Regency N(h)ot Spots: The Death of London’s Tea Gardens

A view of London, or, The stranger’s guide through the British Metropolis (1804)

Tea gardens were commonly the domain of the middle class, largely within the grounds of a tavern or pub, and situated on the outskirts of London. These retreats would serve as resorts for cits, and feature outdoor sport and games as well as places to stroll, drink ale or tea, or host parties.

With the rapid urbanization that came with industrialization, many of the tea garden grounds would be replaced by buildings so that in the early 1800s, few would be left.

From The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century (1896), we get a look at the many pleasure gardens. I have selected a few to highlight from the more than twenty.

Adam and Eve Tea Gardens (Tottenham Court Road) on the site of Tottenhall manor house, the Adam and Eve Tavern was thought to have been established sometime in the early 1700s. With spacious gardens of fruit trees and arbours in the rear and side of the tavern, it became a destination for tea drinking parties, with room for skittles and Dutch-pins “in the forecourt which was shadowed by large trees, tables and benches were placed for the visitors.” A monkey, heron, parrots, wild fowl and gold-fish pond were also once boasted attractions.

By the end of the 18th century, rapid development began to enclose the gardens and respectable visitors were usurped by footpads, highwaymen and fancy ladies, so that the magistrates ripped up the gardens and other pleasure grounds sometime in the early 1800s (before 1811).

Removed in 1812 for the creation of Regent’s Park, Marylebone Park’s Jew’s Harp House and tea gardens was a notable place for amusement by 1772. With tea garden, skittles grounds, trap ball ground and tennis court, there were indoor upper rooms for large parties and occasional evening dances. Tea or ale drinking was done at the south of the premise in semi-circular enclosure boxes that were guarded by painted deal-board soldiers.

On the southside of Marylebone Road, the Yorkshire Stingo pub had extensive tea gardens with a bowling green circa 1770. A popular place for middle classes to spend a Sunday, with admittance (including refreshments) at six penny, the Yorkshire Stingo tea gardens thrived over the next forty years. By the mid 1830s, additional activities including gala nights, balloon ascensions, fireworks, and concerts were part of the evening entertainment. Washhouses replaced the tea-gardens in 1848.

The Physic Garden of John Hill after his death in 1775 became the Bayswater Tea Gardens, and were popular with the Oxford Street neighborhood.

By the mid 1800s until its demise in 1854, Bayswater Tea Gardens would be rechristened the Victoria Tea Gardens and become popular for sporting meetings.

The St. Pancras Adam and Eve Tavern originated sometimes near 1730, and was a popular resort of the cit. A long room was used for tea-drinking parties and bean-feasts, and cows were kept for making syllabubs. Bowls and trap ball were played in an adjacent field and gardens were laid out with arbours, flowers and shrubs. By 1803, a portion of the three and a half acres were used to form St Giles-in-the-Fields Cemetery, so that the tavern was pretty much all that was left.

The Flora Tea Gardens (or Mount Gardens) were on Westminster Bridge Road opposite the Temple of Flora. Beginning sometime in 1796 or 1797, the gardens contained “genteel paintings” and well manicured gardens open on weekdays and Sundays, with admission at six pence. For its first three years it was a respectable middle class place that by the 1800s had given way to “dissolute persons”. By 1827, row houses were erected on the site.

Tea gardens were popular because they represent a bucolic resort to those who seldom could escape the city; The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century (1896)

Although the increasing custom of lower classes was sometimes cited as reason for their collapse, it is evident that development pressures, coupled with more Victorian sensibilities made these amusements less profitable than paving paradise.