demolished and a new one built, 128 metres long and 2050 square metres in area. The current Palmenhaus was built by architect Friedrich Ohmann, combining 19th century historicist architecture and the Jugendstil/Art Nouveau taste. Palmenhaus still houses plants of course, but it is today it is better known as a restaurant.

William Morris and Tudor architecture in Adelaide: Carrick Hill

A few C19th South Australians became very rich, owning huge pastoral leases and later investing in very successful copper mines. Robert Barr Smith (1824–1915) was such a pastoralist. At least two Adelaide institutions were substantially funded by this Australian-based son of a Scottish minister: St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral and The University of Adelaide’s very grand Barr Smith Library.

But it was through their collecting that I first heard of the Barr Smith family. From the 1880s on, Robert and Joanna Barr Smith were major clients of William Morris' London shop, furnishing seven of their vast South Australian houses almost exclusively from the firm.

Small Barr carpet, William Morris 1890, now in Art Gallery of SA

hand knotted wool pile, 280 x 280 cm

Robert’s son, Tom Elder Barr-Smith (1863–1941), his wife and their five children used the stately home Wairoa in the Adelaide hills as their summer house for 30 years. During this period the Tom Barr-Smiths made a number of alterations to the house. But most importantly for us, they refurbished the interior of the house with William Morris wallpapers, curtains and rugs.

Today the Art Gallery of South Australia says it holds the most comprehensive collection of Morris & Co furnishings outside Britain; the first and finest of its purchases was a Morris & Co tapestry, The Adoration of the Magi, which arrived in 1917. Later the Gallery has brought together furnishings from the Barr Smiths’ richest rooms, including the large Drawing Room at Torrens Park. Embroideries have been conserved for display, including a large 1890s hanging, designed by May Morris, depicting fruiting trees, birds and foliage in silks. And many new items have been acquired directly from London, including the famous Trellis wallpaper, designed in 1864.

Later in his life, William Morris could publish books with the establishment of his Kelmscott Press in 1890s. Some of these beautiful books, catalogues and pamphlets have now been collected together by the State Library of South Australia.

Carrick Hill house and gardens

So I was looking forward to seeing Carrick Hill, the estate that grew out of the 1935 marriage of members of two of Adelaide's most prominent families: Ursula Barr Smith (1908-70), daughter of our very wealth pastoralists and Edward Bill Hayward (1903-83), son of the wealthy merchant family that owned John Martin's, once Adelaide's greatest department store.

Bill & Ursula honeymooned for a year in Britain. It was then they came across Beaudesert, a grand old Tudor manor house in Staffordshire , owned by the Marquis of Anglesea. As quickly as they could, the honeymooners acquired much of its Tudor and later panelling, doors, staircases and windows. The house was already being destroyed, and the fittings and fixtures would have ended up in the skip, had the young couple not rescued them and sent them in shipping containers to Australia.

When they returned to Australia, Ursula's father gave the couple the land on which Carrick Hill now stands as a wedding present. This was a very substantial gift - 40 hectares of prime real estate with fantastic views of the city. A family friend in Adelaide, architect James Irwin, designed a house for them around Beaudesert’s fittings.

I wonder if Adelaide society noted the inconsistencies in a moderately sized 1930s Australian house complete with Tudor fitted interiors, Arts and Crafts decorative elements and modernist paintings.

The ground floor is dominated by the large panelled hall. Australia's finest collection of antique oak furniture is to be found in the dining room downstairs, where the Haywards lived a British lifestyle. The Jacobean-style staircase is large, very grand and definitely the centre-piece of Carrick Hill. It leads from the grand entry hall to a very decent gallery above, a gallery covered with paintings.

Tudor panelled hall, staircase and art collection

The art in the gallery includes amazing paintings and sculpture. Many of the paintings preserve and celebrate Australia’s British heritage, as analysed in The British Collection at Carrick Hill, ranging from John Dicksee 1876 to Stanley Spencer 1945.  Since most Australians used to believe that it was possible to be both British and Australian, the Hayward collection should not be dismissed out of hand as Anglo-centric. In fact these paintings might specifically enable the modern viewer to critically examine the consequences of colonialism, of empire and of nation building.

Nonetheless it is inevitable that the couple would largely support the contemporary Australian artists they were closest to, especially Russell Drysdale, William Dobell, Donald Friend, Nora Heysen, Jeffrey Smart and Adrian Feint. In time William Dobell introduced them to Patrick White, and their creative circle grew.

Upstairs the bedrooms have an unusual mixture of Georgian furniture and Victorian oak pieces, mostly inherited from Ursula's family, and used to fit in as needed. But the bedrooms are also where daddy’s Arts and Crafts objects are most in evidence; in fact the bedrooms signal William Morris’ only appearance in this house. I wonder why did Bill and Ursula not want to fill their house with her parents’ Arts and Crafts treasures.

Carrick Hill was being built from 1937 on, and within two years the couple had moved in. 1939 was also the year in which Ursula started designing the rather splendid garden, trees, water features and external statues. It is worth repeating that these two very wealthy and cultured Australians established a stylish British way of life; Ursula and Bill’s parties, music and wine must have seemed rather wonderful.

Dining room, set for 10 guests

Carrick Hill was just one of the Haywards' four homes. The one I would most loved to have seen was the townhouse in Mayfair, situated near many of their favourite London art and antique dealers.

The honours rolled in. In 1953 Ursula was appointed as trustree of the Art Gallery of South Australia. In 1961 Edward was knighted for his service to the community and to business. A decade later Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Hayward agreed to bequeath Carrick Hill to the people of the state.

Canada's most spectacular gardens? Vancouver Island

In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was clearly lost to the Vancouver. So the city had to begin cultivating an image of elegant civility within its natural setting and its very mild weather. I suppose the two events that most influenced Victoria’s reputation was a] the opening of the gorgeous Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908 and b] the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens 1904-8, 20 minutes drive north of the city.

Victoria on Vancouver Island, parallel with the Canadian-USA border

The concept of spectacular gardens originated with an effort to improve an unattractive, exhausted limestone quarry site on Robert Butchart’s family estate, pioneers in the manufacture of Portland Cement in Canada. But it was Mrs Jennie Butchart (1866–1950), and not her husband, who devised a plan to have tons of topsoil carted into the pit. In one post-WW1 photo, you can see the old cement works still in place, long after the planting had commenced.

Mrs Butchart personally supervised the beautification programme, starting with the exquisite Sunken Garden in 1904. The best photos show the Sunken Garden as seen from the lip of the old quarry and the Ross Fountain occupies what was the deepest part of the quarry. Note that the fountain wasn’t installed until 1964, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the gardens. The water rises 70’, providing a magnificent display by day, and is brilliantly illuminated at night.

Sunken Garden

Anyhow her project expanded until it covered 50 acres of gardens and provided spectacular views to visitors. Apparently Mrs Butchart had a commitment both to horticulture and to hospitality. By 1908, she had added a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden next to the family’s original home and a fine Rose Garden. Her comments at the time led people to assume she learned of these foreign gardening design principles when overseas, and loved them enough to want to replicate their beauty back at home. Certainly the Japanese Garden was designed by a well known landscape artist who travelled from Japan, specifically at the request of Mrs Butchart.

According to Butchart Garden's own home page, Mr. Butchart took much pride in his wife's remarkable work. He collected ornamental birds from all over the world, kept ducks in the Star Pond and peacocks on the front lawn. He enjoyed training pigeons at the site of the present Begonia Bower, and had many elaborate bird houses stationed throughout Jennie's beautiful gardens.

Ross Fountain, installed in 1964

In the early days of the gardens’ history, weekly symphony concerts were hosted by the owners of the estate. Originally the concerts were planned for the pleasure of the extended family and their guests, but eventually it was opened to paying guests. Even now the Butchart Gardens offers a variety of daily concerts and events in summer. Open air concerts take place on the Concert Lawn stage; visitors are invited to sit on a bench or bring a blanket for the lawns. From there they can watch the on-stage performances and exciting musical nights!

And since 1977, on Saturday nights after the concert, visitors hold their breath for the spectacular Fireworks show. The Gardens staff say visitors are unlikely to see another amazing fireworks show like this anywhere else in North America!!

Japanese Gardens

Every summer evening, visitors are invited to stroll around the gardens as thousands of coloured lights dramatically light up the gardens. Underground wiring installations and fabulous colours made me think of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.

Personally speaking, I have only visited in summer, as part of a family reunion. But apparently in the autumn, the Japanese garden becomes the main attraction as its red, russet and golden maples join with dozens of varieties of chrysanthemums to create an amazing range of autumn colours. Each weekend in October and November, visitors are invited to tour some of Butchart’s 26 greenhouses, which are filled to the brim with Poinsettias and other holiday delights.

Italian Gardens

Another winter-time event that I missed was the Historical Display. Between mid January and mid March, the family residence is open for visitors to view a display of memorabilia displaying the development of the Butchart Garden. Furnishings, correspondence and photographs allow the visitor to step back into the graciousness of the period. Afternoon Teas are appropriately warming.

Australia's own Deco treasure - Burnham Beeches

Burnham Beeches in Sherbrooke was a large home built in the leafy Dandenong Ranges, an hour outside Melbourne. It was designed for the very wealthy Alfred Nicholas (1881 - 1937), a man who made his money by buying his brother's patent for analgesics. Nicholas marketed them under the brand name Aspro, a word that went into the Australian language as a generic headache tablet.

Burnham Beeches, 2010. The original Deco features are still in place, including glass bricks,  zig-zag motifs on the wrought iron work and cantilevered balconies.

The architect, Harry Norris (1888-1966), was a commercial architect in Melbourne in the inter-war era. And he stayed up-to-date by making a number of trips abroad, especially to the USA, to observe modern architectural trends. But probably Norris was given the job because he was a neighbour of the Nicholas family in Melbourne.

Norris was given very explicit instructions – the new house was to have “fresh air, sunshine and an outlook of command, yet under control”. I have no idea what that meant, but being built in the 1930-33 era, the architect had no trouble coming up with an Art Deco design that fitted the bill.

The use of advanced reinforced concrete technology at Burnham Beeches was important; it provided for spiffy Steamlined Deco architectural elements eg cantilevered balconies, wide spans and continuous windows. So like many Deco buildings, the lines of Burnham Beeches really do remind viewers of an ocean liner moving through the water. A zig-zag motif was used on the decorative wrought iron work and on the balcony balustrades. Finally, the white exterior of the house was decorated with Australian fauna motifs in moulded relief panels.

Burnham Beeches, exterior straight after WW2 ended

One element of Burnham Beeches that Alfred Nicholas managed himself was collecting trees for the property. In every city of Australia, he searched for established trees to be purchased and planted. Then he travelled to Britain where he met one of the main gardeners at Kew Gardens, Percival Trevaskis. Percy was offered the position of head gardener at Burnham Beeches and quickly involved himself in designing the garden, rockeries, pools, waterfalls and an ornamental lake. Alas Alfred died in 1937, before the task was quite completed, but the vast majority of the work had been done by then. 

Allow me to mention another connection. In 1938, world renown violinist Yehudi Menuhin married Nola Nicholas, daughter of the George Nicholas (Alfred's brother), and sister of Hephzibah Menuhin's first husband Lindsay Nicholas. When Burnham Beeches was operating as a hotel later on, the main restaurant was aptly named Menuhin’s.

In 1941, right in the worst part of World War II, the house became a children’s hospital. Alfred Nicholas’ widow returned her main home in Melbourne and had Burnham Beeches restored to its pre-institutional standard.

interior Deco features still intact, in 2000

I am not sure why the house was considered too small, but in the decade after World War Two ended, two additional wings were added on. From 1955, the Nicholas Institute used the house as a medical and veterinary research facility, and later this grand old house was converted into a hotel. Even more accommodation units were added to the original building as recently as the 1980s.

In Feb 2010 the property went up for sale, again. Being heritage listed, I cannot imagine a developer trying to sneakily pull the building down in the middle of the night (although it has happened before). But in any case there are 50 guests suites in the renovated building, and even more could be added, with council approval.

gazebo, Alfred Nicholas gardens

I am not a bushwalker, but BOB'S AUSTRALIAN BUSH WALKING JOURNAL recommends walking throughthe acreage near the house. It is known for its extensive water features including waterfalls and an ornamental lake, complete with boat house. These gardens were donated to the Shire of Sherbrooke in 1965 and named the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens. Acquired by Parks Victoria in 1972, a range of restoration projects have been done over the decades, including the rejuvenation of the lake.

The original 12 hectare Burnham Beech estate is still maintained in its utterly gorgeous state, as I can testify personally. I strolled the length of every path in the estate last weekend, concentrating on the spring growth:  mountain ash and liquid ambers of course, but also the flowering azaleas, viburnum and cherry trees.

A Wonder House in the Hills: the History of Burnham Beeches was written by Deborah Lee Tout-Smith, 1993.

paths wander throughout the Alfred Nicholas gardens