At a later date the place was called the Victoria Tea Gardens, and became well known for running matches and other sporting meetings. The gardens continued open till 1854, but their site, together with that of Hopwood’s Nursery Grounds, was afterwards (from about 1860) covered by the houses of Lancaster Gate.
[Art. “Hill John, M.D.” in Dict. of Nat. Biog.; Lysons’s Environs, iii. p. 331; Era Almanack, 1871; Faulkner, Kensington, p. 420; Wheatley, London P. and P. s.v. “Bayswater” and “Lancaster Gate”; Walford, v. pp. 183, 185, 188; newspaper cuttings, W. Coll.]
VIEWS.
“View of the Tea Gardens at Bayswater,” two oval prints in Woodward’s Eccentric Excursions, plate v. Woodward del., J. C. sculp. London, published 1796 by Allen and West.
III
NORTH LONDON GROUP
PANCRAS WELLS
These Wells were situated close to old St. Pancras Church on its south side. In connection with them was a tavern originally called the Horns, and its proprietor, Edward Martin, issued in 1697 a handbill setting forth the virtues of the water, which he declares to have been found “by long experience” a powerful antidote against rising of the vapours, also against the stone and gravel. It likewise cleanses the body and sweetens the blood, and is a general and sovereign help to nature. For the summer season of this year (beginning on Whit-Monday) Martin promised to provide dancing every Tuesday and Thursday. The charge for the “watering” and such other diversions as were obtainable was threepence.
In 1722 a proprietor of the Wells laments that the credit of the place had suffered for many years “by encouraging of scandalous company” (probably some of “the pretty nymphs” mentioned[125] by Thomas Brown) and by making the Long Room a common dancing room. He promises to prevent this in the future, and to exclude undesirable characters from the garden walks.
About 1730 Pancras Wells seem to have regained their reputation; at any rate they were industriously advertised, and the London print-dealers sold views of the gardens and the rooms. The water could be obtained at the pump-room, or a dozen bottles of it might be purchased for six shillings of Mr. Richard Bristow, goldsmith.[126] At this time, and for forty or fifty years later, the surroundings of the Wells were completely rural, and visitors might be seen coming across the fields by the foot-paths leading from Tottenham Court, Gray’s Inn, and Islington. The gardens and premises had now (1730) reached their full extent. Facing the church was the House of Entertainment, and behind this was the Long Room (sixty feet by eighteen) with the Pump Room at its west end. The gardens lay further south, in the rear of these and other buildings. A pleasant stroll might be taken in the New Plantation or in the shaded, but formal, garden known as the Old Walk. Little is heard of the Wells during the next thirty or forty years. But in June 1769 the proprietor, John Armstrong, advertised the water as being in the greatest perfection. The place, however, was probably now chiefly frequented as a “genteel and rural” tea garden, with its hot loaves, syllabubs, and milk from the cow. Dinners were also obtainable, and the powerful refreshments of “neat wines, curious punch, Dorchester, Marlborough, and Ringwood beers.”
