Gender, Identity and Nature - The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Gender, Identity and Nature: The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Zadee Garrigue

With thanks to my Tutor Ben Stringer

Introduction

- Physical Context

- Societal Context

-

- Rurality and Gender

Three Figures of Vauxhall: The Macaroni, The Prostitute and the Milkmaid

- The Macaroni

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Why Should Architects Study Vauxhall?

Introduction

This dissertation looks at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and explores how it’s physical and societal context allows for a re-evaluation of Gender Identities and Social Hierarchies. It will explore how physical contexts can allow for individual and societal behaviours to be questioned. It will examine how this relationship between nature and public space at the pleasure gardens creates a unique stage onto which gender and identity can be explored. Although the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens have been researched in terms of gender, this dissertation will aim to explore more directly how its nature as a garden and its references to the rural idyll, impact the extent to which it allows for gender identities and social hierarchies to be re-interpreted and re-defined. Rather than just studying how gender is re-evaluated in the gardens, I will aim to explore to what extent the physical and social context is the driver for this evaluation.

The Pleasure Gardens were a place to see and be seen where the art of looking and visual pleasures were at the forefront of the experience. The gardens, on the south bank of the river Thames, sat at the boundary between the city and the country and became a mediator between urban and rural. This, amongst many other aspects of the gardens, allowed for it to become an idealised dream space where visitors as individuals and a community could experiment with their sense of identity.

The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens used a mixture of ‘authentic’ landscapes and artificial representations of idealised versions of the natural world to create a unique typology of public space. The nature of the gardens, their location, the architecture and the art on display all came together to create a unique environment where tensions between: urban - rural, rich - poor, male - female, morality – immorality and native - exotic, can be explored. Idealised versions of the rural idyll and references to the picturesque, helped to create a setting which was almost seen as a utopia, separate from reality where gender and rank began to be redefined and explored by individuals as they represented a version of themselves that was also independent of reality. The gardens were ultimately a democratic space where individuals came together and their identity, as well as that of the nation, could be explored as a form of theatre. It is significant that

this theatre is set in a Garden with all of its complex connotations of idyll, community, fertility, wilderness, control, agency and especially its notions of gender and space.

This dissertation is based on a wide breadth of research and will reference not only written sources but also examine contemporary literary accounts of the gardens. An important part of the studies conducted throughout the research period focus also on visual sources. Examining paintings which formed an important part of the contemporary culture of the gardens, as well as artworks which were on display at Vauxhall and contributed to the attractions on offer to its clients, formed an important part of the research. A large portion of this dissertation will be dedicated to exploring how references to the rural idyll and considerations of the picturesque create a hybrid urban-rural environment where gender and rank can be re-evaluated, through the exploration of three figures present within Vauxhall’s identity. This aims to create a more personal interpretation of the impacts on and effects of gender.

The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

The Pleasure Gardens at Vauxhall represent one of the first commercial, green, public spaces in London. The first records we have of them is as the ‘New Spring Gardens’ which were opened in 1661.1 From then until their closure in 1859 they went through infinite improvements and additions to keep up with the changing tastes of their clients. Jonathan Tyers took over the gardens in 1729 and led them into the height of their popularity which is the context in which we will study them. I have chosen to study them in the 100 years after they re-opened because it is their popularity at this time that makes them so interesting as an important part of the social landscape of Britain at the time.

The emergence of the gardens can be traced back to the increasingly consumerist nature of 18th Century Londoners who were fascinated with the exotic nature of tourism and were willing to pay for the pursuit of pleasure. It is perhaps a typology of public space born from a marriage formed between the popular rural carnival and the admired formal gardens of British Aristocracy. In this sense it is a culmination of culture which transcends class and as we will see, paves the way for a democratic environment where not only societal but also gender norms can be re-evaluated. Its legacy can be seen not only in the hundreds of pleasure gardens across England and the whole of the West which were inspired by Vauxhall’s success, but also in towns like Blackpool which have thrived on monetising the pursuit of pleasure. I would suggest that the genealogy of 21st Century theme parks can also be traced back to the success of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Although there were a multitude of other Pleasure Gardens in London at the time ranging in size, accessibility and popularity, I have chosen to focus on the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens for a few reasons. Firstly because they are generally considered the most successful; the Ranleigh Gardens were probably their fiercest competitors but, with an entry price twice as expensive as Vauxhall’s, they only attracted the higher classes. This gave Vauxhall an exciting edge; with more accessibility came more intrigue and a unique condition where the social construct of rank could be questioned.

Secondly, they were open for the longest which provides us with a much more rich exploration as we study how they evolved for over 100 years. Lastly, their location on the south side of the river Thames, as we will explore in more depth, gave them a much more concrete sense of removal from reality as visitors escaped London to an environment which mediated between country and city.

The gardens were made up of 12 acres of woodland, dissected by wide walks where visitors could process, cementing Vauxhall’s stereotype as a place so ‘see and be seen’. There was a large rotunda which we can see to the left of the Fig 3, that led onto a long picture room. In the centre of the ‘Grove’, which is the area we can see in the foreground, there was a large bandstand to accommodate an orchestra as well as an outdoor organ. Flanking all sides of the Grove were a series of supper boxes, arranged either linearly or forming crescents, which were essentially booths for parties to eat dinner while spectating the scenes of the garden. These supper boxes held paintings by Hogarth and Hayman which are considered to be the first examples of art to be accessed by the public. This was a hugely significant attraction within the gardens and would have been a subject of wonder to many visitors who would have been greatly influenced by the content of these paintings. An extract from an article in The Connoisseur of 1775 explains:

“They have touched up all the pictures which were damaged last season by the fingering of those curious connoisseurs who could not be satisfied without feeling whether the figures were alive”. 2

This Edenic fantasy world, situated on the south bank of the River Thames, provided an escape for Londoners, not just from the pollution and congestion of the city, but also from the social restrictions of polite society. It was in this setting of Groves, Wildernesses, Rural Downs, Grand Walks and Rococo pavilions that all ranks of society came together in the pursuit of pleasure. Visitors would enter into a world of suspended reality, where a thousand lights would illuminate the walks at night, were mechanical cascades of

‘water’ would mesmerise the eye and vast Trompe l’Oeil paintings would deceive visitors in total wonder. Jonathan Conlin puts it well in his article on Vauxhall in the Journal of British Studies:

“Vauxhall’s publicity and painted decorations not only used illusions to toy with visitors, but constantly reminded them of their willed complicity in suspended disbelief. In doing so it obliged them to cross and re-cross the border between illusion and reality with disorientating rapidity”. 3

Similarly to these attractions, sitting on the boundary between country and city gave Vauxhall the ability to create its own reality; a third typology which lay between urban and rural in a sort of suspended reality; emphasizing the visitors experience of escape.

There is a tension created at Vauxhall by the blurring of boundaries of urban and rural, where society, gender, rank and reality become contested and distorted. It is these conditions and their impact on social and gender identities that we will examine. In order to properly understand the gardens it is important to first set them in their context, physically, socially and in terms of gender.

Conlin, Jonathan, “Vauxhall Revisited: The afterlife of a London pleasure garden, 1770-1859”, Journal of British Studies, Vol 45, issue 4, Oct. 2006 pp718-743. This on page 719

Fig 4

Physical Context

Vauxhall’s geographical location, on the south side of the river Thames, at the boundary between country and city, was a vital component in its success. Its location on the fringes of London not only allows it to mediate between the built and natural environments but also helps to give the visitors an increased sense of escape from everyday life. A song from 1763 begins to allude to the journey taken by city-dwellers from town to ‘country’, from ‘smoak’ to ‘pleasure’:

“Now the summer advances and pleasure removes, From the smoak of the Town to the Fields and the Groves, Remind me to hope that your favours again, May smile on this once Happy Plane”.4

The act of crossing the river itself is an important part of this journey away from ‘civilisation’ and adds a physical element to the emotional concept of escape. This is cementing the idea with a very real process of movement. Additionally, the intimate connection with water re-enforces the garden’s proximity to nature. The more uncontrollable nature of a large body of flowing water adds to the drama of the journey and foreshadows the atmosphere inside the gardens. Perhaps the journey across the river could be recreating a boat ride through Venice to St Mark’s Square, evoking something which feels exotic and foreign in an attempt to provide an alternative to the Grand Tour for Londoners.

This very notion of Vauxhall at the boundary between city and country was the perfect stage on which to project the picturesque ideals that were gaining popularity at the time, albeit in a more metaphorical way than in the physical layout of the landscape. As John Brewer notes in his book The Pleasures of the Imagination, “The perfect position for the picturesque tourist was therefore on the boundary between cultivated and wild nature, so that the variety and contrast between the beautiful and the sublime could be appreciated as the picturesque”.5

Here we can catch a glimpse into the 18th Century city dwellers psyche. Viewing nature through the lens of the picturesque rendered it seemingly more beautiful. Indeed, tourists on their Tours of England preferred to look at the ‘wild’ landscapes of the Lake District through the literal lens of a Claude Glass than to interact directly with the nature around them. The Claude Glass (Fig 5) requires them to go so far as to turn their backs on the view to inspect it through this strange mirror of optical illusions. The glasses were often tinted to help give the view a ‘painterly’ aesthetic. This process of being at the fringes of nature and looking out onto it in a heavily manipulated and controlled way, speaks to how city-dwellers preferred to interact with the landscape they found themselves in. Perhaps this can help us to understand how successful Vauxhall was when we realise that, similarly to the Claude Glass, it is attempting to represent an aesthetically pleasing, tamed and curated version of nature.

This idealisation of a landscape extends to the concept of the Rural Idyll which is so prominent at Vauxhall. The gardens become a microcosm for how city-dwellers not only perceived their environments, in terms of city and country, but also, and importantly, how they wished to interact with these contexts. Understanding the theme of the rural idyll is so important in our exploration of this space and its impacts on societal and gendered identities and behaviours.

Song from 1763 Quoted on pg. 73 of Conlin, Jonathan, ed “The Pleasure Garden, from Vauxhall to Coney Island”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Accessed March 14, 2021. ProQuest EBook Central Brewer, John, “The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century”. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. Accessed March 14, 2021. ProQuest EBook Central.

Fig 5 - Claude Glass

Societal Context

The 18th Century, in the midst of the enlightenment and on the brink of the industrial revolution, is a time where we see Britain’s identity shifting and represents a fascinating period to study the social environment of the Pleasure Gardens in terms of their relationship to nature and gender identities.

The theme of the rural idyll is extremely prominent at Vauxhall in terms of the social connotations that it holds. I would argue that the idealisation of rural communities as inclusive and tight knit is a large factor contributing to the fact that the gardens are heralded as a democratic space.

“The perceived harmony of social relations has assumed an important role in the rural idyll and, more specifically, in the images and myths surrounding the village community. Even where poverty and deprivation are acknowledged and where that deprivation is linked to poor wages and exploitation, the traditional rural community is represented as a place of happiness and solidarity where kinship ties prevail and where relationships are unfailingly ‘tight knit’.” 6

Here we see quite evidently, that despite a rather harsh reality, the perception of rural communities was idealised and presented to the city-dweller as inspirationally idyllic and ultimately democratic. We can see the emergence of this democratic space as the Pleasure Gardens mark a shift from society evolving solely around private estates and royal courts, to public, commercial spaces.7 This is significant because it is a direct reaction to the political turmoil surrounding France in the midst of the French Revolution. The gardens aimed to provide an alternative to the rigid geometry of a French Garden, which promoted strict hierarchical control, and instead made space for Wildernesses and Rural Downs that referenced an idealisation of British rurality and contributed to a strong sense of national pride. Indeed Stephen Bending Wrote that,

“Gardens are microcosms, speaking of and reacting to a world beyond themselves”. 8

We can see this theme running through so many elements of the gardens. For example, the octagonal picture room held a series of patriotic paintings depicting Britain’s triumphs at war. This is particularly interesting when we note that between each of these paintings sat a mirror. These are very intentionally placed to project the visitor’s image next to that of a triumphant Britain in an attempt to create a narrative of individual and collective British patriotism. Placing the individual at the centre of British Pride, depicted an ultimately inclusive and democratic ideal. The gardens are not only reflecting their societal and political context but they are also attempting to suggest how to shape one’s identity.

The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, as a space built on consumption, were reflecting society’s fascination with the Grand Tour. As the young elite set off for their travels around Europe, Londoners looked to the Pleasure Gardens for their exotic escapes. This notion is very important when we look at Vauxhall’s pull as a place where reality is distorted just enough that its visitors get a real sense of escape from everyday life. As reality is distorted, individuals and communities are given the opportunity to question and re-interpret societal norms in a way that is not possible in other public spaces which are more closely rooted in reality.

Little, J. & Austin, P. (1996) “Women and the rural idyll”. Journal of rural studies. [Online] 12 (2), 101–111. Greig, Hannah. “‘All Together and All Distinct’: Public Sociability and Social Exclusivity in London’s Pleasure Gardens, ca. 1740–1800.” The Journal of British studies 51, no. 1 (2012): 50–75.

Bending, Stephen. “Green Retreats: Women, Gardens and Eighteenth-Century Culture”. Cambridge University Press, June2013. The Music Room at Vauxhall, painted ca. 1770. This room led onto the picture room where the patriotic paintings were displayed. Here too, however, we can notice the presence of mirrors on the walls.

Fig 6

Fig 6

Gender Context

When we are exploring how gender is re-defined in the pleasure gardens and how this is linked to nature and Vauxhall’s setting as a garden, it is vital to look further at the societal context in which it sat to understand how gender was perceived within this cultural context.

If we look at femininity in rural settings we see that they can provide an opportunity for gender to be questioned. Stephen Bending’s research states that:

“When we turn to the accounts of gardening left to us by 18th Century women, passive acceptance of gender roles and the cultural narratives that support them is far from universal. Rather, gardens are recognised as the opportunity for a self-fashioning engagement with cultural norms and narratives”.9

More specifically, if we explore the typology of the enclosed garden as a tamed nature, it is often associated with leisure and domesticity and so in turn, femininity. On the other hand, masculinity is associated with hard labour and an industrialised version of rurality. If we begin to look deeper into these themes we can explore how gendered spaces affected behaviours. Women are seen to have a much greater sense of agency in domestic settings. Hence the cottage garden, for example, presents us with a space where nature is associated with femininity and agency.10 If we look outside of the pleasure garden’s walls we can see examples of these ideas embedded into contemporary culture. Thomas Gainsborough was a painter working throughout the first 40 or so years of Vauxhall’s popularity. He even worked with Francis Hayman on some of the supper box paintings in the Gardens although we don’t have a record of which ones were his.11 Gainsborough was fascinated with depicting idyllic scenes of British rurality which led to a large series of works known as his Cottage Door’s. In his most well-known rendition of a rural cottage (Fig 6), we see an idealised bucolic setting where, central to the image, a woman takes her place as a maternal figure in control of her domestic, rural world. This is important as it helps us to place this idea of a woman with agency in a domestic rural sphere as an important part of the cultural memory of Londoner’s at the time.

Bending, Stephen. “Green Retreats: Women, Gardens and Eighteenth-Century Culture”. Cambridge University Press, June2013. Carubia, Josephine, Dowler, Lorraine, and Szczygiel, Bonj, eds. “Gender and Landscape : Renegotiating the Moral Landscape”. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. Accessed January 11, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.

“Thomas Gainsborough - The Complete Works - Thomas-Gainsborough.Org”. https://www.thomas-gainsborough.org/ Accessed Jan 11 2022.

Fig 7

As we explore the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens further, it is important to take a moment to talk about pleasure more specifically, as one half of Vauxhall’s identity, and how this relates to the question of gender. Bishop Berkeley argued that there were three kinds of pleasure which, importantly, held a specific position within a set hierarchy: Pleasure of Reason, came first, then Pleasure of Imagination and at the bottom Pleasure of Sense. Stephen Bending argues that;

“What makes pleasure gardens such exciting places in the period, however, is that they assume an interplay between reason, imagination and sense, but not always the kind of hierarchy on which Bishop Berkeley insists: the pleasures of the sense could sometimes outweigh the more lofty claims of reason. The interplay between all three could offer its own kinds of pleasure, of course, and some of the major pleasure gardens of the period made this their goal; but it also represented a challenge for the individual as they considered the use of their time, the nature of leisure, the sense of a moment set apart from their everyday experience of life, and they considered also their sense of themselves in the world.” 12

If Bishop Berkeley’s hierarchy represents reality, and is present in most other social contexts, then Vauxhall’s deliberate attempt to topple this hierarchy represents its desire to provide an alternative to reality and hence create a paradisical environment where this reality is questioned.

Understanding pleasure, especially in relation to the gardens, is vital in the exploration of gender at Vauxhall. Pleasure was seen as highly gendered; women for example were, in polite society, expected to have little to no sexual appetite and remain solely focused on procreation, while they themselves were highly sexualised in paintings and literature. As we have seen, these conditions begin to be dismantled and questioned in the gardens and gender becomes less traditionally defined as the balance of power begins to shift and the hierarchies of pleasure are dismantled. I would suggest that this shift occurs as a result of the physical context of the gardens; their idealisation of the

natural world and fascination with the rural idyll creates a unique environment for these explorations of gender and social hierarchies to take place.

The Rural Idyll

As we have touched on, understanding and examining references to the Rural Idyll is vital in understanding how Vauxhall’s nature as a garden allows for explorations of gender identities to take place. This section aims to explore the theme of the Rural Idyll in much more detail.

Perhaps as a bid to keep up with the picturesque ideals that were gaining popularity at the time, the regular, controlled lines of the walks were offset with wilder landscapes such as the ‘Wilderness’ where taller trees and thick shrubbery encouraged visitors to loose themselves, or the ‘Rural Downs’ where “lambs were seen sporting”.13 This imagery of lambs playing evokes a certain innocence and presents the visitor with an interpretation of the idyllic English landscape. This reference to the rural idyll is one among many which help us to understand the unique environment created in the gardens which allowed for societal and gender identities to be questioned.

Stephen Bending wrote that “the shaping of physical space is the shaping also of identity”.14 This idea is quite clearly present when we look at the very deliberate positioning of Patriotic paintings and mirrors in the Picture Room. More subtly perhaps, the prominence of references to the rural idyll within the gardens is helping to create a really strong sense of place and, more subtly than the patriotic paintings of the picture room, they are creating an atmosphere of national pride. That pride is connected to a sense of community and democracy.

References to the rural idyll are present in many other key elements of the gardens. The Trompe L’Oeil paintings, for example, sat at the ends of the Grand Walks and represented visitors with an idealised version of a landscape rather than the real English countryside which stretched out beyond them.15 Depicting idealised scenes of Tuscan Landscapes or fantasized ruins these huge paintings sought to add to the illusion of the gardens and curate an atmosphere which felt exotic and other worldly. This image (Fig 8) of Vauxhall imagines one of these Trompe L’Oeil paintings as a real ruin at the end of one of the walks and suggests to us the impact of wonder it could have had on

its viewers who were willing to forget its in-authenticity. This is an example of how Vauxhall is re-inventing its identity using an idealised version of the natural world and in so doing paving the way for its visitors to do the same.

Quoted pg. 59 in Conlin, Jonathan, ed “The Pleasure Garden, from Vauxhall to Coney Island”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Accessed March 14, 2021. ProQuest EBook Central Bending, Stephen. “Green Retreats: Women, Gardens and Eighteenth-Century Culture”. Cambridge University Press, June2013. De Bolla, Peter, “The Education of the Eye: Painting, Landscape and Architecture in Eighteenth- Century Britain”. Stanford University Press, California, 2003.

Showing an imagined version of Vauxhall where a Trompe L’Oeil paintings, which sat at the end of a great walk, is painted as real.

Fig 8

Fig 8

Elm trees, as seen in Fig 9, lining the Grand Walk and the Grove, were commonly associated with rurality. Indeed, the iconography of the Elm was well known at the time and was reproduced in various mediums:

“Wordsworth grafted this classical literary symbol to the native folk symbol of the maypole in his image of ‘The Joyful Elm/ around whose trunk the maidens dance in May’ ”.16

This is interesting for multiple reasons. Firstly, when we look at how Wordsworth is associating the elm tree with the maypole it is important to note that the latter is a very gendered space. As a place predominantly occupied by ‘maidens’ it becomes synonymous with femininity and leisure in a rural setting. Perhaps this too is contributing to the layers of references which promote the feminising of space and hence the upheaval of gender norms in the public realm. Secondly, and perhaps more obviously, the conscious use of Elm trees is particularly interesting as they form the controlled, regular shape of the great walk. I would contend that this is an example of how the gardens tried to represent the rural idyll In a language that can be read by the city dweller: a street. This, again, links back to the picturesque as John Brewer explains that:

“The enthusiasm for the picturesque was all about this translation of what at a distance seemed wild into something more orderly and civilised”. 17

We can see here an example of this mediation between city and nature; recreating the rural at the boundary of the urban. This creation of a space that is neither city or country, emphasises this idea of a space removed from reality and leads us to understand how societal norms can begin to be dismantled.

Illusions are a key aspect of Vauxhall’s attempt to create a form of utopia. In this case the utopia takes the form of a space held in the balance between rurality and urbanity where the idealisation of the rural idyll is in tension with the city and its social constructs.

Daniels, Simon, ‘The political iconography of Woodland in Later Georgian England’ in “The Iconography of Landscape; Essays on the Symbolic representation, design and use of past environments”, ed. Denis Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pg. 50

Brewer, John, “The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century”. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. Accessed March 14, 2021. ProQuest EBook Central.

Showing The Grove where Elm trees line the space and the great walk stretching out in the distance.

Fig 9

Fig

One of the ‘illusions’ placed at Vauxhall was the theatrical installation known as the Cascade. As an important part of the visual theatre of the gardens it held references not only to the rural idyll but also to this taming of nature into a form that could be consumed by the city dweller.

“By drawing up a curtain is shewn a most beautiful landscape in perspective of a fine open hilly country with a miller’s house and a water mill, all illuminated by concealed lights; but the principal object that strikes the eye is a cascade or water fall. The exact appearance of water is seen flowing down a declivity; and turning the wheel of the mill, it rises up in a foam at the bottom, and then glides away. This moving picture attended with the noise of the cascade has a very pleasing and surprising effect on both the eye and ear”.18

This performance of moving ‘water’ was an attempt to evoke feelings of wonder and illusion that contributed to this sense of theatre and festivities in the gardens.

The importance of this idealisation of a rural idyll and a connection with the ‘natural’ elements of Vauxhall is never more evident than when we see its decline in relation to the sprawling city. As London grows and engulfs the gardens they lose their ability to mediate between town and country, the sense of escape is lost and the illusion of a rural idyll becomes less and less convincing. There are of course other socio-political trends which impact the continued success of Vauxhall, but I would argue that its demise was, at the heart of it, down to the loss of its unique positioning on the boundary between country and city and its ability to create a convincing portrayal of a rural utopia. The loss of its paradisical status relates also to shifts in the cultural imagination of its visitors who are increasingly turning away from the rural towards an industrialised, urban ideal.

1762 “Vauxhall Guidbook”, London, printed for S. Hooper, at Caesar’s Head, the corner of the New Church, in the Strand. 1762. Accessed March 14, 2021. https://westernpublicpleasuregardens.blogspot.com/2020/05/1762-vauxhall-guidebook.html

Map from 1762 showing Vauxhall still surrounded by fields and the countryside with London’s built environment only just appearing to the North. This is in contrast with Fig 11, showing Vauxhall in 1837 where London has begun to surround it.

Fig 10. Vauxhall 1762

Fig 11. Vauxhall 1837

Fig 10

As we explore this theme of the Rural Idyll at the Pleasure Gardens we begin to see how important the theme of the Carnivalesque becomes at Vauxhall. A concept defined by Mikhail Bakhtin, the Carnivalesque signifies an idea of festivity which is grotesque and disobedient where forbidden laughter becomes fetishized.19 The fact that the carnivalesque as an idea is linked not to aristocracy and urbanity, but to the working classes and rurality, becomes important in the context of Vauxhall. This is not only due to the democratic connotations of a lower entry fee, but also because it highlights the importance of the rural idyll in creating an environment where city-dwellers are encouraged to ‘play’ at being in the country. The carnivalesque becomes a mechanism through which Londoner’s could re-invent their identities as idyllic rural folk who were hence permitted to disobey the city’s social constructs. With the carnivalesque we can see directly how this environment, which mediated between country and city, and fetishised an idealised rurality allowed for the dismantling not only of social hierarchies but also traditional gender identities.

Hayman, Timothy, Malbert, Roger. “Carnivalesque”. London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2000. The Fight Between Carnival and Lent - painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1559.

Fig

Rurality and Gender

The notion of this idealisation of the rural idyll is a theme that is hugely influential to the creation of an atmosphere where social hierarchies and gender identities can be challenged and dismantled. This next section aims to look in more depth at how gender and nature are connected and how they are represented at Vauxhall.

Firstly, if we look at masculinity and rurality we see that in a rural setting masculinity is associated with hard labour, strength and work20 and so in contrast femininity in nature must be associated with leisure. This is particularly interesting when we look at the supper box paintings (right) which depict men in pursuits of pleasure in rural settings. For example in Blind Man’s Bluff, Leap Frog or Playing at Cricket, men, leisure and rurality are all in harmony. This suggests a shift wh

This suggests a shift where masculine and feminine become contested. Indeed in ‘The Country Dancers around the May Pole’ (Fig 13) both men and women are seen dancing. This is a prime example of how they are beginning to suggest the possibilities for a dismantling of traditional gender identities as May Pole Dancing was a largely feminized pursuit. As masculinity in rural environments is considered to be associated with labour, it could be said that it is also connected to agency.

“Aspects of hegemonic masculinity and the rural are mutually constituted through structures of power or decision making”. 21

Therefore when we see this masculinity in association with leisure and hence femininity, we are beginning to blur the boundaries between who has agency and who does not so perhaps paving the way for women to take on more agency in this setting. We will look more closely at this idea of agency in the following chapters.

Little, Jo. “Rural Geography: Rural Gender Identity and the Performance of Masculinity and Femininity in the Countryside.” Progress in human geography 26, no. 5 (2002): 665–670.

Little, Jo. “Rural Geography: Rural Gender Identity and the Performance of Masculinity and Femininity in the Countryside.” Progress in human geography 26, no. 5 (2002): 665–670. pg 669. This image, along with Fig 14, 15 and 16, all depict engravings of the paintings which went on to sit in the Supper Boxes at Vauxhall.

Fig 13- The Country Dancers around the May Pole

Fig 14 - Blind Man’s Buff

Fig 16 - Playing at Cricket

Fig 15 - The Humorous Diversions of Sliding on the Ice

Fig 17 - Leap Frog

Fig 14

If we look then more closely at femininity and nature we see an association of women with flower gardens. This is because they are associated with domesticity. The idea of the enclosed garden as a tamed version of the wild is translated into a very gendered space as a flower garden.

“The flower garden is insistently equated with women, with a private female sphere set apart from the public world, and […] with a culturally defined range of respectable actions and attitudes”. 22

Indeed this idea is never more present than when we look at the typology of the cottage garden in its intensely rural and idealised setting.

“The walls around each cottage garden stand or mediate between nature & culture; the gardens themselves create a small defensive clearing of culture, or nature tamed, as a heaven within the wilderness of the wider world; a spatial morality”. 23

Here culture is re-presented as ‘nature tamed’, a theme that, as we have seen, is nowhere more evident than at Vauxhall. This idea of spatial morality also becomes deeply influential in the setting of the Pleasure Garden where traditional ideas of morality are more contested than in any other public space. The effect that these concepts of morality have on the gendering of space will be further explored in later chapters.

Vauxhall itself is a form of enclosed garden, where the picturesque ideals lead it to curate an idealised version of nature and rurality. If the Pleasure gardens present us with a version of an enclosed garden that is intensely public, where leisure and viewing is at the forefront of its appeal, is it then questioning a woman’s place in that setting? There is then a tension created where visitors are forced to question the nature of their environment as a private enclosed garden becomes the stage for public pleasures. I would say that Vauxhall was a place where the boundaries between masculine and feminine, just like those between country and city, public and private and reality and illusion can be explored.

Bending, Stephen. “Green Retreats: Women, Gardens and Eighteenth-Century Culture”. Cambridge University Press, June2013. Carubia, Josephine, Dowler, Lorraine, and Szczygiel, Bonj, eds. “Gender and Landscape : Renegotiating the Moral Landscape”. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. Accessed January 11, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central. pg. 50 Depicting an Enclosed Garden as a feminized space.

Fig 18

Fig

The Three Figures of Vauxhall

In order to explore how gender is re-presented and re-defined in the Pleasure Gardens I have chosen to look at three figures who were present, physically and in representation, at Vauxhall: The Macaroni, the Prostitute and the Milkmaid.

The Macaroni The Prostitute The Milkmaid

Fig 19

Fig 20

Fig 21

The Macaroni

The Macaroni originated as a name for a group of men who, after spending time in Italy and France on their Grand Tours, preferred to set themselves apart from the traditional English men by dressing and acting altogether differently. They wore bright colours with ornate detailing and were known for their inappropriate and outlandish behaviour while drinking and eating to excess.24 These excesses are commonly associated with themes of the carnivalesque which is perhaps why the Macaroni feel so at home within the setting of a rural festival at Vauxhall. They are particularly interesting to us in this context for many reasons.

Firstly their elaborate outfits were seen to promote an effeminacy and potentially homosexuality because they resembled women’s fashions much more closely than men’s, which in the context of the gardens only aided this sense of illusion.25 The Macaroni’s close connection with the Pleasure Gardens re-enforces this as a space for gender to be re-defined, especially when we recall how masculinity and rurality were traditionally defined. The Macaroni are questioning their identity and their gender through their clothes and behaviour in a setting which is at the boundary between city and country where femininity begins to take control of a social and commercial space.

If we look further into these complex characters we come across an event called the Vauxhall Affray26 which raises questions about the right to look, who can look at whom, and when, where and why they can do so. In this particular event a group of Macaroni were staring at a Lady in a supposedly ‘inappropriate’ manner which resulted in one of her companions challenging the Macaroni to a boxing match. This brings up the question of how men perceived their right to look at women, a topic which remains relevant today. I wonder whether this is an early example of the he-for-she movement, or simply a battle between men who felt a sense of ownership over a woman and therefore their right to look at her.

The subject of looking is so prevalent at Vauxhall where visual pleasures are at the forefront of the experience. The idea that the gardens are a space for looking and

being looked at, re-enforces the idea that it is a stage onto which you can project an idealised version of yourself, just as Vauxhall projects an idealised version of nature onto the space.

Tullett, William. “The Macaroni’s ‘Ambrosial Essences’: Perfume, Identity and Public Space in Eighteenth-Century England.” Journal for eighteenth-century studies 38, no. 2 (2015): 163–180.

Ogborn, Miles. “Locating the Macaroni: Luxury, Sexuality and Vision in Vauxhall Gardens.” Textual practice 11, no. 3 (1997): 445–461. Ogborn, Miles. “Locating the Macaroni: Luxury, Sexuality and Vision in Vauxhall Gardens.” Textual practice 11, no. 3 (1997): 445–461. Image on the front cover of a leaflet explaining the ‘Vauxhall Affray’. Here the man who sought to protect an ‘objectified’ lady is shown sacrificing the Macaroni responsible as she announces “ this incense will revive degraded manhood”. This points to the impact the Macaroni had on traditional ideas about gender at the time.

Fig 22

The Italian Opera House

As we continue to explore the art of looking and the gendering of space it is helpful to look again at the context in which Vauxhall sits. This brings us to look at the Italian Opera House in St James’ now known as Her Majesty’s Theatre at Haymarket. Spatially there are parallels to be drawn between the two if we look at the Private Boxes at the Opera house and the Supper Boxes at Vauxhall. What is interesting about these two spaces is that they are both set up to enhance the viewing experience of either a professional performance or the theatre of people watching although the conditions and outcomes feel rather different. At the opera house the viewing feels much more one directional, whether that be from the private boxes towards the performers, or in the private green room. In this green room, situated below the stage representing a physical and mental boundary between the audience and the performers, select male season ticket holders could watch and converse with the female performers up close after the show. This becomes a microcosm for how women are sexualised within the Opera as a whole but pushes it to its extreme. The boundary between public and private is blurred, yet here looking is a masculine pursuit and there is little to no feminine agency – they are reduced to objects for observation. At the opera house Jane Rendell comments that:

At Vauxhall however the looking is much less one directional; as the visitors become part of the performance themselves they become the objects of observation as well as the observers. This is particularly interesting in terms of gender. As the active looking and being looked are qualities attributed to both male and female in the context of the gardens, we see these hierarchies begin to dismantle and the opportunity for a questioning of gender arises. For example, at the Opera house in an area called the pit, at the front of the seating area, men would loudly catcall the dancers who’s legs they could see better from below.28 This confirms the idea that:

The Italian Opera House

Looking is One-directional + Hierarchical

The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Looking is Multi-directional + Democratic

Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002. Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002.

“Looking is active and gendered masculine, being looked at is passive and feminized”.27

“This model of the male gaze and the female spectacle, although binary in nature and over-simplified, provides a useful starting point for thinking about the gendering of space through looking”.29

This behaviour, however, is not so present at Vauxhall and I would contend that, again, this is because the men become part of the performance so there is this shift to an environment where everyone is on show and the viewing is hence multi-directional. This also creates a shift in the balance of power as women take on the masculine rights to look and men take on the feminized role of ‘spectacle’. Comparing these spaces is also particularly interesting when we consider Jane Rendell’s argument that;

“The location of the Italian opera house to the west of this divide [regent’s street] gave it a social status distinct from the theatre district to the east, a status that was not connected with the lower classes immorality and prostitution”.30

At Vauxhall however this concern about the lower classes, immorality and prostitution is much less present. In fact part of its success is down to the fact that it embraces all of these things, Kings and Prostitutes were both frequent visitors. Vauxhall’s environment becomes an outlier within the social context of London. Rather than using its displacement from the West End to cement its exclusivity, it uses this location to create a paradisical environment where the importance of rank is diluted as reality is contested. So I would argue that, in contrast to Jane Rendell’s view that location creates exclusivity, Vauxhall’s location on the south side of the Thames, as well as its setting as a garden, with all of the complex social conditions that it creates, makes it a venue capable of great success despite, and probably even due to, its acceptance of lower ranks of society.

Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002. Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002. Map of London from 1795 with annotations to show the displacement of the Italian Opera House from the West End and in turn the displacement of Vauxhall from the Opera House.

Fig 23

Fig 23

The Prostitute

The fact that Vauxhall was a place for individuals to explore their identity in a world that was removed from reality created a condition where prostitutes and aristocrats took on an equal part in the visual performance of the gardens. At the time, prostitution was one of the only ways a woman could support herself financially and so one could argue that by creating an environment where women have an increased sense of agency, Vauxhall encouraged this independence in women by presenting them as equal to all others, and allowing for a liberation of their sexuality and the acceptance of prostitution. I would suggest that, as a place where visibility and the act of looking were at the forefront of the activities, Vauxhall did in fact provide a safer space for women engaged in prostitution. Not simply because of the self-policing nature of an environment where hundreds of eyes from all ranks are taking in the scenes, but also because they were a seamless part of this crowd, prostitutes seemed to gain more status and the power balance began to shift. At the opera house on the other hand:

“Decked-out-girls, were represented as seductive spectacles, painted and decorated with artificial flowers, muffs, feathers and jewellery”.31

We can appreciate a very evident contrast here. This description speaks to the difference in representation of the identity of a prostitute in the rest of London compared to at Vauxhall. Whilst at the Opera house prostitutes were paraded as objects of beauty to be consumed, at Vauxhall they mingled seamlessly into the crowd which was in itself the spectacle. Within the gardens prostitutes seemed to gain more status as the power balance began to shift and their place in a traditional societal hierarchy was re-defined.

The figure of the prostitute is also interesting to us when we examine themes of morality in connection with nature and particularly enclosed gardens. Here again we find one of the many contradictions at Vauxhall which I would argue enable this contesting of traditional moralities. Walker argues that morality is:

“locate[d]… in practices of responsibility that implement commonly shared understandings about who gets to do what to whom and who is supposed to do what for whom”.32

In this setting where the identities of prostitute and aristocrat are confused as they occupy the same spaces and the same sense of agency, this understanding of ‘who gets to do what to whom’ becomes lost and so I would suggest that ‘morality’ is being contested. This questioning of morality is accepted at Vauxhall unlike in other public realms, such as the opera house green room where it is completely rejected. In the green room it is understood that the wealthy male patrons can look at the female performers, it has a distinct direction and accepted hierarchy which sits comfortably within Walkers definition of morality. At Vauxhall these hierarchies are confused, viewing is multi directional and responsibility seems lost. Vauxhall allows for prostitutes to play at aristocrats just as they play as rural dwellers so they become accepted in a way they are not elsewhere. This setting allows for the acceptance of the prostitute as part of the landscape of the garden and so I would argue that it also allows for the liberation of female sexuality and agency.

The impact of light in the gardens is certainly complex and meaningful. Alice Barnaby discusses how this reaches far further than just creating an consumerist attraction.

“The aesthetic of light was used to mediate an interchangeable relationship between the attraction of Nature in the pleasure garden, and ideals of feminine beauty”.33

Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002 Carubia, Josephine, Dowler, Lorraine, and Szczygiel, Bonj, eds. “Gender and Landscape : Renegotiating the Moral Landscape”. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005. Accessed January 11, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central. pg. 3. Barnaby, Alice. “Light Touches: Cultural Practices of Illumination, London 1780-1840”. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2009.

By creating this link between light and feminine beauty, Barnaby is referencing a personification of light as female within the context of the garden. This leads us to yet another contradiction. On one hand, the emphasis on lighting as one of the primary attractions of the gardens in the early 1800’s could suggest that they have become a feminised space. On the other hand, as this almost fetishised aesthetic attraction, the association of light with femininity could just be re-enforcing this idea that women are created to be admired as beautiful things. This idea of one directional viewing comes back into play. This being said, I would suggest that this argument has less weight. The importance of the lighting, when it comes to gender, suggests a rather more interesting debate about safety and visibility in the Gardens.

Arup conducted a piece of research, which was aimed at looking at making cities safer for women. The research found that bright light did not contribute to women feeling safer.34 They concluded that, although this was not the only solution needed, women would feel safer in areas where the light was evenly distributed and diffused. Perhaps Vauxhall’s thousands of small lights, illuminating the grand walks, were a precursor to this 21st Century research. This being said, whether the lighting was put in to protect women, or simply to improve respectability is up for discussion. I would suggest that most likely it was for the latter. The effect of the lighting, which was increasingly present in the gardens in the 1800’s, is interesting. I wonder whether the effect it had on women can raise a question also of privilege. In the case of the young woman whose virtue was at stake, increased lighting could have been a welcome comfort. Whereas for the prostitute who used the gardens to support herself, was this a huge disadvantage? One could, on the other hand, take on the argument that, seeing as there is no evidence to suggest that prostitution waned after the increase in lighting, rather it seems to have thrived, women who relied on prostitution were actually safer.

“Lighting Cities: Creating Safer Spaces for Women and Girls”. Monash University, Art, Design and Architecture. https://www. monash.edu/mada/research/lighting-cities Accessed Jan 11, 2022. Lighting Strategy implimened by Arup to improve public spaces at nigh time. Still from the series ‘Bridgerton’ on Netflix depicting an interpretation of Vauxhall’s thousands of lights which illuminated the great walks.

Fig 24

Fig 25

Fig 24

Fig 25

The Milkmaid

The association of prostitution with the gardens points to the association of femininity and sex with a natural or rural setting. Nowhere is this connection more present than in the figure of the Milkmaid. As a common symbol for sex that is directly linked with rurality this figure is represented at Vauxhall in this Supper Box Painting. The Milkmaid’s Garland depicts the tradition of milkmaids processing through the village streets as they are given gifts by male onlookers; she becomes a fetishised rural figure. Perhaps the identification of the milkmaid as an influential figure at Vauxhall alludes to the acceptance of the prostitute as another symbol for sex and femininity.

This painting not only presents us with the image of the Milkmaid but importantly it represents her within a festival setting. This becomes especially relevant within the context of the gardens given their carnivalesque character which we have already explored. Here the excess of the carnivalesque is represented by the towering mound of gifts offered to the maid as she processes through the streets. The promenade, an activity deeply embedded into Vauxhall’s identity, is represented here as the procession taken by the Milkmaid. This places her at the centre of her onlooker’s attentions. The milkmaids are represented here as objects of rural beauty to be consumed by the male figures in the image. As the act of looking comes back into question we find yet another contradiction in the gardens. This painting is suggesting the opposite of Vauxhall’s quality as a place where viewing is multi-directional and instead fetishises the milkmaids as these beauties to be visually consumed. This seems to be representing the conflict within and beyond the gardens about women and gender in general.

The painting is perhaps simply presenting us with a figure that is representing an idealised version of rurality. The idea that rurality is associated with a flourishing and healthy sexuality, as opposed to urban life which is seen as corrupted by moral disorder, is closely linked with the image of the Milkmaid. This is indeed a prevalent theme in the Pleasure Gardens. There are many medical writings at the time which associate health and nature with sex and importantly effective reproduction.

The Milkmaid’s Garland depicting a rural ritual of procession through the streets. Fig 26

Fig 26

“The idea that rural labourers were more sexually adept and more sexually desirable than urban people because they were exposed to fresh air and physical exercise was a familiar theme in medical writing in the 1700’s”.35

As we have seen, patriotism was a common theme at Vauxhall and nothing was seen as more patriotic than reproduction because a growing population was associated with the success of a nation. Hence the milkmaid in the gardens becomes more than just a symbol for sex and the tension between masculinity and femininity, but she also becomes a symbol for British pride.

If we look further afield to understand the figure of the milkmaid and her significance we come across the prevalence of the Pleasure Dairy. The idea of the Pleasure Dairy epitomises this idea of representing an element of the rural idyll in a way that can be consumed by the upper classes.

“Like other forms of early modern European pastoral art and literature, pleasure dairies offered an idealized representation of rural life that embodies the desires, alleviated the anxieties, and certified the authority of the ruling class in a time of great social and political upheaval”.36

This evaluation suggests that the idealisation of Milkmaids within the gardens proves to be another contradiction. Whilst Vauxhall’s democratic ideals seem to accept the milkmaid, and in turn the prostitute and macaroni, within its cultural identity, it could be argued that in reality this acceptance is only emphasizing traditional social hierarchies. If the upper classes can appropriate images synonymous with rurality, labour and the lower classes, within this setting for leisure, are they simply cementing their social standing even further? Overall I would suggest, that whilst this is in part true, the idea that there was even an idealisation of the lower rural classes amongst the London elite, shows us that there is beginning to be a shift in perception. There is no doubt that Vauxhall presents us with an environment where there is a shift in the balance of power

not only between genders but also between ranks. The fact that Vauxhall allows not only for aristocratic members of society to play at re-inventing their identities, but also for lower classes to do so, suggests that it was a more democratic environment which was responding to the universal need to express one’s own identity and to question it.

Ganev, Robin. “Milkmaids, Ploughmen, and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Britain.” Journal of the history of sexuality 16, no. 1 (2007): 40–67.

Martin, Meredith. Dairy Queens the Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de’ Medici to Marie-Antoinette. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Photograph of Maire Antoinette’s Pleasure Dairy in the grounds of Versailles.

Fig 27

Fig

Female Agency at Vauxhall

The milkmaid and the prostitute present us with a common theme: women with agency being accepted in natural settings. This supper box painting “Fairies Dancing on the Green by Moonlight” (Fig 28) we can see that Vauxhall is not only referencing a wider cultural interest in a fairy-tale utopia, but is also attaching it to the image of Vauxhall

itself. If we look at the many fairy tales which were popular at the time, one common theme, where there is a female heroine, is that she has a strong sense of agency.37 In her article on Women, Enlightenment and the Literary Fairy Tale in English, Aileen Douglas concludes that:

“expressions of their [Fielding and Sheridan’s] own cultural agency, their literary fairy tales confirm the compatibility of female reason and imagination and the contribution of both to female autonomy”.38

These writers, Sarah Fielding and Elizabeth Sheridan, have used the setting of a fairy tale to “offer representations of female autonomy involving both reason and imagination”.39

This autonomy is significant in that it is present not only within a fairy tale read by many women but also within the paradisal setting of Vauxhall. Perhaps then it is because the gardens present visitors with a utopian setting, that women are afforded the privilege of agency? As it feels removed from reality, Vauxhall becomes a stage on which women are allowed to have a stronger sense of agency. This leads us to the question of how authentic this agency might be. If social hierarchies and gender identities are only allowed to be contested within a garden that is removed from reality, can it have any lasting effect outside its walls? I would argue that it does and although the magnitude of its impact on society was modest and grew slowly, the way gender was perceived

was wholly different by the end of the Garden’s life. While Vauxhall cannot be identified as the main factor contributing to this, as an important part of social life in London, the behaviours exhibited within its boundaries must have had an impact on the wider cultural context.

Agency and self-identity were often associated with masculinity and so it is interesting that within the gardens these attributes are beginning to be questioned. The fact that this is happening at the same time in fairy tales consumed by the English population is significant as it proves that these traditional gender identities are beginning to be reevaluated in the wider society.

As we have seen, Vauxhall is driven by consumption. This was again much more traditionally associated with masculinity. This is interesting especially within the context of the gardens as women begin to take on the role of consumer in a similar way to men. Women themselves are consumed visually here as they are in other settings, but

as we have seen men are also objects of consumption therefore we see a shift in the traditionally defined gender roles. As Jane Rendell writes:

“The role of consumer may be seen as an empowering one, a source of self-identity and pleasure in the public realm”.40

As we see the ownership of this role begin to shift and equalize between men and women, we can see a confirmation of the idea that women are afforded a stronger sense of self-identity and autonomy within the gardens.

Douglas, Aileen. “Women, Enlightenment and the Literary Fairy Tale in English.” Journal for eighteenth-century studies 38, no. 2 (2015): 181–194.

Douglas, Aileen. “Women, Enlightenment and the Literary Fairy Tale in English.”

Douglas, Aileen. “Women, Enlightenment and the Literary Fairy Tale in English.”

Rendell, Jane. “The Pursuit of Pleasure Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London”. London: Athlone Press, 2002

Fig 28

Why Should Architects Study Vauxhall?

As architects we are constantly working within constraints that push us to identify and explore complex boundary conditions. Our site, brief, client and social, political and economic aspects of any project create constraints which drive these decisions and, in order to create an architecture that is evolving, we have to challenge the parameters that constrain our creativity play with sensitively disobeying these boundaries. It is this process of questioning and pushing our constraints to the limits which results in an architecture that is truly reflective of our complex cultural contexts. In order to understand how boundaries and tensions in a project brief and environment can lead to new conversations about buildings, it is important to look back and study places which embody these elements. Nowhere is this condition more complex than at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens where this physical environment impacts directly on the evolving cultural identities of 18th Century Britons.

Just as at Vauxhall visitors were able to present idealised versions of their identities to society, today we can do so also on social media. As a world where reality and authenticity are questioned and distorted, the internet has created yet another, even more complex, boundary condition where we can explore our individual and communal identities. Understanding how these virtual environments can impact our public spaces and our sense of community and democracy is as relevant now as it was in Vauxhall’s hay-day. How that relates to the built environment and our responsibility as designers is a constantly evolving dialogue where we are increasingly asked to mediate between the virtual and real worlds.

Today as we experience the pandemic affecting our contemporary cultural identities, it seems relevant to look back and study this complex environment. As the pandemic has forced us indoors, it has pushed us to re-evaluate our relationships not only with public space, but also our relationship with the built and natural environments. Conversations about the interplay between urban and rural are more relevant than ever and questions of how we live in modern cities today will be informed by an understanding of how this relationship has evolved over time. We have been faced with the question of howimportant spaces like Vauxhall, that authentically or artificially represent our vision of the natural world, can be today in our rapidly evolving urban contexts.

What these environments mean in terms of gender and how they affect our ability to question and interpret gender, is also vital in both urban and rural spaces.

While the gendering of space is a subject that is becoming increasingly researched, indepth investigations into how specific environments result in our ability to, individually and collectively, understand our identities in terms of gender, are less common. Vauxhall presents us with an extremely complex environment where the physical, social and political contexts are all feeding into the creation of a place that is full of contradictions and complex boundary conditions that allow it to feel removed from reality. These conditions create a fascinating place where, at a time when traditional gender norms were deeply rooted in society, identities and defined social constructs where reinterpreted. This feels so relevant today when we see that, although we have come incredibly far since Vauxhall’s hay-day, we are still fighting for gender equality across the world. No-where is this felt more than in our public spaces where women and LGBTQ+ individuals continue to feel marginalised, under-represented and often, unsafe. Although research such as Arup’s study on Lighting in cities41 begins to raise questions about how to make our public spaces safer, it focuses on one small part of our built environment. In general research on this topic seems somewhat lacking so perhaps Vauxhall can play a part in helping us to meaningfully evaluate not only how spaces represent, but also impact women and the LGBTQ+ society.

It is relevant to also take a moment to look at the effect of my gender on these studies. I wonder whether, if I had not been a woman, conducting my research would have led me to focus on other aspects of the gardens. Instead, as I learnt more about the space, I became increasingly fascinated with its impacts on, and how it was influenced by, perceptions of gender as well as just rank for example. When we look at designing spaces, it is imperative that we consider inputs from women and the LGBTQ+ community as equally as possible. Research that examines how gender relates to public space, and all architecture, should be considered in terms not only of its inclusivity but also in terms of its author or designer and how they fit within this conversation about gender and equality in the built environment.

“Lighting Cities: Creating Safer Spaces for Women and Girls”. Monash University, Art, Design and Architecture. https://www. monash.edu/mada/research/lighting-cities Accessed Jan 11, 2022.

Conclusion

I would argue that the tension created between urban and rural at the Pleasure Gardens is what is necessary to create a unique atmosphere where social hierarchies and gender identities can be re-evaluated. The idealisation of rurality and its manipulation to fit within the city-dwellers view of nature allows for this stage of visual pleasures to evoke feelings not only of national pride but also of escape, utopia and ultimately democratic freedom and sexual liberation. From the personification of light as female to the association of Elm trees with the maypole and hence feminine leisure, a multitude of elements throughout the Gardens contribute to the gendering of spaces at Vauxhall. The fascination with the rural idyll, represented throughout the gardens in the paintings, landscaping and various attractions, plays on the visitors imagination, encouraging them to engage in individual and communal festivities where they, through a form of carnivalesque play, begin to explore their gendered identities.

This paradisal context, where the boundaries of illusion and reality are blurred, creates a stage upon which both women and men can push the limits of their gender. As an equal part of the spectacle, women are not only objects of visual pleasure, but also active viewers themselves. This shift in power provides women with new levels of agency not seen in Vauxhall’s wider social contexts. The Italian Opera House provides us with an example of a social environment which only emphasizes just how much the pleasure gardens’ qualities destabilise traditional societal hierarchies.

The relationship between rurality and gender is certainly complex. By exploring the wider cultural context of Vauxhall we are able to understand more fully how these references to the rural idyll can enable a re-evaluation of gender. By creating a space which references an enclosed garden, and by association a domestic, feminine sphere, and then imposing a very public program onto it, Vauxhall has created an environment which is full of tension. This tension, created at the boundaries not only between public and private but also rural and urban, tamed and wild, rich and poor, morality and immorality, and native and exotic, allows for an exploration of what male and female means in this context, but also in wider society.

The figures of the Macaroni, the Prostitute and the Milkmaid are all useful vehicles through which we can analyse how gender was perceived and challenged at Vauxhall. The mere presence of the Macaroni, who’s experimentation with masculinity through their clothes and their behaviour, adds to the carnivalesque qualities of the gardens as they eat and drink to excess. The popularity of Vauxhall among the Macaroni alludes to the effectiveness of the space in creating an environment where the limits of gender and societal norms can be pushed. As we are presented with the Milkmaid as this fetishised rural figure, who encourages the upper classes to ‘play’ at being in an idealised rural world and suggests an association of sex with nature and femininity, we understand too the acceptance of the prostitute’s presence in the gardens. As all visitors become part of the visual theatre of the Gardens, each individual becomes at once the object of admiration and in turn the admirer. This creates a unique environment where there are no visual hierarchies and just as an aristocrat may play at being a milkmaid, a prostitute may play at being an aristocrat. This presents us with a new form of democratic space where the possibilities for questioning traditional structures of rank and gender identities alike are quite unique.

As we situate Vauxhall’s relevance within our contemporary cultural context, and specifically within the world of architecture, we can define its importance as a study into how gender influences, and is influenced by our public spaces. In order to design cities that are fundamentally democratic and inclusive, we need to understand how public spaces can become gendered and how this has evolved over time. Vauxhall was a unique environment within its social context where the tension between the boundaries of urban – rural and public – private allowed for traditional hierarchies of society and gendered identities to be continually contested. Chris Jenks wrote:

“Every rule, limit, boundary or edge carries with it its own fracture, penetration or impulse to disobey”.42

It is these complex boundary conditions which are so fascinating within the world of architecture as they push us to create new environments and question our identities within them. As we ‘disobey’ the traditional hierarchies of public spaces through design, those who occupy them are provided the opportunity to contest their gendered identities.

Vauxhall makes this connection within the wider cultural context of 18th Century London, between nature or the rural and patriotism, community, democracy, festival, sex, and importantly female agency. This connection is fundamental in understanding how an idealisation of rurality and a curation of the natural world at the boundary of the urban, can create a utopian environment where, for the first time, public spaces start to become more democratic both in terms of rank and gender. This chaotic environment, full of contradictions which seems to constantly swing between reality and imagination is also fragile and so dependent on the efficacy of these intricate boundary conditions to create a convincing paradise. This is never more evident than during its decline and eventual closure. As the urban industrial city sprawls and engulfs this imagined utopia, the delicate balancing act between physical, cultural and societal boundaries is destabilised. I would argue that this, perhaps more than anything, proves the importance of the role of nature in allowing Vauxhall’s visitors to re-evaluate their gender, identities and societal hierarchies.

Fig 30

Sara, Rachel, and David Littlefield. “Transgression: Body and Space.” Architecture and culture 2, no. 3 (2014): 295–304. 42

Figures

John S. Muller after Samuel, Wale. 1751. The Triumphal Arches, Mr. Handel’s Statue & c. in the South Walk of Vauxhall Gardens. Engraving and etching, hand coloured. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Thomas, Bowles after Samuel, Wale. 1751. A View of the Chinese Pavilions and Boxes in Vauxhall Gardens. Engraving and etching. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

John S. Muller after Samuel, Wale. A General Prospect of Vaux Hall Gardens, Shewing at one View the disposition of the whole Gardens. Hand coloured engraving on wove paper. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

John S. Muller after Canaletto. 1794. A View of the Temple of Comus &c. in Vauxhall Gardens. Hand coloured engraving. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Claude Glass. ©Victoria and Albert Museum, Accessed March 15, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/ item/O78676/claude-glass-unknown/

Vauxhall Gardens Music Room ca. 1770. Accessed Jan 11: https://www.museumoflondon.org.

uk/discover/music-vauxhall-pleasure-gardens

Thomas, Gainsborough. 1780. Cottage Door. Oil on Canvas. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.

Edward, Rooker after Canaletto. 1751. A View of the Centre Cross Walk &c. in Vauxhall Gardens. Hand coloured engraving. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

John S. Muller after Samuel, Wale. 1751. Vauxhall Gardens shewing the Grand Walk at the Entrance of the Garden and the Orchestra with the Music Playing. Engraving and etching, hand coloured. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Jean, Rocque. 1762. Rocque Map: Vauxhall and South Lambeth. Print. Accessed Jan 11. https:// boroughphotos.org/lambeth/rocque-map-vauxhall-and-south-lambeth/

Cary’s New Plan of London and its Vicinity, 1837. Accessed Jan 11. http://mapco.net/cary1837/ cary.htm

Pieter, Bruegel the Elder. 1559. The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. Oil on Panel. Accessed Jan 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fight_Between_Carnival_and_Lent

Francis, Hayman, 1741. Country Dances Round a Maypole. Oil on Canvas. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection.

Blind Man’s Buff. Accessed March 15, https://westernpublicpleasuregardens.blogspot. com/2019/11/1735-francis-haymans-1708-1776vauxhall_26.

Sliding on Ice. Accessed March 15, https://westernpublicpleasuregardens.blogspot. com/2019/12/1735-francis-haymans-1708-1776vauxhall.html

Guillaume, Philippe Benoist, after Francis, Hayman. 1743. Games at Vauxhall: Playing at Cricket. Engraving and etching. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

L Truchy after Francis, Hayman. 1743. Leap Frog. Engraving and etching. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

Upper Rhenish Master. 1410-1420. The Little Garden of Paradise. Painting on Oakwood. Stadel Museum.

“What is this my Son Tom?”. 1774. Accessed Jan 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_ (fashion)#/media/File:What-is-This-my-Son-Tom-1774.jpg

Matthew, Darly. August 1772. The Vauxhall Demi-Rep. Etching. The British Museum, Prints and Drawings.

Jean-Baptiste Huet. 1750-1799. La Laitiere. Musee Cognacq-Jay.

The Macaroni Sacrifice. frontispiece to The Vauxhall Affray (London 1773). © British Library Board, I4I4. e. 28

John, Cary. 1795. Cary’s New and Accurate Plan of London and Westminster 1795. Accessed Jan 11. http://mapco.net/cary1795/cary.htm

Accessed Jan 11. https://awards.mediaarchitecture.org/mab/project/116

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Still from Bridgerton. Accessed Netflix Jan 11.

Francis, Hayman, 1741. The Milkmaid’s Garland, or Humours of May Day, Oil on Canvas. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection.

Accessed Jan 11. https://worldinparis.com/hameau-de-la-reine-versailles

Gowing, Lawrence. “Hogarth, Hayman, and the Vauxhall Decorations.” The Burlington Magazine 95, no. 598 (1953): 4-19. Accessed March 15, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/871084.

John S. Muller after Samuel, Wale. 1751. The Triumphal Arches, Mr. Handel’s Statue & c. in the South Walk of Vauxhall Gardens. Engraving and etching, hand coloured. Yale: Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

John Bluck, after Thomas Rowlandson. Vauxhall Garden, Aquatint, Hand-coloured. Yale, Yale Centre of British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

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