Grand Jubilee of 1814

The jubilee was held to mark the centenary of the accession of George I, the first king of the House of Hanover, who came to the throne on 1 August 1714 (in the Old Style calendar).

[1] The event also marked the 16th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Nile and was a celebration of the recent signing of the Treaty of Paris that brought peace with France after more than a decade of the Napoleonic Wars.

[3] The Prince Regent's personal architect John Nash was commissioned to design a Chinese-style bridge and pagoda across the canal in St James's Park.

During the fireworks display aeronaut Windham William Sadler ascended in a hot air balloon and distributed favours and programmes onto the crowd below.

[8] Printers produced numerous keepsakes for the event including depictions of its attractions, which was billed as "the largest fair, for every kind of amusement, that was ever known in this or any other country".