This month sees the publication in book form of essays on Vauxhall Gardens written by the historian David E. Coke …
Caret Press to publish David E. Coke’s Six Essays on Vauxhall Gardens in October 2021
A collection of six papers on Vauxhall Gardens by David E. Coke, a leading expert on London’s Georgian pleasure gardens …
Henry Evans Evanion, ‘The Royal Conjuror’ of Kennington
A recent discovery among a batch of printed ephemera from Victorian Vauxhall by Vauxhall History co-editor and co-author of Vauxhall Gardens: A …
Louise Michel, anarchist heroine of the Paris Commune, tours the Lambeth workhouse
In 1883, Louise Michel, a notorious political radical and veteran of the Paris Commune, was invited to view the Lambeth …
Watercolour nostalgia for Vauxhall Gardens
The recent discovery of an anonymous 19th-century watercolour painting of ‘The Coach Entrance, Royal Gardens, Vauxhall’ has sparked a series of questions …
The Prisoners’ Friend: The Work of the Indefatigable Mrs Meredith in south London
Naomi Clifford, with research assistance from Paul T. Klein, explores the life of Susanna Meredith, a 19th-century pioneer in the …
Knaves or ‘Slaves’? – the Waiters of Vauxhall Gardens
David Coke explores the world of the Vauxhall Gardens waiter. Was he an insolent rascal or the epitome of unobtrusive efficiency?
Online talk: “By her own consent” – The Murder of Mary Ashford and Rape Culture in the Georgian Era
Tuesday 8 December 2020, 7pm. Email southlambethlibrary@lambeth.gov.uk to book a place.
When John Archer took aim at injustice
Sean Creighton, biographer of John Archer, relates how over a century ago this black progressive and Labour activist battled for …
Who was the mystery ‘Lady of Colour’ who sang and gave a pianoforte recital at Vauxhall Gardens in 1822?
Vauxhall Gardens, summer 1822. To great acclaim ‘Madame Georgina’, a singer and classical pianist from Calcutta, accompanies herself and performs …
When ‘Vauxhall’ changed gear and hit the road to make motoring history
Why do all Russian railway stations carry the name of an English middle-class car? Eric Dymock explains all.
Fun and Games at Vauxhall: ‘The New and Favorite Game of Mother Goose and the Golden Egg’, a board game of 1808
By David Coke In 2019 I attended a lecture intriguingly entitled ‘The Shows and Sights of Georgian London – a …
The Man in the White Cotton Suit: William Roupell, MP, Treachery and Fraud in Queen Victoria’s Lambeth
Olga and Michael Leapman tell the story of William Roupell, MP for Lambeth and convicted fraudster.
Vauxhall Park not lost for lavender
The opening of a lavender garden on the former bowling green in 2004 is one of the cheerier and certainly …
When Vauxhall Gardens went global but The Grove lost its groove and the bandstand missed a beat
Arles, Auckland, Baltimore, Barbados, Brussels, Canterbury (NZ) Charleston, Nashville, New York, Melbourne, Pavlovsk, Philadelphia, Stockholm, Toronto, are some of the …
Millicent Fawcett and Vauxhall Park
Millicent Fawcett’s statue by artist Gillian Wearing was unveiled in Westminster on 24 April 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary …
“The Great Original” – C.H. Simpson, Master of Ceremonies at the Royal Gardens Vauxhall 1797–1835
David E. Coke on C.H. Simpson, one of Vauxhall’s great historic characters.
Philip Astley, ringmaster of the modern Circus, commemorated at Westminster Bridge
War hero, trick-rider, entrepreneur with a flair for PR, the Lambeth-based Philip Astley was all of these things and more. …
Why no flowers for Nellie, orchid-painter extraordinaire?
It’s a shame that orchid-lovers cannot leave a bouquet on the precise spot where rests Lambeth’s peerless watercolourist and illustrator …
Talk: Mon 3 Sep. The Opening Night of the Old Vic and the Murder of Mary Ashford
As part of Lambeth Heritage Month, vauxhallhistory.org co-editor Naomi Clifford will be giving a talk on the subject of the …
Rolfe Judd’s light-touch makeover of a Victorian Chapel
This year the architects and town-planners Rolfe Judd celebrate the 50th anniversary of the practice, and have marked the event …
A litter-bin now marks the spot in Vauxhall Gardens where once stood Roubiliac’s life-size statue of Handel: Free Vauxhall Gardens guided history walk, 21 May 2018
Vauxhall Gardens drew visitors from around the world in its 18th-century prime, not least to see Roubiliac’s sensational statue. Pale …
The Old Vic and the murder of Mary Ashford: the opening night of the Royal Coburg Theatre, 11 May 1818
Vauxhall History co-editor Naomi Clifford’s The Murder of Mary Ashford: The Crime That Changed English Legal History (Pen & Sword, …
Kennington, 1795: a highwayman’s dance of death on the gallows
by VauxhallHistory.org online editor Naomi Clifford On his way to the gallows at Kennington Common,[note]The spot where St Mark’s Church …