Finch's Grotto Gardens

Finch’s Grotto Gardens

Warwick Wroth’s study of the eighteenth-century pleasure gardens in London lists sixty-four sites−a number which the author claimed did not “exhaust the outdoor resources of the eighteenth-century Londoner”―(The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth-Century, 1896). The number of such outdoor locations speaks to Londoners’ need to experience a sense of rural peace and clean air during the summer months when conditions in the city could often be unpleasant. On the surface, it might seem that any proprietor who could find a tract of land with attractive surroundings and then supply refreshments and some entertainment would have a ready-made success. This was not always the case and the story of Finch’s Grotto Gardens is one such failure.

Thomas Finch (d.1770) leased a triangular tract of land in Southwark on the west side of Southwark Bridge Road and bordered by Dirty Lane. The area was already a garden with attractive trees and shrubs, but the main point of interest was a mineral spring that was touted to have medicinal qualities. Once in possession of the property, Finch constructed a grotto with artificial embankments and a fountain at the site of the spring. By 1764, he had installed an outdoor bandstand with pipe organ and a large octagonal building used as a music room when the weather was inclement. A single admission cost a shilling and a season ticket was available for a guinea. Tea and coffee could be purchased for six pence. Finch’s ticket pricing was analogous to that at Vauxhall, but he was never able to attract a similar broadly based audience demographic. There was better value for money in the Lambeth location, and it was not many miles away.

Vocal and instrumental concerts took place each evening from May until early September at the Grotto. Finch likely found it difficult to compete with the offerings at other pleasure gardens. He came up with an ingenious idea to offer benefit evenings for Freemasons. The banner for the concert advertised in the Public Advertiser (August 21, 1770) reads: “By Permission of the Deputy Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, under the York Constitution. For the Benefit of Brother NEEVES.” Few of the vocal soloists at Finch’s concerts were of great renown however, although some of the beginners went on to have distinguished careers. Sophia Baddeley (née Snow, 1745−86) made early appearances before achieving subsequent success as an actress at the Drury Lane theatre and as a vocalist at both the Vauxhall and Ranelagh gardens. Some choral music appears to have been performed and the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (September 3, 1765) states that the benefit evening for Mr. Edward Sheaf, the door keeper, was to conclude with Handel’s “Coronation Anthem.”

A major coup for Finch was convincing the celebrated tenor Thomas Lowe (c.1719−83) to appear there in 1769. Ordinarily, Lowe would not have accepted an engagement at such a lesser location, but he had become bankrupt in 1766 and needed to take engagements where he could find them. The advertisements for Lowe were fuller and give a greater sense of the music performances.

FINCH’S GROTTO GARDENS. Mr. LOWE’s Last NIGHT,
THIS EVENING, the 22d instant, will be a
Variety of SONGS, by
Mr. Lowe, Mr. OFIELD, and Miss FROUD.
Solo Concerto, Mr. SMART.
Organ Concerto, Mr. BREWSTER.
A PICTURE of STRATFORD upon AVON, will be
Sung by Mr. LOWE.
To begin at half past six. Admittance One Shillling.

(Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, August 22, 1769)

Finch died in 1770 and a Mr. Williams took over the proprietorship of the gardens He increased the scope of the concert offerings, increasing the number of purely orchestral items. He also began displaying “Grand Transparencies” but neither these, nor the occasional fireworks displays, were sufficient to increase the gate receipts, and the grounds were levelled in the mid-1770s to create a playing field for the adjacent tavern.

This and every Evening this Season, in George-street, St. George's Fields, will continue Finch's Grotto Gardens, with an extraordinary Band of both Vocal and Instrumental Musick, the Vocal Part by Signora Castina, the First Violin by Mr. Cocklin, with a Concerto on the Organ by Mer. Hudson. To begin exactly at Seven o'Clock.

—Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser 10695 , Thursday,  June 23, 1763

The principal site of Finch's Grotto Gardens, appears to have been a triangular piece of land forming the western side of St. George's Street, Southwark; and bounded on the south by the road called Dirty Lane, and on the north by a vinegar-yard in Lombard-Street, and the extrmity of St. Saviour's Parish. For a considerable time previous to the conversion of this spot into a place of entertaminment, it is represented in the old Plans of London as being occupied by gardens; which, together with the extent of the premises, their convenient enclosures, and their very close vicinity to the Metropolis, was probably the reason of the establishment of Finch's Grotto. The name was partly derived from that of the proprietor, a Herald-Painter, who inherited the house and grounds from an aunt named Topham; and partly from a Grotto which he made over a medicinal spring of some reputation, which rose in the grounds not far from the house. In the centre of the Grotto was a fountain playing over artificial embankments, and forming a natural and beautiful cascade; the whole spot being planted with evergreens and shrubs, whilst lofty trees were dispersed through the other parts of the gardens. Towards the northern extremity stood an orchestra, containing an organ built by Pike, of Bloomsbury; and there was also a large octagonal music-room, for the promenade and concert on wet evenings, elegantly decoraged with paintings and festoons of flowers: on one side of it was erected an orchestra, which did not come forward into the room. The gardens likewise contained a long range of tea-rooms. On the front of the tavern attached to the Gardens, appeared the words "Licensed Pursuant to Act of Parliament, Twenty-fifth of King George the Second;" and in such reputation was this house, that the two Members of Parliament for Southwark used to give at it their annual dinner to their constituents. The Borough Assembly was also held there during the winter, when the organ was removed from the orchestra into the great room above and occasionally singing introduced; whilst card-tables were laid out in another apartment. A lodge of Free-Masons, and a Club composed of the most respectable persons of the vicinity, were likewise established at the Grotto-house. ...

1760. May 17th. "Finch's Grotto and Gardens are now Open'd for the reception of Gentlemen and Ladies, at the upper end of St. George's Street, near St. George's Fields, Southwark: there is a way from Falcon-stairs thro' Bandy-leg Walk, which leads directly to the said Grotto and Gardens."—Daily Advertiser.

—Robert Wilkinson and William Herbert,
Theatrum Illustrata: Graphic and Historic Memorials
of Ancient Playhouses, Modern Theatres,
Other Places of Public Amusement
in the Cities and Suburbs
of London & Westminster (1819–25)

 

Finch's Grotto, Southwark, a place of entertainment in vogue at the end of the last century. The "Grotto Gardens," as they were sometimes called, were situated partly in Winchester Park, or the Clink, and partly in the parish of St George, Southwark. A public-house called the Goldsmiths' Arms took its place, and about 1778 the gardens were turned into a burying-ground, and now the station of the London Fire Brigade occupies the site.²

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² Rendle and Norman's Inns of Old Southwork, pp. 360–364.