Historically, the south side of the river, especially around Southwark, has always had a different vibe from the medieval and Tudor city across the Thames to the north. More relaxed, it was where London’s citizens went for entertainment away from the legal formality and puritanism of the city. It was a place to go to the theatre — there were four on Bankside alone (The Globe, The Rose, The Swan and The Hope), to eat and drink in one of the many taverns (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are set in The Tabard Inn), to gamble or visit the brothels, one infamously run by the Bishop of Winchester, where the prostitutes were known as “The Bishop’s Geese”.
That tradition — of the south side of the river being the go-to place for entertainment — continued as London expanded during the 17th and 18th centuries, when Lambeth Marsh was slowly drained. In the west, at Vauxhall (then known as Fox Hall, or Vaux Hall), a new pleasure garden was first mentioned in 1661. A year later, Samuel Pepys took a boat across the river to visit and he describes spending “… two or three hours talking of several matters very soberly and contentfully to me, which, with the ayre and pleasure of the garden, was a great refreshment…”
At the time the gardens consisted of long gravel walkways, framed by plantings of trees and shrubs with fountains and places to buy food and drink. A key feature were the arbours, small shelters where couples or small groups could gather for private conversations — perfect places for imperfect liaisons and, consequently, the area built up a reputation for illicit and immoral behaviour.
Vauxhall’s Pleasure Gardens truly took off in 1729 when Jonathan Tyers, a local entrepreneur, purchased a series of leases in the area. He immediately cleaned up the site, added a large square, many new walks and avenues lined with trees and classical colonnades. Tyers was the P. T. Barnum of his day — a showman and promoter, so for the first time he charged a fee to enter the gardens, pulling in big crowds by putting on amazing concerts, exhibitions and events. If Taylor Swift had been around in the 18th century, then Tyers would have had her headlining.
Soon Vauxhall’s Gardens became the place to be seen, especially after the Prince of Wales, later George IV, became a regular attendee. He was followed by the great, the good and the deeply fashionable of London society: from William Hogarth to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, by way of Samuel Johnson, Canaletto and Casanova. The first public performance of Music for the Royal Fireworks by George Frederick Handel, also a frequent visitor, took place as a dress rehearsal at Vauxhall in 1749. The press of the day reported an audience of 12,000 — likely an exaggeration, but Tyers would not have minded. Later in 1786, 61,000 people attended a fancy-dress jubilee to celebrate the family’s long ownership.
An engraving of 1751 reveals just how sophisticated Tyers’ entertainment facilities had become. It shows various tree-lined avenues — a Grand Walk, lit by thousands of whale-oil lanterns hanging from the trees, but also the Druids Walk and the Dark Walk, where dangerous liaisons would still take place. There were Turkish tents, Chinese temples, supper boxes, triumphal arches, a pillared saloon, a rotunda building, a ballet theatre, a hermitage, a central orchestra house and The Cascade — an artificial water fountain made of tin fixed to two wheels turned by a team of men. Entrance was through the Proprietor’s House, where the fashionable crowd known as “Les Wauxhalls”, would hand over their shillings. The gardens would open around 6pm in the evening from March to August, only closing in the small hours of the following morning.
As fashions changed, so too did the type of entertainments at Vauxhall’s Gardens. During the Victorian period it became less about those in High Society being seen, and more about entertainment for the masses. Balloon flights, tightrope walkers and carefully choreographed reenactments took over — in 1827 a thousand soldiers reenacted the Battle of Waterloo. Balloon ascents were a particular favourite: in one a cat was dropped with its own parachute, landing safely in a local garden prompting some wag to write that it “Twas beginning to rain cats and dogs.”
But competition from new attractions, such as music halls and art galleries, and the growing accessibility of the seaside by train, meant that Vauxhall’s days were numbered. In 1859 the Gardens closed for good. Developers quickly moved in to build 300 new houses across the former pleasure grounds, with just a few street names — “Italian Walk” or “Spring Gardens” — the only reminder that this was once the biggest commercial visitor attraction in the country.
So far, so sad… but there is a happy ending to the story. You cannot keep the spirit of a place down, so when the 300 houses built in the 1850s and 1860s came to the end of their life during a programme of slum clearance in the 1970s an enlightened London Borough of Lambeth reestablished Vauxhall Spring Gardens as an open space.
Today it is a place to walk the dog, play a game of boules, enjoy fireworks and concerts, even skate on a seasonal ice rink. Its tradition of freedom, fun and creativity also endures — the Royal Vauxhall Tavern became the first building in the country to be listed because of its contribution to the LGBTQ community. And it still pulls in the crowds: returning to Taylor Swift — The Black Dog, a 19th century pub off Vauxhall Gardens, is mentioned in the lyrics on a track off her most recent album, leading to a murmuration of Swifties descending for Instagram moments. Jonathan Tyers would have been proud.
