Jonathan Tyers

[1] Prior to Tyers securing a thirty-year[2] lease of New Spring Gardens from Elizabeth Masters in 1728, little else is known about his early life,[3] except that he had worked in Bermondsey trading skins for the fellmongering company owned by his family.

[4] Shortly after the second ridotto, the artist William Hogarth, who had an apartment near to the gardens at South Lambeth,[8] found his friend Tyers in a depressed state trying to decide whether it was better to commit suicide by drowning or hanging himself.

[4] Hogarth's artworks were satires designed to communicate a moral lesson in a humorous manner[9] and he suggested Tyers should use similar methods to educate those seeking entertainment at the Gardens.

[1] The venue and its entertainments were promoted as being family friendly, yet to retain his profit margins Tyers ensured some areas remained unlit for the benefit of the sex workers.

[12] The house Tyers built by converting some of the farm buildings appears to have been of little architectural significance as very little is known about it, but the Gothic garden he installed in the grounds became notorious.

In contrast to the cheerfulness and merriment of Tyers' Vauxhall Gardens, The Valley of the Shadow of Death as it was known was designed to constantly remind visitors of their mortality.