Pleasure Gardens: 18th Century England’s Wild Nightlife Scene

By Karen Harris | December 5, 2022

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A ball at Vauxhall garden in London c. 1830, engraving (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

If you think that people living in Georgian and Victorian England were a bunch of uptight prudes, think again. Amid the era’s restrictive rules on courting, chaperones, and clothing – heaven forbid a lady show her ankles! – there were the pleasure gardens. If you are a fan of Bridgerton, you have already been introduced to pleasure gardens. It is hard to point to a modern-day equivalent to the pleasure gardens. Picture Coachella, with its life music, art, dancing, drinking, drug use, and scantily clad women … now picture the festivities happened every single night for several years. That will give you a rough idea what the pleasure gardens were all about. Let’s explain…

The Rise of Paid Entertainment Options

Beginning in the mid-1600s, society was changing in London. We see the emergence of the middle class for the first time. Income was up and more people had entrepreneurial opportunities open to them, like becoming merchants, tailors, or craftsmen. They had a little bit of disposable income, but more importantly, they longed to socialize with others in their socioeconomic class and the upper class. There were already paid entertainment options at this time, like theatrical plays and orchestra concerts, but the public yearned for a place where they could meet and mingle, see and be seen, and eat and drink. The pleasure garden checked all these boxes and more. 

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This scene from "Bridgerton" offers us a glimpse of Vauxhall (netflix)

What Were Pleasure Gardens?

Pleasure gardens were beautifully landscaped outdoor entertainment venues. Guests had to pay a fee to enter the garden – a ploy that was meant to keep out the pickpockets and prostitutes, but that didn’t really work as planned, as we will see. The gardens included a network of walkways connecting small garden spaces, fountains and ponds, walls and hedgerows. There were open places where musicians could perform, and guests could dance. Sculptures and paintings were on display. Poets gave live readings of their works. Throughout the garden there were places where guests could purchase a drink or food. There were dining areas and cozy benches for two. Every evening, the garden was ablaze with candles, lanterns, and lamps. Well, not the entire garden.

London’s Vauxhall

Vauxhall in London was the city’s largest, most-popular, and most-notorious pleasure garden. It opened in 1661 and officially closed in 1859. There was a vast variety of entertainment options at Vauxhall and the place was frequented by all the most fashionable people. It was such a staple of London life that we see references to this pleasure garden in books written at the time, including the works of Charles Dickens and Frances Burney.

Bringing the Exotic to London

Vauxhall changed things up from time to time to keep guests coming back. Periodically, a temporary attraction was erected, often bringing a bit of a foreign land to the pleasure garden. There was a Chinese pavilion, styled to look like a pagoda, where tea and Chinese food was served by workers in costume. A French pavilion was set to look like Versailles. A Roman area gave guests a reason to wear togas and sandals to the garden.