Festival of Chichester explores rich musical heritage of Vauxhall Gardens

Lynden Cranham has created a very special programme in celebration of the magic and the spirit of Georgian-era London’s famous Vauxhall Gardens.

The concert will be performed by the Consort of Twelve on Sunday, June 29 at 4:30pm as one of the highlights of this year's Festival of Chichester. The entertainment will also feature singer Rebecca Leggett, organist Charles Harrison and speaker/historian David E Coke. The afternoon celebrates Vauxhall's long association with Handel and other composers, with tickets available at £20, student £5, child £1.

And to put you in the perfect frame of mind to enjoy it, historian Alan Green is offering a new walk, earlier that afternoon, exploring where Georgian Cicestrians obtained their entertainment and talking about some of those who influenced the cultural life of the city.

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For Elegant Entertainment in Georgian Chichester, meet at 2pm (Sunday, June 29) at Chichester Cathedral (west entrance), PO19 1PX – nicely in time for the concert.

As Lynden says, Vauxhall Gardens were a pleasure garden and one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century.

“I wanted to do a concert which was based on the Gardens and on the concerts that they used to put on there.”

The concert itself will give much more information about the venue: “But it was an enormous area just south of the Thames where Vauxhall Bridge goes across. It has all been built over now but there were pleasure gardens and there were wooded gardens. Lots about it was very ceremonial. There were all sorts of entertainments there and one of the most important entertainments was the music. They had this large freestanding structure that was called the orchestra. It was a bit like an open-sided bandstand, and there was another building where there was the organ. It was an extraordinary building. You had composers and musicians and performers and singers. You had some of the most famous singers of the time who were associated with it, and you also had Handel who was hugely involved with it. And around this structure there were little kiosks where you could enjoy the music. One of them was selling ham that was apparently so thin that you could see through it!

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“The gardens went on for a very long time. They were so popular that if you took the bridge across in your carriage then you would get stuck in huge traffic jams. One of the ways to arrive was by boat and that must have been quite extraordinary and very magical to see the lights through the trees. It must have been an amazing sight across the river. There were all sorts of various other things going on as well but let's pass over that!”

Lynden has explored the musical history: “I put the programme together. It was enjoyable but very complicated because a lot of the songs are now housed in the Foundling Museum and very often exist simply as the vocal line without much else. It meant a great deal of work!

“We're doing it once and it would be lovely to do it again. We're going to serve wine and soft drinks afterwards, and it would be nice if people felt that they could stay behind and talk more about it with us. And obviously the other lovely thing is that Alan is doing the walk before the concert, about the entertainment that would have been playing in Chichester at that time. He has put it together to complement the concert.”

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