The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

One of the most significant innovations in eighteenth-century leisure was the pleasure garden; a dedicated outdoor space for entertainment. London’s pleasure gardens were the very best places to see and be seen by the world, arrayed in your most fashionable finery.

Vauxhall, was established in 1729 by Jonathan Tyers, who thought that charging an admission fee (of one shilling) would discourage pickpockets and prostitutes. But despite these efforts to keep ‘the riff-raff’ of the city outside its elegant gates, Vauxhall acquired a slightly dubious reputation; its wooded groves and shady alleyways were the perfect place for discreet assignations.