Palaces of Pleasure by Lee Jackson

Author:Lee Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300224634
Publisher: Yale University Press

1895 – Empire of India

1896 – India and Ceylon

1897 – The Victorian Era

1898 – International Universal Exhibition

1899 – Greater Britain

1900 – Woman’s Exhibition

1901 – Military Exhibition

1902 – Paris in London

1903 – International Fire Exhibition.75

These annual themes were, in theory, reflected across the Earl’s Court site. This included the traditional exhibition element of showcased manufactured goods, but also grand Kiralfy spectacles in the Empress Theatre arena; lesser theatrical shows scattered around the grounds; and themed restaurants and side-shows. In practice, the themes were not that rigidly applied. The first year’s Empire of India Exhibition was probably the most ‘thematic’ exhibition, with various attractions relating to the subcontinent: a ‘working’ mosque; an indoor re-creation of an Indian jungle; Burmese and Indian entertainers, including jugglers and acrobats strolling the grounds; a re-creation of an Indian bazaar; and a curry house (‘here the Anglo-Indian visitor may refresh his inner man with his favourite Eastern dishes, prepared by a staff of Indian cooks and placed before him by native servants’). Likewise, the Empress Theatre contained a typical Kiralfy pageant, an ‘operatic historical play’ which offered a potted, Anglo-centric history of India, culminating in Victoria declaring herself empress.

Later years were not so consistent. Various novelties soon appeared on the site which bore little relation to the year’s supposed subject matter. In 1896, a panorama of Ancient Rome found its way into the attractions of the India and Ceylon Exhibition, itself a somewhat lazy rebranding of the previous year’s amusements. Likewise, a display of the latest sensation, Röntgen Rays, where one could pay a few pence to acquire an X-ray of one’s foot or hand. There was always space for new technology. This included ‘infant incubators’ (‘a perfect magnet to lady visitors’);76 various types of early cinema (including the Theatrograph, Pantomimograph and Vieograph); the electrophone (streaming of live concerts in London by telephone line); and theme park rides. The grounds opened with both a giant Ferris wheel and switchback railway (rollercoaster). And in 1899 they acquired a ‘Canadian Water Chute’ (log flume). In theory, this was part of the Greater Britain exhibition and represented the watery exploits of Canadian loggers; but it was a popular ride and was retained for years afterwards. This was also the case with other popular attractions, such as ‘Picturesque England’, an enclosed street of mock-Tudor gabled buildings. These were constructed during the Victorian Era Exhibition of 1897, as a novelty setting for shops selling British merchandise. They harked back to the ‘Old London Street’ of the International Health Exhibition, but they also made some (modest) thematic sense as part of a retrospective of national history and were retained for the next four seasons. Carrying over such amusements created some odd contrasts, but it seems to have served Kiralfy well. Some attractions were merely repainted or redesigned to create a semblance of novelty. The rollercoaster was enlivened by a vast painted backdrop of Windsor Castle in 1897; this was replaced by a depiction of the Rock of Gibraltar two years later and Balmoral in 1901.

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