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‘Covered promenades for wet weather’: London’s winter gardens and people’s palaces, 1870–1900

‘Covered promenades for wet weather’: London’s winter gardens and people’s palaces, 1870–1900 This essay explores the interior spaces of three nineteenth-century, London-based, large-scale, multi-functional, public leisure centres — the Alexandra Palace, the Royal Aquarium and Summer and Winter Gardens, and the People’s Palace. Thanks to the possibilities of iron and glass, and the model provided by the Crystal Palace, the new buildings were constructed from the 1870s onwards, offering a new building type and providing London’s working-class population with the recreation that the earlier open-air Pleasure Gardens had offered the aristocracy and the middles classes, albeit indoors. A mixture of entrepreneurialism and social reform drove the development of the new venues. This article seeks to unpack the complex interior spaces of these new buildings, focusing on the components they had in common, among them winter gardens, great halls and ice-skating rinks. The tensions that arose from the attempts, made in all three centres, to combine high cultural educational offerings with more popular passive entertainment are explored, as are the experiences of the visitors. The conclusion briefly considers the legacy of nineteenth-century winter gardens and people’s palaces in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The London Journal: A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present Taylor & Francis

‘Covered promenades for wet weather’: London’s winter gardens and people’s palaces, 1870–1900

‘Covered promenades for wet weather’: London’s winter gardens and people’s palaces, 1870–1900


Abstract

This essay explores the interior spaces of three nineteenth-century, London-based, large-scale, multi-functional, public leisure centres — the Alexandra Palace, the Royal Aquarium and Summer and Winter Gardens, and the People’s Palace. Thanks to the possibilities of iron and glass, and the model provided by the Crystal Palace, the new buildings were constructed from the 1870s onwards, offering a new building type and providing London’s working-class population with the recreation that the earlier open-air Pleasure Gardens had offered the aristocracy and the middles classes, albeit indoors. A mixture of entrepreneurialism and social reform drove the development of the new venues. This article seeks to unpack the complex interior spaces of these new buildings, focusing on the components they had in common, among them winter gardens, great halls and ice-skating rinks. The tensions that arose from the attempts, made in all three centres, to combine high cultural educational offerings with more popular passive entertainment are explored, as are the experiences of the visitors. The conclusion briefly considers the legacy of nineteenth-century winter gardens and people’s palaces in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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References (19)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© The London Journal Trust 2019
ISSN
1749-6322
eISSN
0305-8034
DOI
10.1080/03058034.2019.1699337
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This essay explores the interior spaces of three nineteenth-century, London-based, large-scale, multi-functional, public leisure centres — the Alexandra Palace, the Royal Aquarium and Summer and Winter Gardens, and the People’s Palace. Thanks to the possibilities of iron and glass, and the model provided by the Crystal Palace, the new buildings were constructed from the 1870s onwards, offering a new building type and providing London’s working-class population with the recreation that the earlier open-air Pleasure Gardens had offered the aristocracy and the middles classes, albeit indoors. A mixture of entrepreneurialism and social reform drove the development of the new venues. This article seeks to unpack the complex interior spaces of these new buildings, focusing on the components they had in common, among them winter gardens, great halls and ice-skating rinks. The tensions that arose from the attempts, made in all three centres, to combine high cultural educational offerings with more popular passive entertainment are explored, as are the experiences of the visitors. The conclusion briefly considers the legacy of nineteenth-century winter gardens and people’s palaces in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Journal

The London Journal: A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and PresentTaylor & Francis

Published: May 3, 2020

Keywords: Winter Gardens; Peoples Palaces; Interiors; Multi-Functional; Leisure; Entertainment

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