
Ranelagh Gardens (; alternative spellings include Ranelegh and Ranleigh, the latter reflecting the English pronunciation) were public
pleasure gardens
A pleasure garden is a park or garden that is open to the public for recreation and entertainment. Pleasure gardens differ from other public gardens by serving as venues for entertainment, variously featuring such attractions as concert halls, b ...
located in
Chelsea, then just outside
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England, in the 18th century.
History
The Ranelagh Gardens were so called because they occupied the site of Ranelagh House, built in 1688–89 by
The 1st Earl of Ranelagh, an
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
peer who was the Treasurer of
Chelsea Hospital
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is an Old Soldiers' retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse — the ancient sense of the word "hospital" — by King Charles II in 1682, it is a site ...
(1685–1702), immediately adjoining the hospital; according to Bowack's ''Antiquities of Middlesex'' (1705), it was "Designed and built by himself".Ranelagh House was demolished in 1805 (Colvin 1995, p. 561). The original Ranelagh () was one of the Earl's Irish estates: a similar pleasure garden was opened near
Dublin city, and this gives its name to the present-day suburb of
Ranelagh
Ranelagh ( , ; , ) is an affluent residential area and urban village on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland in the postal district of Dublin 6.
Ranelagh was originally a village called Cullenswood. It has a history of conflict, including the at ...
.
In 1741, the house and grounds were purchased by a syndicate led by the proprietor of the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and listed building, Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) an ...
, and Sir
Thomas Robinson MP, and the gardens opened to the public the following year. Ranelagh was considered more fashionable than its older rival
Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames.
Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being me ...
; the entrance charge was two
shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...
s and sixpence, compared to a shilling at Vauxhall.
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
wrote soon after the gardens opened, "It has totally beat Vauxhall... You can't set your foot without treading on a Prince, or
Duke of Cumberland
Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British royal family, named after the historic county of Cumberland.
History
The Earldom of Cumberland, created in 1525, became extinct in 1643. The dukedom w ...
." Ranelagh Gardens introduced the
masquerade, formerly a private, aristocratic entertainment, to a wider, middle-class English public, where it was open to commentary by essayists and writers of moral fiction.

The centrepiece of Ranelagh was a
rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
rotunda, which figured prominently in views of Ranelagh Gardens taken from the river. It had a diameter of 120 feet (37 metres) and was designed by William Jones, a surveyor to the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
. The central support housed a chimney and fireplaces for use in winter. From its opening, the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens was an important venue for musical concerts. In 1765, the nine-year-old
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
performed in this showplace.
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
Painter of cityscapes or ...
painted the gardens, and painted the interior of the Rotunda twice, for different patrons. The rotunda was closed in 1803 and demolished two years later. The organ was moved to
All Saints Church, Evesham.
There was also a Chinese pavilion, which was added in 1750, an ornamental lake and several walks. Ranelagh was a popular venue for romantic assignations.
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...
wrote that it was, "the most convenient place for courtships of every kind — the best market we have in England."

Such was the renown of the gardens and the vogue for music in the open air (the eight year-old
Wolfgang Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
played a charity performance there on 29 June 1764) that a New York Ranelagh Gardens was opened in New York, in the former Rutgers house, as a rival to the
New York Vauxhall Gardens; its proprietor John Kenzie posted an advertisement for it during the occupation of the city in the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, in hopes of attracting the British soldiers, as well as "the Respectable Public",
[Advertisement quoted in Michael Batterberry and Ariane Batterberry, ''On the Town in New York'', 1999, p. 2.] and a Jardin du Ranelagh was created in Paris' fashionable 16th arrondissement in 1870.
Ranelagh Gardens were redesigned by John Gibson in the 19th century. It is now a green
pleasure ground with shaded walks, part of the grounds of
Chelsea Hospital
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is an Old Soldiers' retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse — the ancient sense of the word "hospital" — by King Charles II in 1682, it is a site ...
and the site of the annual
Chelsea Flower Show.
See also
*
Cremorne Gardens – a mid-19th-century public garden. Also in Chelsea, but at the opposite end of the district.
*
Ranelagh
Ranelagh ( , ; , ) is an affluent residential area and urban village on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland in the postal district of Dublin 6.
Ranelagh was originally a village called Cullenswood. It has a history of conflict, including the at ...
– a Dublin suburb in which was once located pleasure gardens similar to those in Ranelagh Gardens, London.
*
Chelsea Bridge Road
Chelsea Bridge Road is the modern eastern boundary of Chelsea, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. To the northeast is the district of Pimlico in the City of Westminster.
The road runs between Chelsea Bridge on ...
– next to Ranelagh Gardens
*
Ranelagh Paris
Notes
References
* Colvin, Howard. ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840'', 3rd edition, 1995.
* Melanie Doderer-Winkler, ''Magnificent Entertainments: Temporary Architecture for Georgian Festivals'' (London and New Haven: Yale University Press for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, December 2013). and .
* Weintraub, Stanley. ''Disraeli: A Biography'', New York: Truman Talley Books, 1994.
External links
{{commons category
A selection of items about Ranelagh Gardens at victorianlondon.orgSo What Was Wrong With Ranelagh?Jane Austen's London, May 8, 2016
Buildings and structures completed in 1689
Former parks and open spaces of London
Former buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Rococo architecture in England
Pleasure gardens in England
Entertainment in London
Gardens in London
Rotundas in the United Kingdom
1689 establishments in England