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 Masquerade or Masquerades may refer to: Books * ''Masquerade'' (book), a 1979 children's book by Kit Williams that sparked a worldwide treasure hunt * ''Masquerades'' (novel), a 1995 Forgotten Realms novel by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb * ''Masq ...

, 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. Canaletto Ranelegh 1754

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 A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). ...

, 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 All Saints Church is an active Anglican church in the centre of the town of Evesham, Worcestershire, England. All Saints and its neighbour St Lawrence's Church were built by the Benedictine monks of Evesham Abbey in the 12th cent ...

. 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." Chelsea Hospital Ranelagh

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 In English gardening history, the pleasure ground or pleasure garden was the parts of a large garden designed for the use of the owners, as opposed to the kitchen garden and the wider park. It normally included flower gardens, typically directl ...

with shaded walks, part of the grounds of

and the site of the annual

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show,Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural So ...

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.org

So 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

History

See also

Notes

References

External links