ADAM AND EVE TEA GARDENS, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD

The premises of the Adam and Eve stood at the north-west extremity of Tottenham Court Road, at the lower end of the road leading to Hampstead, and occupied the site of the manor-house of the ancient manor of Tottenhall or Tottenham.

The Adam and Eve Tavern is known to have been in existence under that sign in 1718.[70] Already in the seventeenth century Tottenham Court is mentioned as a place of popular resort, one of “the City out-leaps” (Broome, New Academy, 1658). George Wither (Britain’s Remembrancer, 1628) speaks of the London holiday-makers who frequented it:—

“And Hogsdone, Islington and Tottenham Court,

For cakes and cream had then no small resort.”

In 1645 Mrs. Stacye’s maid and two others (as the Parish books of St. Giles in the Fields record) were fined one shilling apiece for the enormity of “drinking at Tottenhall Court on the Sabbath daie.”[71] In Wycherley’s Gentleman Dancing-master (1673) a ramble to Totnam Court is mentioned together with such fashionable diversions as a visit to the Park, the Mulberry Garden, and the New Spring Garden (i.e. Vauxhall).

In the succeeding century Tottenham Court Fair and the “Gooseberry Fair” doubtless brought many a customer to the Adam and Eve, and in the spring-time, as Gay expresses it, “Tottenham fields with roving beauty swarm.” The Adam and Eve then possessed a long room, with an organ, and in its spacious gardens in the rear and at the side of the house were fruit-trees and arbours for tea-drinking parties. There were grounds for skittles and Dutch-pins, and in the fore-court which was shadowed by large trees, tables and benches were placed for the visitors. At one time it could boast the possession of a monkey, a heron, some wild fowl, some parrots, and a small pond for gold fish.

Vincent Lunardi, the first man in England to make a balloon ascent,[72] made an unexpected appearance at the Adam and Eve Gardens on 13 May, 1785. He had ascended from the Artillery Ground about one o’clock, but the balloon, being overcharged with vapour, descended in about twenty minutes in the Adam and Eve Gardens. “He was immediately surrounded by great numbers of the populace, and though he proposed re-ascending, they were not to be dissuaded from bearing him in triumph on their shoulders.”[73]

... et se Protinus æthereà tollit inastra via.

Vincent Lunardi Esq^r.

Secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador and the first aerial Traveller in the English Atmosphere Sept^r. 15. 1784.

Publish’d Oct^r 5^th 1784 by John Bell British Library Strand

Towards the end of the eighteenth century[74] the Adam and Eve began to be hemmed in by buildings; by Brook Street (now Stanhope Street) on the west, and by Charles Street (now Drummond Street, western end) on the north. The gardens however appear to have retained their old dimensions,[75] and at that time extended as far north as Charles Street.[76]

The thousands of honest holiday-makers who visited the gardens had, however, towards the end of the eighteenth century, been replaced by a motley crew of highwaymen, footpads and low women,[77] and in the early years of the present century (before 1811) the magistrates interfered: “the organ was banished, the skittle grounds destroyed, and the gardens dug up for the foundation of Eden Street.”

About 1813 the Adam and Eve Tavern and Coffee House, once more respectably conducted, was a one-storied building. Part of it fronted the New (Euston) Road, while an archway in the Hampstead Road led to the other parts of the premises. A detached gabled building, originally part of the domestic offices of the old Tottenhall Manor House, was still standing at this time and was used as a drinking parlour in connection with the Adam and Eve. Six small houses and shops also adjoined the tavern and brought the proprietor about £25 each a year in rent, though they are said to have been partly constructed out of the boxes in the old tea-gardens.

The large public-house called the Adam and Eve, which now stands on the old site at the corner of the Euston and Hampstead Roads, was built in 1869.

Near the Adam and Eve was the Cold Bath in the New Road. It was in existence in 1785, when it was advertised[78] as in fine order for the reception of ladies and gentlemen. The bath was situated in the midst of a pleasant garden, and was constantly supplied by a spring running through it. The water was described as serviceable to persons suffering from nervous disorders and dejected spirits.

[Wilkinson’s Londina illust., i. “Tottenhall,” Nos. 92, 93; Hone’s Year Book, p. 47, cp. p. 317; Walford, iv. 477; v. 303 ff.; Palmer’s St. Pancras, p. 204, ff.; Larwood and Hotten, Signboards, 257, 258; Brayley’s Londiniana, ii. p. 165; Cunningham’s London (1850), “Tottenham Court Road”; F. Miller’s St. Pancras, p. 161; Wheatley’s London, “Tottenham Court Road” and “Adam and Eve.”]

VIEWS.

1. The scene of Hogarth’s March to Finchley (see Nichols’s Hogarth, i. 155, ff.) is laid at the Tottenham Court Turnpike, at the south end of the Hampstead Road. On the right is the King’s Head tavern, and on the left the Adam and Eve. The sign of Adam and Eve appears on a post in the road, and Hogarth has inscribed it “Tottenham Court Nursery,” in allusion to Broughton’s amphitheatre for boxing that existed here (see Walford, v. 304).

2. Two views in Wilkinson’s Londina, i. “Remains of the Manor House denominated the lordship of Toten-hall, now vulgarly called Tottenham Court, and occupied by the Adam and Eve Tea House and Gardens.” Shepherd del., Wise sculp. (published 1813). Beneath this is a plan of the vicinity marking Eden Street, ii. Part of the Adam and Eve coffee rooms, Hampstead Road, J. Carter del., Wise sculp. (published 1811).

3. A woodcut in Hone’s Year Book, p. 47, of the Adam and Eve (before 1825), substantially the same as Wilkinson’s second view. The views in Wilkinson and Hone show the Adam and Eve in its altered condition after the proprietor Greatorex (end of eighteenth century?) had made an addition to the tavern, fronting the New Road.