The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century

The Shepherd and Shepherdess ale-house stood on or near the site afterwards occupied by the well-known Eagle Tavern in the City Road and Shepherdess Walk.

It was built at some time before 1745, and its gardens were frequented in the last century by visitors, who regaled themselves with cream, cakes and furmity. Invalids sometimes stayed at the Shepherd and Shepherdess[84] to benefit by the pure air of the neighbourhood. The City Road (opened in 1761) was cut through the meadow-grounds that surrounded the inn. The place gradually lost its rural isolation, but it is found enumerated among the tea-gardens resorted to by Londoners of the “middling classes” in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

The Shepherd and Shepherdess appears to have been pulled down about 1825, at which time Thomas Rouse built on or near its site the Eagle Tavern (rebuilt 1838) which formed the nucleus of the famous Eagle establishment with its Grecian saloon and theatre, its gardens and dancing pavilion. The tavern, grounds and theatre were purchased by “General” Booth in 1882, and have since been occupied by the Salvation Army.[85]