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The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century cover

The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century

Chapter 56: VIEWS.
By Warwick William Wroth
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History - BritishHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

A detailed survey traces the development, character, and decline of London’s eighteenth-century pleasure gardens, offering descriptive notices of over sixty venues. Arranged by neighbourhood, the work records origins, proprietors, physical layouts, entertainments, and the social atmosphere of each resort, with attention to music, illuminations, rotundas, tea-houses, and seasonal amusements. Entries are supported by illustrations, plans, contemporary advertisements and newspaper extracts, and by annotated notes and references; a collaborating contributor supplies several of the shorter garden accounts.

THE ASSEMBLY HOUSE, KENTISH TOWN

The Assembly House was in existence in 1725[133] or earlier, and consisted of a large inn, partly built of wood, with a Long Room on the south, entered from outside by a covered staircase. This room for many years continued to be used for dancing by the élite of the neighbourhood.

By about 1776 the village of Kentish Town had become a somewhat populous place, and in the summer-time was much resorted to by Londoners, who took lodgings there, or made brief excursions thither. In 1788 the Assembly House was taken by a Mr. Thomas Wood, who specially advertised his trap-ball and skittle-ground, pleasant summer-house, and extensive garden.

The house was pulled down in 1853, and its site and that of the garden covered by houses. The Assembly House tavern (No. 298 Kentish Town Road) and a police station have been built on the baiting ground and yard that were formerly in front of the old house.

[Miller’s St. Pancras, p. 294, ff.; Roffe’s St. Pancras, pp. 10, 11; Walford, v. p. 320; Palmer’s St. Pancras, p. 62, ff.]

VIEWS.

1. “The Assembly Rooms, Kentish Town, 1750,” Walford, v. p. 313.

2. “The Old Assembly House, Kentish Town,” May 1853; drawn and etched by W. B. Rye, Etchings, London, 1857.