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During the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries the Pleasure Gardens filled a position in the lives of a large proportion of the public comparable with that of the Cinema to-day.

To the great mass of the public, the most general form of evening relaxation was a visit to one or other of these places of resort. Apart from meals of a more or less elaborate nature, and liquid refreshments of various kinds, a great variety of entertainments were provided, varying from displays of horsemanship to exhibitions of paintings. Of these diversions none were more general than fireworks and illuminations. At many gardens fireworks formed a regular feature of the programme, at others, generally less ambitious undertakings, displays were confined to occasions, such as the King’s Birthday.

Space will hardly permit of more than a glance at those resorts situated in the provinces, but a description of those in the London area may be taken as typical.

Captain Marryat, in “Peter Simple,” gives an account of a visit to Postdown Fair, near Portsmouth, and an adjournment to the local Ranelagh Gardens to “see the fireworks.” As the pyrotechnist was behind time, Peter Simple and his friends took it upon themselves to fire the display. “In about half a minute off they all went in the most beautiful confusion; there were silver stars and golden stars, blue lights and Catherine Wheels, Mines and Bombs, Grecian fires and Roman Candles, Chinese Trees, rockets and illuminated mottoes, all firing away, cracking, popping, and fizzing at the same time. It was unanimously agreed that it was a great improvement on the intended show.”

Undoubtedly the gardens best remembered at the present day are Vauxhall and Ranelagh, neither of which were early in the field in presenting firework displays to the public.

The first displays took place at Vauxhall about 1798, more than half a century after their appearance at some of the less famous gardens, and did not become a permanent feature of the programme until 1813. They continued regularly until the final closing of the gardens in 1859, the final item of the programme being “Farewell for Ever” in letters of fire. In 1813 an item in the firework programme was the performance of Madame Saqui, which was to slide down an inclined rope 350 feet long from the top of a mast 60 feet high, erected on the firework platform, enveloped in fireworks. So popular did this exhibition become that it was repeated here by other performers, by Longueman in 1822, and later by Blackmore.

The best-known pyrotechnists connected with Vauxhall were Southby, Mortram, and Hengler, the first display being by an Italian named Invetto.

Pyrotechnic displays at Ranelagh became a prominent feature of the amusements about 1767. The pyrotechnists Angelo, father and son, during that and the following years, helped to establish these displays in popularity, followed by Clithero, Caillot, Brock, Rossi, and Tessier, up to the closing of the gardens in 1805, after which date they appear to have been opened from time to time on special occasions. “The Morning Chronicle” of June 1st, 1812, announces that “By the Authority of the Right Hon. the Lord Chamberlain” these gardens would be open “in Honour of His Majesty’s Birthday, with a grand naval and military Fete, and a superb exhibition of Fireworks.”

An interesting old advertisement, dated 1766: “For the Benefit of the General Lying-in Hospital. The most superb and Magnificent Fireworks ever exhibited at that Place, under the conduct and direction of Mr. Angelo.” It would appear from this that fireworks had been fired at Ranelagh earlier than 1766, but they could not have been a regular feature before 1767.

Cupers Gardens, which stood on the south side of the river, approximately on the site of the Waterloo Bridge approach, were for a long period the scene of popular firework displays. Commencing about 1741, these displays were as elaborate as any of this period. The earlier displays appear to have been conducted by “the ingenious Mr. Worman,” who seems to have relied to a considerable extent on transparencies and scenery; in 1749 and 1750 he reproduced in miniature the firework “machine” or Temple used in the respective official displays in Green Park, and at The Hague for the Aix-la-Chapelle peace celebrations. Other scenic effects were a view of the city of Rhodes with a model of the Colossus; Neptune, issuing from a grotto below drawn by sea-horses, set fire to a pyramid or an “Archimedan worm” and returned.

Clithero was also associated with these displays, producing similar scenic effects, including a naval engagement in 1755, which was the last year of fireworks in these gardens.

The earlier displays at Marylebone Gardens took place about the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1751 a display is announced to take place at eleven o’clock, and “a large collection” of fireworks was advertised in 1753. Some at least of these earlier displays were fired by Brock, whose son, later on, worked here in conjunction with Torré. In 1769 the displays were under the direction of Rossi and Clanfield. From 1772 to 1774 was the most successful period of the fireworks at these gardens; they were then under the direction of Torré. A popular item, afterwards copied by Marinari at Ranelagh, was the “Forge of Vulcan,” a scenic display concluding with the eruption of Mount Etna.

On the occasion of Torré’s benefit, in 1772, there was a further exhibition of this kind, representing Hercules delivering Theseus from Hell.

During this period attempts were made by neighbouring residents to stop the displays as a nuisance, but nothing came of it, and the fireworks continued.

At the annual festival in 1772, the display included a temple of “upwards of 10,000 cases of different fires, all lighted at the same time.”

Other pyrotechnists firing at the gardens were Clithero and Caillot, both of whom had conducted displays at Ranelagh, the latter being responsible for the fireworks up to the closing of the gardens about 1778.

It is recorded that Dr. Johnson once visited the gardens on a firework night, but unfortunately a wet one, and notice was given to the handful of visitors that the fireworks were wet and the display would be cancelled. The doctor, however, was of opinion that it was a “mere excuse to save their crackers for a more profitable company,” and suggested that a threat to break the lamps would result in the show being forthcoming. Some young men standing by endeavoured, under his direction, to ignite the pieces, but unsuccessfully.

The Mulberry Gardens, Clerkenwell, were among the earliest to make fireworks a feature. Displays took place from the opening in 1742, and ten years later Clanfield gave a display each evening.

Two neighbouring taverns, “Lord Cobham’s Head” and the “Sir John Oldcastle,” had displays from 1744, and in 1751 “New fireworks in the Chinese manner” were announced at the latter establishment.

The New Wells, in the same neighbourhood as the foregoing, had had a display as early as 1740, but it appears to have been of a scenic nature, representing the Siege of Portobello.

The “Star and Garter,” Chelsea, advertised displays by Signor Genovini of Rome, in 1762, and “Jenny’s Whim,” in the same neighbourhood, had displays somewhat earlier, the place having been established as a pleasure resort by a pyrotechnist.

Cromwell Gardens, in the vicinity of the present Cromwell Road, had what appears to have been a small display in 1784.

Rossi and Tessier, the pyrotechnists of Ranelagh, gave displays at the Bermondsey Spa Gardens in 1792. A representation of the Siege of Gibraltar was given, and on September 28th of that year, “by special desire the Battle of the Fiery Dragons, and the line comet to come from the Rock of Gibraltar and cause the Dragons to engage.” Brock also gave displays here later.

Finch’s Grotto Gardens, whose site is now occupied by the headquarters of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Southwark, had occasional displays of fireworks about 1770, as did the Temple of Flora in the Westminster Bridge Road, about the same date. Clithero advertised a display of fireworks at Jamaica House, Rotherhithe, in 1762.

A Peace Celebration display is announced for February 7th, 1749, to “be play’d off this evening in the Field adjoining to the Tavern called Bob’s Hall.”

In 1788 Astley senior advertises, to take place at the Royal Grove and Astley’s Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge, a “Double Display of Fire-Works.... Numerous Devices prepared in the usual way from Powder, etc., which will be alternatively played off with the new-invented Philosophical Fire-Works, under the direction of Mons. Henry, the inventor and Professor of Natural Philosophy from Paris.”

The same year he announces a display “on the Thames immediately after Astley’s Exhibition in Honour of His Majesty’s Birth-day,” and concludes by saying “the Fireworks are made under the Direction of Mr. Astley, by Messrs. Cobonell & Son, who will let them off on the Thames this evening at different signals from Mr. Astley, Sen., who will be mounted on the Gibraltar Charger, placed in a Barge, in the Front of the line of Fireworks.”

Firework Temple at Vauxhall, 1845. From a woodcut in “The Illustrated London News.”

The “Philosophical fireworks” above mentioned were evidently an imitation of those exhibited at the Lyceum by Diller, which he describes as “Philosophical Fireworks from Inflammable Air without smell, smoke or Detonation.” These appear to have been nothing more than gas jets arranged in patterns and designs, some revolving and some stationary. Air was forced from a bladder through a sponge saturated with ether. Movement and variation were produced by turning on and off the gas from separate sets of holes. Two colours only appear to have been produced—rose and green; these were by the addition of strontia and baryta or copper.

A handbill is in existence advertising a similar display at Hull in 1804, by W. Clarke.

During the early part of the nineteenth century several gardens round London made a feature of pyrotechnic displays. The Mermaid Gardens, Hackney, in “The Morning Chronicle” of June 1st, 1812, announces “the greatest feast for the eye ever exhibited is a superb firework by that unparalleled artist, Mr. Brock, Engineer.”

The Yorkshire Stingo and Bayswater Tea Gardens in the west gave displays up to the early forties. White Conduit House, in the Islington district, had firework displays from 1824 up to shortly before the closing of these gardens in 1849.

Rosherville Gardens, opened in 1837, the North Woolwich Gardens, the Eagle, 1825–82, the Globe, Mile End, the Cremorne, 1843–77, all had their firework displays. The best known, however, for this feature were the Surrey Zoological Gardens, 1831–56, where Southby, of Vauxhall, conducted displays for several years, producing pyrotechnic and scenic displays there. In 1841 he gave a reproduction of the fireworks of St. Angelo, and the Illumination of St. Peter’s, Rome, which proved a great attraction to the gardens.

In the provinces the Belvue Gardens, Manchester, and the Clifton Zoological Gardens, Bristol, have made a feature of firework displays in their list of attractions, those at the latter being carried out in 1835 by Gyngell.

The famous Cremorne Gardens made a feature of pyrotechnic displays and spectacles of the scenic type with more or less regularity from their opening in 1846 down to the final closing owing to public petition in 1877. The earlier displays were carried out by Mortram and Duffel.

Firework displays of a somewhat more ambitious nature have been given from time to time at the Alexandra Palace, no doubt in emulation of the historic Crystal Palace displays, which are dealt with in the ensuing chapter.