The best-known pyrotechnists connected with Vauxhall were Southby, Mortram, and Hengler, the first display being by an Italian named Invetto.
Pyrotechnic displays at Ranelagh became a prominent feature of the amusements about 1767. The pyrotechnists Angelo, father and son, during that and the following years, helped to establish these displays in popularity, followed by Clithero, Caillot, Brock, Rossi, and Tessier, up to the closing of the gardens in 1805, after which date they appear to have been opened from time to time on special occasions. “The Morning Chronicle” of June 1st, 1812, announces that “By the Authority of the Right Hon. the Lord Chamberlain” these gardens would be open “in Honour of His Majesty’s Birthday, with a grand naval and military Fete, and a superb exhibition of Fireworks.”
An interesting old advertisement, dated 1766: “For the Benefit of the General Lying-in Hospital. The most superb and Magnificent Fireworks ever exhibited at that Place, under the conduct and direction of Mr. Angelo.” It would appear from this that fireworks had been fired at Ranelagh earlier than 1766, but they could not have been a regular feature before 1767.
Cupers Gardens, which stood on the south side of the river, approximately on the site of the Waterloo Bridge approach, were for a long period the scene of popular firework displays. Commencing about 1741, these displays were as elaborate as any of this period. The earlier displays appear to have been conducted by “the ingenious Mr. Worman,” who seems to have relied to a considerable extent on transparencies and scenery; in 1749 and 1750 he reproduced in miniature the firework “machine” or Temple used in the respective official displays in Green Park, and at The Hague for the Aix-la-Chapelle peace celebrations. Other scenic effects were a view of the city of Rhodes with a model of the Colossus; Neptune, issuing from a grotto below drawn by sea-horses, set fire to a pyramid or an “Archimedan worm” and returned.
Clithero was also associated with these displays, producing similar scenic effects, including a naval engagement in 1755, which was the last year of fireworks in these gardens.
The earlier displays at Marylebone Gardens took place about the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1751 a display is announced to take place at eleven o’clock, and “a large collection” of fireworks was advertised in 1753. Some at least of these earlier displays were fired by Brock, whose son, later on, worked here in conjunction with Torré. In 1769 the displays were under the direction of Rossi and Clanfield. From 1772 to 1774 was the most successful period of the fireworks at these gardens; they were then under the direction of Torré. A popular item, afterwards copied by Marinari at Ranelagh, was the “Forge of Vulcan,” a scenic display concluding with the eruption of Mount Etna.
On the occasion of Torré’s benefit, in 1772, there was a further exhibition of this kind, representing Hercules delivering Theseus from Hell.
During this period attempts were made by neighbouring residents to stop the displays as a nuisance, but nothing came of it, and the fireworks continued.
At the annual festival in 1772, the display included a temple of “upwards of 10,000 cases of different fires, all lighted at the same time.”
Other pyrotechnists firing at the gardens were Clithero and Caillot, both of whom had conducted displays at Ranelagh, the latter being responsible for the fireworks up to the closing of the gardens about 1778.