Promenade concert

[1] Pleasure gardens, which levied a small entrance fee and provided a variety of entertainment, had become extremely popular in London by the eighteenth century.

Music was provided from bandstands (known as ‘’orchestras’’) or more permanent buildings, and was generally of the popular variety: ballroom dances, quadrilles (medleys), cornet solos etc.

On 21 April 1749 twelve thousand people paid 2s 6d each to hear Handel rehearsing his Music for the Royal Fireworks in Vauxhall Gardens, causing a three-hour traffic jam on London Bridge.

The Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand gave a series of concerts with the band of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane under the direction of Henri Valentino.

Jullien was a sound musician whose performances were combined with outrageous showmanship: Beethoven was conducted with a jewelled baton.

With his extravagant clothing and long black hair and moustache he would go through a series of antics including having his white kid gloves brought to him on a silver salver.

Another notable conductor was August Manns (1825–1907) who is associated with the Saturday concerts at London’s Crystal Palace, the enormous glass building which housed the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Cremorne Gardens (1836–78) became Ranelagh’s natural successor in Chelsea during the Victorian period, presenting works by Boieldieu, Auber and Offenbach in the 1870s.

[5] In the late 19th century concerts under August Manns explored works by well-known composers: Brahms, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Smetana and Wagner.

In 1895 Henry Wood began the series of promenade concerts that continue today as the BBC Proms.

From the middle of the 20th century, open-air summer concerts at English country houses have revived the original tradition of the London pleasure gardens.