BATTY’S HIPPODROME AND SOYER’S SYMPOSIUM, KENSINGTON
The Great Exhibition of 1851 was indirectly responsible for the existence in Kensington of two short-lived institutions—a circus and a restaurant. They are rather outside our subject, but, as having something of an open-air character, may be briefly described.
In the autumn of 1850 William Batty, a famous circus proprietor, acquired some land within five minutes’ walk of the new world-wonder, the ‘Crystal Palace,’ and erected thereon an elliptical-roofed pavilion which accommodated many thousands of spectators, and had a large arena open to the sky.
The Royal Hippodrome was opened in May, 1851, with a French troupe brought over from the Hippodrome at Paris. The performances generally took place in the evening, and the lowest price of admission was sixpence. Two brass bands of a rather blatant character enlivened the proceedings. Favourite features of the entertainment were a Roman chariot race and a ‘triumphal race of the Roman Consuls,’ who were represented by the three brothers Debach, each guiding six horses. Why Roman Consuls should race is not explained, and probably did not matter. Another excitement of the evening was the Barbary Race of twelve unmounted horses, who dashed headlong to the goal with distended nostrils and eyes of fire. Other attractions were balloon ascents [30] and F. Debach’s journey on the Arienne Ball up and down a narrow inclined plank.
The Hippodrome closed with the Exhibition, and only lived for one other season, in 1852. Subsequently, and in the sixties, it was used as a riding-school. The site lay nearly opposite the broad walk of Kensington Gardens, between part of Victoria Road and Victoria Walk and the present Palace Gate. De Vere Gardens mainly occupy the site.
[Newspapers: John Bull, September, 1850, p. 582; Theatrical Journal, 1851; views of the Hippodrome in Illustrated London News for 1851.]
The founder of the restaurant, of which, it was hoped, the Great Exhibition would make the fortune, was Alexis Soyer, the former chef of the Reform Club, one of the best-known cooks—though by no means the greatest—of the classic ages of dining. Soyer was a man of inventive genius and resource, but one who (as the author of the Art of Dining dryly remarked) ‘was more likely to earn immortality by his soup-kitchen than by his soup.’ [31]
In the early part of 1851 he took Gore House, the famous home of Lady Blessington at Kensington, and fantastic skill and showy decoration soon made the old-fashioned stucco-fronted building the wonder of a London as yet unfamiliar with palatial restaurants. The newspapers and a prospectus printed on satin paper with green-tinted edges announced the advent of ‘Soyer’s Universal Symposium,’ a single ticket for which was to cost a guinea, and a family ticket—your family might consist of five—three guineas. Every room in the house was provided with a seductive name: the Blessington Temple of the Muses; the Salle des Noces de Danae; the glittering Roscaille of Eternal Snow; the Bower of Ariadne; and the Celestial Hall of Golden Lilies.
The Grand Staircase had its walls painted with a ‘Macédoine of all Nations,’ a monstrous medley of animals, politicians, and artists, the chef d’œuvre of George Augustus Sala, who for a time acted as Soyer’s assistant.
The Cabinet de Toilette à la Pompadour (Lady Blessington’s boudoir) led to the Danae saloon, which was embossed in gold and silver with showers of ‘tears’ or ‘gems.’ The Bower of Ariadne was painted with vines and Italian landscapes, and the Celestial Hall was in the Chinese taste.