After Vauxhall and Ranelagh came a later generation of London pleasure gardens, and Wroth reconstructs their story from handbills and forgotten newspapers. Cremorne in Chelsea, with its dancing, fireworks and fatal balloon ascents, leads on to Batty’s Hippodrome, Soyer’s Symposium, the Notting Hill Hippodrome, the Royal Oak at Bayswater and the Surrey Zoo.
A charming social history for anyone curious about how Victorian Londoners amused themselves. Download the free EPUB.