The Dancing Platform at Cremorne Gardens by Phoebus Levin, 1864.One of the original gates from Cremorne Gardens, recently restored and installed at the vestigial site. (January 2006)The Ashburnham Pavilion in 1858.An 1865 map showing Cremorne Gardens. Kings Road is at the top and the River Thames is at the bottom right.
Cremorne Gardens were popular pleasure gardens by the side of the River Thames in Chelsea, London. They lay between Chelsea Harbour and the end of the King's Road and flourished between 1845 and 1877; today only a vestige survives, on the river at the southern end of Cheyne Walk.
The name Cremorne is the name of a barony, an old administrative unit, in County Monaghan in Ireland. It is an Anglicisation of what in modern Irish is Críoch Mhúrn. This roughly translates as the 'Bounds of Mourne', from the territorial domain of an ancient clan or sept called Mughdorna in Old Irish. The name is cognate with the Mountains of Mourne.
The property was sold by the Dawson family, Barons Cremorne, in 1831 to a Baron de Berenger,[3] who was a convicted fraudster whose real name was Charles Random. De Berenger converted the site into a sports facility, called The Stadium, and became a proponent of self-defence techniques.[4] The business failed in 1843, but not before de Berenger had added some attractions of pleasure gardens of the time, including hosting a balloon ascent in 1838. For two years the gardens opened for summer, including an opening festival billed as "Pie de Nie" with Balloon ascent,[5] for instance, were held, and the property was sold in 1845. James Ellis took over the license in January 1845.[6] The twelve-acre site was then developed by James Ellis into a proprietary place of entertainment and spectacle, being popular as such from 1845 to 1877. The Cremorne Gardens occupied a large site running between the Thames and the King's Road. Opened in 1845, they were noisy and colourful pleasure gardens featuring restaurants, entertainments, dancing and balloon ascents, and could be entered from the north gate on Kings Road or another by the Cremorne Pier on the river.
The Female Blondin crossing the Thames to Cremorne Gardens in 1861.
Edward Tyrrel Smith paid Pauline Violante to attempt to cross the Thames in Albanian costume on 12 August 1861. A wire that was too slack meant that she failed at the first attempt but she succeeded at her second try.[7] She walked from Battersea Bridge to the Cremorne Gardens, watched by 20,000 people.[8] Carlo Valerio would die in another tight rope demonstration at Cremorne Gardens.[9]
The famous artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted several nocturnes of Cremorne Gardens between 1872 and 1877. He was a resident of Cheyne Walk, a mere few hundred yards from the Gardens. His painting Cremorne Gardens No 2 is full of fashionable and active figures and parallels to some extent the ‘modern life’ paintings of his French associates Manet and Tissot with whom he was in close contact during the early 1870s. Cremorne Gardens was doubtless a most attractive location, not only for its light displays but also for the brilliant array of fashionable people who gathered there. They provided the setting for Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Firewheel and Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket of c.1874, the latter resulting in the Whistler versus Ruskin trial of 1878.
Walter Greaves was the son of a Chelsea boatbuilder who used to ferry Turner across the river; Walter and his brother Harry also performed the same service for Whistler, and in about 1863 became his unpaid studio assistants and pupils. They adored Whistler, accompanied him wherever he went, imitated his dress and manner, made the frames for his canvases, bought his materials and prepared his colours. Walter said; "He taught us to paint, and we taught him the waterman’s jerk". Their close association lasted well into the 1890s, Whistler favouring Walter as he was the more gifted of the two brothers. Two of his most successful images were Regatta at Hammersmith Bridge and Chelsea under Snow; like Whistler he concentrated on areas around the Thames. He died in poverty, having been taken in by the Charterhouse.
Greaves chooses to depict Whistler near the Crystal Platform. A reporter in the Illustrated London News (30 May 1857) admired the structure's "inclosing ironwork...enriched, by Defries and Son, with devices in emerald and garnet cut-glass drops, and semicircles of lustre and gas jets, which have a most brilliant effect." The pavilion was about three hundred and sixty feet in circumference. It was encrusted with ornamental pillars, gas jets, and over forty plate-glass mirrors in black frames. In the upper portion of the pagoda (seen here), where the orchestra played, there were seventeen gas lit chandeliers.
This particular feature of the Gardens was clearly a favourite with Greaves as he chose to depict it on several occasions, for example The Dancing Platform, Cremorne Gardens (1870s) and in an etching of this period, which depicts the same view as Whistler in the Cremorne Gardens. In the former Whistler is depicted as the natty flaneur, striding along with and yet separate from the crowd. In the latter Whistler is seated but maintains the image of flaneur, the impartial, non-judgmental observer of contemporary life. He leans to one side to acknowledge a fellow dandy, much to the impatience of the young woman who stands at his table. Cremorne Gardens rapidly acquired a reputation as the territory of the demi-monde frequented by women of questionable morals. His associate could buy such a woman; this is implied by his indifference towards her, the attention of the passing woman as well as the undisguised stare of the gentleman at the railing.
Whistler and the Greaves family were frequent visitors before the gardens closed in 1877. Cremorne Gardens never acquired the fashionable fame of Vauxhall Gardens, and finally became so great an annoyance to some of the more influential residents in the neighbourhood that a renewal of its licence was refused, and most of the site of the gardens was soon built over. The name survives in Cremorne Road.[2]
Donald James Wheal, in his first-person memoir of life in working-class Chelsea, World's End gives a lively account of the almost-forgotten history and destruction of Cremorne Gardens.
Today
A vestige of the gardens survives next to the Thames, just east of Lots Road Power Station. It is largely paved over, and there is little to suggest the grand scale of the original gardens, though it still has two attached jetties, an echo of the landing stages where visitors to the original pleasure gardens would arrive by boat. Recently, one of the original grand iron gates from the gardens has been restored and stands on the current site 51°28′47″N0°10′42″W / 51.47983°N 0.17834°W / 51.47983; -0.17834. A Cremorne Gardens was also established in Melbourne, Australia.
On 13 September 2010 Thames Water published its preferred sites for building work on its Thames Tideway super sewer. Thames Water originally proposed that an access road cut straight through Cremorne Gardens.
Cremorne Gardens secured a Green Flag award for the first time in 2010 as one of the best green spaces in England. Councillor Nicholas Paget-Brown, Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure Services, attended the flag raising ceremony at Cremorne Gardens at the end of July along with the mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, Councillor James Husband.
Local Conservative Kensington and Chelsea Councillors and residents have promised to try to save the Gardens from use as an access road to build the Thames Tunnel. . Phil Stride representing Thames Water stated "We are happy to work with the council to use whatever access route they can help us find." Early in 2011, the Lots Road Waste Centre owned by the council ceased operation. The former Waste Centre is closer to the proposed Tideway Tunnel, therefore is an alternative site for the access road. However, Cremorne Gardens is still listed as the preferred site on the Thames Water website even though it is the council's decision.
In 2014, Cremorne Gardens was again under threat from the local council which suggested to Transport For London that there be a "Chelsea West" station on Kings Road near World's End and on the site of the Cremorne Estate for Crossrail Two. Cremorne Gardens would have been destroyed to use as the building site for the station. After a huge outcry from residents, the council abandoned its support for Chelsea West.[10][11]
In Strong Poison, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Dorothy L. Sayers named a character Cremorna Garden. Cremorna was an actress of dubious repute, no doubt so named after the garden's racy reputation.
In Coral by Compton Mackenzie (1925) in which Coral Avery, an upper-class girl, falls in love with her chauffeur, she gets him to drive down the Embankment to the Cremorne Arms at Chelsea reach, where they declare their love for each other.
↑ "Cremorne House and Cremorne Gardens". The Morning Post. London, England (23222): 2. 19 June 1845. Mr Littlejohn, late of the Rosherville Gardens ... has the honour to announce that he will open the Tavern, Park and Gardens of Cremorne for the season
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the United Kingdom. It includes affluent areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington, South Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge.
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.
Chelsea is an affluent area in West London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Cheyne Walk is a historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted the river along its whole length.
Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the river with Chelsea to the north. The bridge replaced a ferry service that had operated near the site since at least the middle of the 16th century.
King's Road or Kings Road is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England. It is associated with 1960s style and with fashion figures such as Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood. Sir Oswald Mosley's Blackshirt movement had a barracks on the street in the 1930s.
Cremorne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (1.9 mi) south-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Cremorne recorded a population of 2,158 at the 2021 census.
Ladbroke Grove is an area and a road in North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.
Lots Road Power Station is a disused coal and later oil-fired and later gas-fired power station on the River Thames at Lots Road in Chelsea, London in the south-west of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which supplied electricity to the London Underground system. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as Fulham Power Station, a name properly applied to another former station a mile south-west along the Tideway.
Counter's Creek, ending in Chelsea Creek, the lowest part of which still exists, was a stream that flowed from Kensal Green, by North Kensington and flowed south into the River Thames on the Tideway at Sands End, Fulham. Its remaining open watercourse is the quay of Chelsea Creek.
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.
West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, including the area around Barons Court tube station, and is defined as the area between Lillie Road and Hammersmith Road to the west, Fulham Palace Road to the south, Hammersmith to the north and West Brompton and Earl's Court to the east. The area is bisected by the major London artery the A4, locally known as the Talgarth Road. Its main local thoroughfare is the North End Road.
Cremorne Gardens was a pleasure garden established in 1853 on the banks of the Yarra River at Richmond in Melbourne, Australia. The gardens were established by James Ellis who had earlier managed and leased similar gardens of the same name on the banks of the River Thames at Chelsea in London. He had been declared bankrupt and emigrated to Australia to take advantage of the business opportunities made possible by the Victorian gold rush and its accompanying population explosion. His first venture in the entertainment world in Melbourne was Astley's Amphitheatre, but his experiences in catering in London inclined him to a profit making business with a wider basis. Because of previous experience he had established contacts in the theatrical world of London. He took advantage of them to create a venue with viable entertainments to divert the population of the rapidly expanding capital of the new Australian state where entertainment was demanded by a predominantly male society.
Tite Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just north of the River Thames. It was laid out from 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, giving access to the Chelsea Embankment.
King's Road Chelsea railway station is a proposed station on Crossrail 2, a planned underground railway line through London in the United Kingdom. If constructed, the station would serve the King's Road area of Chelsea.
The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 1844 but was not commercially successful.
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is a c. 1875 painting by James McNeill Whistler held in the Detroit Institute of Arts. The painting exemplified the Art for art's sake movement – a concept formulated by Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire.
Walter Greaves was a British painter, etcher and topographical draftsman.
Chelsea Fire Station is located at 264 King's Road, London.
Dovehouse Street is a street in Chelsea, London. It runs roughly north to south from Fulham Road to King's Road, having junctions with Cale Street and Britten Street, among others.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
