Gardens,” and evening concerts, variety entertainments and firework
displays were given in the grounds. On 21 June of this year, in
commemoration of the Battle of Waterloo, a grand Gala and Rural Fête
took place in the evening, with a concert and fireworks. There was
music in the Quadrille Room and the Country Dance Room; and for dancing
in the Grand Walk, the Pandean band The gardens were illuminated by
variegated lamps; “vigilant officers” were in attendance, and no person
was admitted “in dishabille.” The admission was two shillings.
[Illustration: WHITE CONDUIT HOUSE.]
Chabert,[143] the fire-eater, was here in 1826 (June). After swallowing
arsenic, oxalic acid, boiling oil and molten lead, without, it is said,
feeling any inconvenience, he entered a large heated oven, supported by
four pillars, and there cooked a leg of lamb and a rump steak, which
he proceeded to divide among the spectators. The admission was half a
crown and eighteenpence. In July of this year, Mrs. Bland here made
her last public appearance. This singer,[144] well-known for the sweet
quality of her mezzo-soprano voice and unaffected rendering of English
ballads, was long attached to Drury Lane Theatre, and for several years
appeared at Vauxhall. About 1824 her mind became affected, and on her
recovery she was glad to accept an engagement at an inferior place of
entertainment.
In October 1826 the magistrates in granting the license stipulated that
the music should cease at 11.30 P.M., and that the gardens
should close at 11.45. Masquerades and fireworks were prohibited. These
restrictions, however, appear to have been subsequently withdrawn or
disregarded.
About this period (1826) part of the south side of the gardens was cut
off by the formation of Warren Street; and a few years later (before
1833) a gasometer and a tall chimney disfigured the north-east corner
of the grounds.
The accommodation of White Conduit House having now become
insufficient, a new hotel was contemplated. The first stone was laid
on 2 February 1829, Messrs. Bowles and Monkhouse being then the
proprietors. About the middle of June 1829[145] the new building,
referred to in the bills as “New Minor Vauxhall: White Conduit House,
Hotel and Tavern,” was opened with a concert and ball. It was a tall,
plain structure. Its chief room, a large hall about eighty feet by
sixty, was much used for dances, dinners, and political meetings.
From many of the laudatory press notices, from about 1826 onwards,
it might appear that White Conduit House was a crowded and even
fashionable resort. But this was by no means the case. Surrounding
buildings had spoilt the place, and at this period “Vite Cundick
Couse,” as its Cockney visitors called it, was comparatively
neglected: the chimes of the miniature steeple were silent, and the
gardens had lost their rural charm.
Hone[146] severely describes it as a “starveling show of odd company
and coloured lamps” possessing a mock orchestra with mock singing, and
a dancing room, in which no respectable person would care to be seen.
In 1832 (November) the magistrates refused to grant the license, and in
1834 (15 February) the proprietor was fined £5 for the “rowdy” conduct
of some of the audience. A satirical visitor in 1838[147] ridicules the
vocal attainments of the singers, and the gaudy dresses of the female
performers, whose heads were decorated with blue roses and adorned with
corkscrew curls. The audiences were now composed of the artisan class,
the small shop-keeper, the apprentice and shop lad; with a sprinkling
of lawyers’ clerks recognisable by their long hair, worn-out “four and
ninepenny gossamers,” short trousers, and blucher boots, and by their
conversation, which is described as no less objectionable than their
cabbage-leaf cigars.
From 1830 till the close of the place in 1849 the entertainments,
beginning about 7.30, were of a very varied character; concerts,
juggling, farces and ballets. The admission, occasionally sixpence,
was usually one shilling; half of which was sometimes returned in
refreshments. Ladies and children generally came in half price. A
diorama, and moonlight view of Holyrood were exhibited in 1830; and
about the same time Miss Clarke made one of her ascents upon an
inclined rope attached to a platform above the highest trees in the
garden, reaching this eminence “amidst a blaze of light.” Here, too, in
1831 (August), and also in 1836 and 1837, Blackmore of Vauxhall made
some of his “terrific ascents.” A play of T. Dibdin’s entitled the
‘Hog in Armour’ was performed in 1831 (April), and Charles Sloman, the
clever impromptu versifier, appeared in August and September 1836.
In 1839 Breach the proprietor, who exerted himself in popularising the
house, placed its amusements under the management of John Dunn,[148]
styled the English Jim Crow on account of his imitations of T. D. Rice
in “Jump Jim Crow.” In 1841 a large painting of Windsor Castle and the
park-troops was placed at the end of the centre (then denominated the
Chinese) walk; and in 1842 (July and August), a Mr. Bryant being the
landlord, Batty’s Circus was engaged.
In 1843 R. Rouse was the proprietor, and in these later years the
amusements of White Conduit House gradually deteriorated, until they
were terminated on 22 January, 1849, by a Ball given for the benefit of
the check-takers. Three days afterwards the demolition of the house was
begun, and it was soon levelled for a new line of streets, the present
White Conduit public-house being erected on part of the site.
The gardens had extended from Penton Street, in an easterly direction,
to White Conduit Street, now called Cloudesley Road. Albert Street
now approximately marks their southern boundary; and Denmark Road the
northern limit.
[Fillinham’s collection relating to White Conduit House in Brit.
Mus.; Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_; Walford’s _Old and New London_;
Wheatley’s _London P. & P._; Lewis’s Islington; Tomlins’s
_Peramb. of Islington_; Cromwell’s _Islington_; Hone’s _Every
Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 1201, ff.; _Mirror_, 1833, vol. xxi.
p. 426; Nelson’s _Islington_; Brayley’s _Londiniana_; _Era
Almanack_, 1871; newspaper cuttings in W. Coll.]
VIEWS.
The Crace, Fillinham, and other collections contain numerous
views, from which the following may be selected:--
1. South view of White Conduit House in Lempriere’s Set of
Views, 1731; reproduced in Lewis’s _Islington_ and Pinks’s
_Clerkenwell_.
2. White Conduit House, 1749. Engraving in Knight’s _Old
England_, vol. ii. fig. 2,402.
3. White Conduit House near Islington (_circa_ 1771). A
print, Crace, _Cat._ No. 200.
4. White Conduit House in the last century (_circa_ 1780).
A woodcut, Crace, _Cat._ No. 201.
5. The Old White Conduit Tea Gardens, Islington. Coloured view,
1822 (W. Coll.).
6. Old White Conduit House Tea Gardens. Sepia drawing, signed C.
H. M. Fillinham Coll. p. 46.
7. White Conduit House Tavern and Tea Gardens, 1828. Engraved
heading of a White Conduit bill. Fillinham Coll.
8. General View of the Gardens, White Conduit House. Fillinham
Coll. p. 46.
9. White Conduit House. Engraving in Cromwell’s
_Clerkenwell_, p. 216.
10. White Conduit Gardens from Islington Terrace. Sepia drawing,
signed C. H. M. 1829. Fillinham Coll. p. 46.
11. Old White Conduit House. P. H. D. 1831, engraved in Rogers’s
_Views of Pleasure Gardens of London_, p. 53 (showing
balloon and old conduit).
12. The White Conduit Gardens, north view. Sepia drawing by C.
H. Matthews, 1832. Crace, _Cat._ No. 204.
13. View in Gardens showing stage, &c. Water-colour drawing,
signed I. F., June 2, 1832. Fillinham Coll. p. 48.
14. A view in the Gardens of White Conduit House with the
rope-dancing and fireworks. Sepia drawing, 1848. Crace,
_Cat._ No. 207; cp. Ashton’s _The Fleet_.
15. White Conduit House, Hotel and Tavern. North-west view
of front. A water-colour drawing by Matthews, 1849. Crace,
_Cat._ No. 208.
16. Bird’s-eye view of the gardens of White Conduit House, taken
from the balcony. A coloured drawing by Mr. Crace, 1849. Crace,
_Cat._ No. 209.
DOBNEY’S BOWLING GREEN, OR PROSPECT HOUSE
Dobney’s Bowling Green, or, as it was originally called, Prospect
House, stood on a portion of the site of Winchester Place (now part of
Pentonville Road) near to the south-east corner of Penton Street, and
opposite the New River Reservoir. It was in existence as early as the
seventeenth century, a Mr. Ireland being rated in 1669[149] for “the
Prospect.”
Prospect House, standing on Islington Hill, derived its name from the
fine views that it commanded, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries was a vantage-ground from which artists often sketched St.
Paul’s and the Metropolis. It possessed good bowling greens probably as
early as 1633, and in the spring of 1718 these were advertised as open
for the accommodation of all gentlemen bowlers.
Later on, the place was called Dobney’s (or D’Aubigney’s) Bowling
Green House, from the name of its proprietor, whose widow, Mrs. Ann
Dobney, also kept the place for many years.[150] She was succeeded by
a Mr. Johnson, who called the place Johnson’s Prospect and Bowling
Green House. He converted the bowling green, which was near the
corner of Penton Street, into an _al fresco_ amphitheatre, and
in 1767 engaged the equestrian Price[151] who drew large audiences
by his performances, which lasted during the spring and summer
season, beginning at six o’clock. Price is said to have made, by his
exhibitions at Dobney’s and elsewhere, a fortune of £14,000.
[Illustration: “A REPRESENTATION OF THE SURPRISING
PERFORMANCES OF MR. PRICE” AT DOBNEY’S. _Circ._ 1767.]
In 1769 Philip Jonas performed there feats of manual dexterity, and
the exhibition of the skeleton of a whale, three score feet long,
was reckoned an attraction. In 1770, the house was occupied as a
boarding-school by the Rev. John Davis, but the place was soon again
re-opened as the Jubilee Gardens, in allusion to the Stratford Jubilee
of Shakespeare.
In 1772, Daniel Wildman, an expert in bee-keeping, gave on summer
evenings a curious performance called “Bees on horse-back,” described
as follows:--
“Daniel Wildman rides standing upright, one foot on the saddle, and the
other on the horse’s neck, with a curious mask of bees on his face.
He also rides standing upright on the saddle with the bridle in his
mouth, and by firing a pistol makes one part of the bees march over a
table, and the other part swarm in the air, and return to their places
again.” This performance, together with other entertainments, began
at a quarter before seven, and the admission was one shilling, or two
shillings to the boxes and gallery.
In 1774, the gardens were still open, but in a much neglected
condition, as the walks were not kept in order nor the hedges properly
cut. There were, however, at this time several good apartments in the
house and two tea-rooms on the north side of the bowling green, built
one above the other, and Dobney’s (as it was still popularly called)
was a favourite Sunday resort of the London apprentice:--
On Sabbath day who has not seen
In colours of the rainbow dizened,
The ’prentice beaux and belles, I ween,
Fatigued with heat, with dust half-poisoned,
To Dobney’s strolling, or Pantheon,
Their tea to sip or else regale,
As on their way they shall agree on,
With syllabubs or bottled ale.[152]
In 1780, we hear of lectures and debates taking place in the house;
but in 1781 “the lease and trade of the Shakespeare Tavern and Jubilee
Gardens, formerly called Dobney’s Bowling Green,” were offered for sale
by auction. At that time, according to the auctioneer’s advertisement,
Dobney’s consisted of a dwelling house, a building containing a
bake-house, kitchens, &c., with an adjoining erection comprising two
spacious rooms, capable of dining near two hundred people each, a
trap-ball ground, bowling green and “extensive gardens properly laid
out.”
The place, however, ceasing to be frequented, the ground was, about
1790, partly built over with the houses forming Winchester Place.
The gardens, or a part of them, remained until 1810, when they
disappeared.[153] Dobney’s Court, an alley on the east side of Penton
Street, now occupies a small part of the original site.
[Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_; Nelson’s _Islington_; Lewis’s
_Islington_; _Sunday Ramble_; Tomlins’s _Perambulation of
Islington_, pp. 160, 187; _Memoirs of De Castro_, p. 29.]
VIEWS.
1. A drawing of Prospect House taken about 1780 was at one time
in the possession of Mr. Upcott (_Notes and Queries_, 1st
series, ix. 1854, p. 572).
2. “A representation of the surprising performances of Mr.
Price,” engraved for the _Universal Museum and Comp. Mag._
(_circ._ 1767), W. Coll.
BELVIDERE TEA GARDENS, PENTONVILLE ROAD
The Belvidere tavern and tea gardens in the Pentonville Road, at the
south-west corner of Penton Street, occupied the site of Busby’s Folly,
itself a house of entertainment with a bowling green attached to it.
Busby’s Folly, which was in existence at least as early as 1664,[154]
afterwards (between 1731 and 1745) acquired the name of Penny’s Folly.
In August 1769, Penny’s Folly was taken by a German named Zucker, who
exhibited there his Learned Little Horse, while Mrs. Zucker played
favourite airs on the musical glasses, and “the so-much admired
and unparalleled Mr. Jonas” displayed his “matchless and curious
deceptions.” The entertainment began at 6.30, and took place in a large
room commanding a “delightful prospect” from its fourteen windows. The
admission was one shilling, and it was announced that “The Little Horse
will be looking out of the windows up two pair of stairs every evening
before the performances begin.”
The performances of Zucker had already been for some years in repute
with holiday folk, and in 1762 he had received honourable mention in a
prologue spoken at the Haymarket Theatre:--
How dull, methinks, look Robin, Sue and Nancy
At Greenwich Park did nothing strike your fancy;
Had you no cheese-cakes, cyder, shrimps or bun,
Saw no wild beastis, or no jack-ass run?
Blest Conduit House! what raptures does it yield;
And hail, thou wonder of a Chelsea field!
Yet Zucker still amazingly surpasses
Your Conduit-house, your pigmy, and your asses.[155]
Penny’s Folly was afterwards pulled down and the Belvidere tavern came
into existence about 1780.
In the early part of the present century, and probably twenty years
earlier, the Belvidere possessed a bowling green, and a large
garden, with many trees and plenty of accommodation for tea-drinking
parties. The chief attraction was a large racket-court. The garden
and racket-court continued to be frequented till 1860 or later. In
1876, the Belvidere was rebuilt and is now used as a public-house,
the garden, or part of it, being occupied by the pianoforte works of
Messrs. Yates.
[Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_, 531–533; Tomlins’s _Perambulation of
Islington_, 40, 41, 163, 164; _Picture of London_, 1802, p. 370.]
VIEWS.
1. South front of Busby’s Folly, one of C. Lempriere’s Set of
Views, 1731 (woodcut in Pinks, p. 530); cp. woodcut in Tomlins’s
_Perambulation of Islington_, p. 164, and a water-colour
drawing by C. H. Matthews in Crace, _Cat._ p. 606, No. 212.
2. The Belvidere Gardens, early in the present century, woodcut
in Cromwell’s _Clerkenwell_ (1828), p. 414, J. and H. S.
Storer del. et sculp. (copied in Pinks, p. 531).
3. The “Belvidere Gardens at the present time” (_circ._
1860?), Pinks, p. 532.
THE CASTLE INN AND TEA-GARDENS, COLEBROOKE ROW, ISLINGTON
The Castle Inn is mentioned in 1754 as a Sunday resort of the London
“cit.,” who frequented it in the evening to smoke his pipe and obtain
the light refreshment of cyder and heart-cakes. The house must have
stood nearly alone till 1768, when the oldest portion of the street
called Colebrooke Row was built. The Castle Inn, with its tea gardens,
was then the last house but one at the northern end of the Row.[156]
A pleasant nursery garden occupied, till about 1822, six acres of the
ground in the rear of Colebrooke Row.
The inn and tea gardens were still in existence about 1772, but the
house had ceased to be a place of public entertainment at the time when
Nelson published his _Islington_, _i.e._ 1811.
[_The Connoisseur_, No. 26 (1754); Nelson’s _Islington_ (1811),
p. 385; Lewis’s _Islington_ (1842), pp. 351, 352.]
THREE HATS, ISLINGTON
The Three Hats was a picturesque old inn standing in the Upper Street,
Islington, a few doors from the corner of the Liverpool Road and on the
site of the present Islington branch of the London and County Bank.
It first became known as a place of amusement in 1758, when, in the
field adjoining, Thomas Johnson, “the Irish Tartar,” one of the
earliest equestrian performers in England, made his _début_. He
galloped round the field standing first on one horse, then on a pair,
then on three horses. At one time he rode the single horse standing
on his head, but as this posture “gave pain to the spectators” he
discontinued it. His feats seem to have been of a simpler kind than
those afterwards performed by the rider Price at Dobney’s in 1767.
One of Johnson’s performances at the Three Hats (17 July, 1766) took
place in the presence of the Duke of York and of about five hundred
spectators.
In the spring of 1767 Johnson was succeeded by the equestrian Sampson,
who announced his appearance at five o’clock at a commodious place
built in a field adjoining the Three Hats. “A proper band of music”
was engaged for this entertainment. In the summer of this year
Sampson introduced his wife into his entertainment, and inserted the
following advertisement in the _Public Advertiser_ for 23 July:
“Horsemanship at Dingley’s, Three Hats, Islington. Mr. Sampson begs
to inform the public that besides the usual feats which he exhibits,
Mrs. Sampson, to diversify the entertainment and prove that the fair
sex are by no means inferior to the male, either in courage or agility,
will this and every evening during the summer season perform various
exercises in the same art, in which she hopes to acquit herself to the
universal approbation of those ladies and gentlemen whose curiosity may
induce them to honour her attempt with their company.”
[Illustration: JOHNSON AT THE THREE HATS, 1758.]
The Three Hats had other attractions besides the horsemanship and
at least as early as 1768 had become a favourite Sunday resort. In
Bickerstaffe’s comedy the “Hypocrite,” published in 1768, Mawworm
says: “Till I went after him (Dr. Cantwell) I was little better than
the devil. My conscience was tanned with sin like a piece of neat’s
leather, and had no more feeling than the sole of my shoe, always
aroving after fantastical delights. I used to go every Sunday evening
to the Three Hats at Islington--mayhap your ladyship may know it. I
was a great lover of skittles, but now I can’t bear them.”
Sampson’s performances still continued in 1770 and additional
diversions were occasionally provided: “At the Three Hats, Islington,
this day, the 1st of May (1770) will be played a grand match at that
ancient and much renowned manly diversion called Double Stick by a sett
of chosen young men at that exercise from different parts of the West
country, for two guineas given free; those who brake the most heads to
bear away the prize.” “To begin precisely at four.” “Before the above
mentioned diversion begins, Mr. Sampson and his young German will
display alternately on one, two, and three horses, various surprising
and curious feats of famous horsemanship in like manner as at the Grand
Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon. Admittance one shilling each person.”
In 1771 Sampson was under a cloud--he is said to have been ensnared
“into gay company” by Price, his rival at Dobney’s--and sold his horses
to Coningham, who performed in the evening at the Three Hats (1771
and 1772), and was announced as follows:--“First: He rides a gallop,
standing upright on a single horse, three times round the room without
holding. Second: He rides a single horse on full speed, dismounts,
fires a pistol, and performs the boasted feat of Hughes’s leaping over
him backwards and forwards for forty times without ceasing; also flies
over three horses on full speed, leaps over one and two horses on
full speed as they leap the bar, plays a march on the flute, without
holding, upon two horses, standing upright.” It was also announced
that “Mr. and Mrs. Sampson, Mr. Brown, &c., will perform to make these
nights the completest in the kingdom. The Tailor and Sailor upon the
drollest horses in the kingdom. The doors to be opened exactly at five,
and to mount at a quarter to five. Admittance in the front seats two
shillings, and the back seats one. Mr. Coningham will engage to fly
through a hogshead of fire upon two horses’ backs, without touching
them, and, for a single person, will perform activity with any man in
the world.”
In 1772 Sampson resumed his performances at the Riding School of the
Three Hats and gave lessons there. On Whit Monday some other curious
attractions were advertised in the _Gazetteer_ (June 6, 1772): “A
young gentleman will undertake to walk and pick up one hundred eggs
(each egg to be the distance of one yard apart) and put them in a
basket within an hour and fifteen minutes; if any egg breaks he puts
down one in its place, for a wager of ten guineas. And on Whitsun
Tuesday will be run for an holland shift by a number of smart girls,
six times round the School.”
About this period the riding seems to have come to an end,[157]
though the Three Hats continued for many years to be a favourite
tea-garden until the ground at the back of the house was built over.
The _Morning Chronicle_ gives us a glimpse of the place in 1779
(21 July): “Yesterday morning upwards of twenty fellows who were
dancing with their ladies at the Three Hats, Islington, were taken
by the constables as fit persons to serve his Majesty, and lodged in
Clerkenwell Bridewell, in order to be carried before the commissioners.”
On 6 January, 1839, a fire (which destroyed two neighbouring houses) so
damaged the roof of the Three Hats, then a mere public-house, that in
April of the same year the whole place was demolished, and the present
branch office of the London and County Bank was erected on the site.
[Lewis’s _Islington_; Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_.]
VIEWS.
1. Engraving of Three Hats and other old houses adjacent, in
_Gent. Mag._ 1823, pt. 2, frontispiece; cp. p. 113.
2. A sepia drawing by C. H. Matthews, 1839. Crace, _Cat._
p. 596, No. 110.
3. Engraving in the _Grand Magazine_, showing Johnson’s
equestrian feats, 1758, W. Coll.; cp. Crace, _Cat._ p. 596,
No. 108.
BARLEY MOW TEA HOUSE AND GARDENS, ISLINGTON
The Barley Mow Tea House and Gardens were on the west side of Frog
Lane, now Popham Road, Islington. They are first mentioned in
1786.[158] About 1799, the Barley Mow was kept as a public-house by
a man named Tate, and George Morland lived there for several months,
indulging in drinking and low company, but finding time to paint some
good pictures which he generally sold for small sums. He often borrowed
for sketching purposes old harness and saddles from a farm-house
opposite, and was wont “to send after any rustic-looking character”
to obtain a sitting. The Barley Mow has been used as a public-house
to the present time, and is now No. 31, Popham Road, but it has been
modernised, or rebuilt, and the garden has disappeared.
[Nelson’s _Islington_, 128, 197; Cromwell’s _Islington_, p. 194,
ff.; Lewis’s _Islington_, 154, ff.; Walford, ii. 262; _Morning
Herald_, 22 April, 1786.]
CANONBURY HOUSE TEA GARDENS