The Riverside Theatre, Festival Pleasure Gardens, and Albert Palace and Open Air Theatre, Battersea Park, London (original) (raw)
The Riverside Theatre - Festival Pleasure Gardens Brochure - 1960s Images of the Festival Gardens at Battersea Park - The Restored Fountains in 2016 - The Albert Palace - The Open Air Theatre
Also see in this area - Clapham's Theatres and Cinemas - The Battersea Palace
Above - The 1951 Riverside Theatre in Battersea Park - Photo Waldo Lanchester, whose Lanchester Marionettes performed during the Festival, and whose sister was Elsa Lanchester, married to Charles Laughton - Courtesy Roger Fox
The Riverside Theatre was built for the 1951 Festival of Britain and designed in a 'pastiche of Regency, Victorian and Modern styles' by the Set Designer Guy Sheppard. The Theatre was not actually on the Festival site on the South Bank of the Thames but in the new 37 acre Pleasure Gardens created by James Gardner for the Festival in Battersea Park.
Right - A Bill advertising the Festival Pleasure Gardens and mentioning the Theatre from 1951 - Courtesy Maurice Poole - The 'Blurb' reads: Come to the Fair, come to the Festival Pleasure Gardens, come to the flowers and the lakes, come to the Fun House, the Grotto, the Miniature Zoo, come to the bands and illuminations, come to the eating and drinking and dancing, come to the shops, the theatres, the fireworks! In Lovely Battersea Park. More of this brochure can be seen here.
The Gardens included a 'West End' Restaurant with a terrace overlooking the river and facing Cheyne Walk; 'Foaming Fountains' (which have recently been restored), a wine garden surrounded by miniature pavilions; a wet weather pavilion with a stage facing two ways so that performances could also be done in the open air, with murals by the film set designer Ferdinand Bellan; a large Ampitheatre constructed of brick and seating some 1,250 people and featuring the well known music hall star Lupino Lane and his company on its opening, althoughlater being used as a circus; a miniature railway designed by Rowland Emett which ran for nearly 500 yards along the south of the gardens and even had its own station near the south east entrance to the park and another station with snack bar at the western end of the line; and an amusement park which would eventually outlast all the other entertainments and later become 'Battersea Fun Fair', only closing in the mid 1970s. Most of the buildings and pavilions on the site were designed by John Piper.
Above -The auditorium and stage of the Riverside Theatre, Battersea - Courtesy Ted Loveday.
The Riverside Theatre itself though was designed by Guy Sheppard and was intended to be a 'Song Saloon' where the Chairman could feel close to his audience in the circle and gallery. It was run by Leonard Sachs on its opening, who was well known for his involvement with the Players Theatre, and his old time Music Hall productions.
Right - A Bill for 'Mister Sachs's Song Saloon' at the Riverside Theatre, Festival Gardens, in 1951 - Courtesy Ted Loveday.
The Theatre was partly constructed by Brunskill and Loveday and opened on the 28th of May 1951. The auditorium had 450 seats in its stalls, promenade circle, and small gallery, painted in the Victorian style, and the stage was fully equipped with 19 sets of flying lines in the stage house. The stage could be adapted as a proscenium apron stage or utilise a small orchestra pit instead, and had dressing rooms beneath. The Theatre was lit by electricity and equipped with an 'electronic switchboard.' The Theatre also had a small 'Grotto' also designed by Guy Sheppard, which consisted of four 'caves' representing the four elements, wind, fire, earth, and water, all lit by ultra violet lighting.
The Theatre began life with six shows a day including Sachs' Music Hall recreations in the evenings between 10 and 11 pm including Billy Milton's 'Festival Party' John Huxwell and Judith Shelley, the Sic Trio of Indonesian Dancers, Ronald Gourlay and Anna Redgrave in 'Have a Go' and John Regan's 'Festival Follies'; and two shows in the afternoon featuring productions such as Miniature Ballets, 'Old Time Marionettes', and 'Harlequinade Ballets'; with half hour showings of vintage early 1900 films in the morning. The Theatre was later turned over to showing 'Three Dimensional Films' in late August 1951 and was also the home to the world premier of a 3d colour film of the coronation in 1953.
The Riverside Theatre was built to outlast the Festival of Britain and was constructed of tubular steel scaffolding and fibrous plaster panels, a design which was intended to allow it to be dismantled and reconstructed elsewhere if necessary, but sadly this was not to be the case as it was closed on Saturday the 13th of October 1953, along with most of the other Festival attractions, by the Conservative Government and its leader Winston Churchill who thought the Labour Government's Festival of Britain to be a monstrous waste of public money.
The Riverside Theatre and other Festival buildings were subsequently demolished and removed, and sadly only a few remnants remain of the Festival in the park today.
There are some very nice archive photographs of Battersea Park transformed into the Festival Pleasure Gardens from the BBC here.
If you have any more images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.
An Extract From The Festival Pleasure Gardens Brochure of 1951
Above - A map of the Festival Pleasure Gardens in 1951 - Courtesy Maurice Poole
The Riverside Theatre (near the West Gate), the Amphitheatre (open air, on The Parade), The Tent and Lakeside Stage (in The Grand Vista), Mr Punch and Mrs Judy — all give you welcome. Every evening, as the clock strikes ten, an atmosphere of plush and potted palms, of bustles and bubbly, invades the Riverside Theatre, and MR SACHS ' SONG SALOON' opens its doors.
Here you may recapture the pleasures of the song and-supper-room entertainments of the kind that could be enjoyed a hundred years ago at Evans's (late Joy's) in the purlieus of Covent Garden, and in our own age were reborn at the Players' Theatre under the Hungerford Arches near the Strand.
Before the show every evening, the Ladies and Gentlemen artistes arrive (who knows, by hansom?) to sing you the songs which grandpapa sang when grandma wasn't listening.
"Rooty-toot-toot, she plays the flute,
In a very charming manner.
Plinkety-plong, she runs along
The keys of the grand pianner."
And:
"So stick together girls, or you're sure to lose your pearls,
With that rascal of a Captain, that is certain ..."
And, of course:
"In Trinity Church I met my doom . . ."
For those ladies who like a good cry, there are such heartbreaking moral ballads as, " She was poor but she was honest . . .", "She may have seen better days . . .", and "A bird in a gilded cage . . ."
When you arrive, we would advise you to spare 6d for a pink song-sheet, which will enable you to join in the choruses with suitable feeling. All these beautiful songs will be sung to you during the season (in full costume) by a selection of Artistes of Note. Here are some of them.
Four curvaceous ladies with a roving eye apiece: Hattie Jacques, Megs Jenkins, Joan Sterndale Bennett and Vida Hope. Three lovelorn maiden's, as demure as violets: Lisa Lee, Eleanore Summerfield and Daphne Anderson. The Gentlemen will include Geoffrey Dunne, Bernard Miles, Edric Connor, Denis Martin, Philip Godfrey, Bill Owen and John Hewer. And, of course, Mr Leonard Sachs in person, to make you feel at home — and keep you in order with his Chairman's hammer.
During the Festival, every night is a Saturday night at "The Lambeth Arms", the pub where costers and pearlies meet. Each evening, under the auspices of Lupino Lane, it opens its bar-room on The Amphitheatre stage.
For an hour or so, " Nipper" Lane's jolly Cockney pals, "The Lambeth Walkers", sing their choruses, old and new — "Knocked-'em in the Old Kent Road", "The Lambeth Walk" and all the rest, and dance until their pearl buttons jingle and the ladies' ostrich plumes quiver like aspen-leaves.
Between songs, you can eavesdrop on the conversations of the customers — some of it in Cockney rhyming slang: "My old China" (=China plate= Mate); "plates-of-meat" (=feet) etc.; or this sort of thing: "I want a pair of sporn-ring hecticles, I mean hen ring spornicles, no, spinrorn hornecles, hemlock spinnacles . . . oh — glasses!"
The first of the Lupino family to appear in England, was Georgius — who in 1642 brought his puppets from Italy to Bartholomew Fair. No less than 40 Lupinos have been stage performers of some kind or other, ever since. Lupino Lane got his famous nickname of "Nipper" from the great music-hall artist, Albert Chevalier, who, when he was appearing for Aunt Sara Lane at the Britannia Theatre, used to sing, "I've got a little nipper..."
As it happens — Lupino Lane likes to be called "Nip", and hates "Nipper" (which is slang for cut-purse or thief!)
Making a personal appearance in The Amphitheatre also is Britain's most famous contemporary cat, Orlando.
Twice a day, every day, the Marmalade Mouser presents his family — his dear wife Grace, the Kittens, Pansy, Blanche and Tinkle — in a musical masquerade, telling of the exciting events which occurred on the eve of their Silver Wedding Anniversary, as set down by official historian to the Orlando family — Kathleen Hale, author of the famous books for children. There are, in all, sixteen cat-actors and one human — the wicked Katnapper, who turned out in the end to be rather a dear.
Andre Howard has produced the saga, and has taught the Kittens their dancing steps and the result — according to Tinkle (he's the boy kitten), who has been studying French — is an " entre-chat" of great splendour.
Orlando is danced by Harold Turner and Grace by Sally Gilmour.
The story takes half an hour to tell, and is in a series of scenes — and unseen human voices explain in song what is happening before your eyes. Arthur Benjamin has kindly provided the music.
Grace's costumes are just as elegant as they appear in the Orlando books — only, alas, it is not possible to turn her wedding-dress — made of spotted fish skin, shrimp-husks and a trout skeleton - into a delicious soup - as they did in fact when the party was over!
The Group Theatre, of which that distinguished admirer of "Practical Cats", Mr T. S. Eliot, is a director, is presenting "The Silver Wedding" for the Festival Pleasure Gardens.
Kathleen Hale - who lives in the country - has a house full of "models" and she has to provide accommodation for anything from 3 to 16 cats at a time. She also has a small Welsh sheepdog who rounds them up daily, for roll-calls and briefing, and who has taught himself to stop them from stropping their claws on the furniture. This is positively the Orlando family's first public appearance!
A glimpse of red and white striped canvas among the trees on the River Walk leads you to the Punch and Judy show. There are six complete shows every day (each one lasting for 25 minutes), sponsored by Sharp's Kreemy Toffee and in charge of two stalwart Punchmen, Percy Press and Bruce McCloud. Each has his own set of glove puppets, and while Mr Press, who started his career selling anything thought of. Among the branches whole villages appear, not to mention a fiery dragon, pterodactyls, owls, bats and caterpillars.
When I was up there just before the Gardens opened they were building a town which even had its own pool and ice-rink, not to mention an "Underground" railway. You won't be surprised to know it's called Branchville.
At its highest point The Tree Walk rises 30-ft above the ground. The best time to see it is by dusk or darkness, when all its lights are glowing with fantastic effect. But even by day it's a wonderful experience to amble at leisure along the wooden cat walk which with strong steel trusses and specially designed clamps has been slung between seven trees and a pylon, to and fro across The Parade.
Close by also is the Mermaid Fountain (10) specially sculptured and cast in bronze by Arthur Fleischmann, to the commission of the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Co., Ltd., who sponsor it for your pleasure. An Australian citizen, Mr Fleischmann lived in the Isle of Bali for some years and I expect it was there he studied mermaids. His own has two legs ending in two tails. A little over life-size, she floats on her back in a wide pool where goldfish swim. Below her the head of a turtle just breaks the surface; like the fish she clasps and the two who are poised at her shins, it spurts water. By day, or by night when the lights come on around and below her, she's a sweet creature.
The Terrace Tea Shop (R3), our next port of call, between the fountain and the river, is a permanent building constructed for the London County Council.
Whereas most of the rest of the architecture in the Pleasure Gardens is made of materials intended for a relatively short life, the Terrace Tea Shop (cafeteria service) is in warm russet brick with windows and an open-air terrace facing toward the river. Even sitting down you can see the full sweep of the Chelsea bank.
Ahead now are two of the smaller of The Gardens' three chief places of live entertainment. First, tucked invitingly with its back to the big trees on The Parade, comes a Punch and Judy Theatre (13) all kindly provided, down to Mr Punch's last hammer-blow, by Sharp's Kreemy Toffees. There is sitting space for 60 children at the regular daily performances, and you'll read more about them in the chapter of this Guide headed "Entertainments."
A few steps farther on, beyond the Grace Darling Memorial Tree, is The Riverside Theatre (15). Leonard Sachs, who is producing its old-time Song-Saloon shows (there will also be marionettes and a daily Seven 0 'C Show) explained to the designer that he wanted a theatre so intimate in feeling "that if I feel like shaking hands with the man in the balcony I can almost do it." He almost can!
Outside, its wedgwood blue and white fine stucco has all the feeling of early Victorian and late Regency days. The auditorium with its tip-up red-plush seating (for 440) is as charming as it is friendly. The painted balcony under a big central sound board in the ceiling and glass-cloth drapings is arranged to look like a row of boxes running right round the theatre. Nevertheless, there is room to promenade and see the show.
Going back to the Terrace we now stroll on to the terminating feature of this part of the Gardens — The Riverside Rooms (R5). These include a long low restaurant of West End standard with a Wine Garden (separate entrance) consisting of little umbrella-ed alcoves of Vandyke brown-and white behind a white trellis fence, all facing inward toward a 24-ft. circular dance floor, webbed above with fairy lights suspended from a central mast.
The restaurant terrace overhangs the Thames. You may eat inside or out, with music from a small orchestra.
The above text and its accompanying sketches and maps were first published in the Festival Pleasure Gardens Brochure 1951 - Courtesy Maurice Poole, who writes: 'I well remember the Festival Gardens in the 1960s. The tree walk I believe survives in the grounds of Caister Castle near Great Yarmouth. I also remember one of the Guinness clocks and the fun fair. A few years ago I went to Wrest Park, the English Heritage gardens. The cafe has some of the chairs used at the Festival of Britain.
If you have any more images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.
Some Images of the Festival Gardens at Battersea Park in the early 1960s
The photographer of the following images was a member of a photographic club in the South East of England, and the images, which were on 2 & 3/4 inch slides, date from the early 1960's. The photographs are all from a visit to the Battersea Park pleasure gardens which were originally constructed for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Some of the shots depict the amusement park, which would eventually become known as Battersea Fun Fair, and only closed in the mid 1970s. Other photographs show the park's famous fountains which have recently been restored.
Above - John Collins Big Dipper in the early 1960s - Years later there was a serious accident on the Big Dipper on the 30th of May 1972 in which 5 children were killed and 13 others injured. One of the survivors tells the story of this day here.
Above - Battersea Park Fountains in the early 1960s
Above - Battersea Park Fountains in the early 1960s
Above - The Water Slide at Battersea Park in the 1960s
Above - The Carrousel at Battersea Park in the early 1960s
Above - The Crazy Cottage at Battersea Park in the early 1960s
Above - Battersea Park Fountains in the early 1960s
Above - Battersea Park Fountains in the early 1960s
Above - Battersea Park's Rotor in the early 1960s
Above - The Wonder Boat moored outside Battersea Park in the early 1960s
The Restored Battersea Park Fountains in August 2016
Above - The Restored Battersea Park Fountains in August 2016, Photos M.L.
The Albert Exhibition Palace, and open air Theatre, Prince of Wales Road (Today Prince of Wales Drive), Battersea
The Albert Palace - The Open Air Theatre
Above - A Google StreetView Image of Albert Palace Mansions and Prince of Wales Mansions, which are siutated on the site of the former Albert Exhibition Palace, Battersea - Click to Interact
The Albert Palace was a glass and stone construction completed in 1884 and situated on Prince of Wales Road opposite Battersea Park in London. The building, which was in part a reconstruction of the former Dublin Exhibition building of 1872, was mainly constructed of glass and iron, similar to the Crystal Palace, but it also used stone from the former Courts of Justice in Westminster for its eastern portion. The building was 600 feet long and 84 feet wide and consisted of a 'great central hall', dedicated to fine art collections, which extended from north to south measuring nearly 500 feet. On either side of the Central Hall were galleries for the exhibition of paintings. The eastern side of the building, which was constructed of stone and faced Battersea Park Road, was used for dining and refreshment rooms. The south western end of the building was taken up by a large Concert hall with accommodation for 5,000 people, and had its own Holmes Organ. There were also large gardens landscaped around the building, and an Open Air Theatre was added to the complex in 1886.
The Albert Palace was formerly opened to the public on Saturday the 6th of June 1885 and the ERA were on hand to report on the occasion in their 13th of June edition saying:- 'The Albert Palace in Battersea-park was thrown open to the public on Saturday last, with all the ceremony of civic state. The site occupied by the building was that selected by the Prince Consort for the re-erection in permanence of the Exhibition of 1851 - the first of the series of "Great Exhibitions." Circumstances occurred to cause a change in the original plans, and the fairy palace at Sydenham arose in lieu of the Battersea Exhibition. The idea of the Prince Consort has, however, been in part carried out, the materials of the Albert Palace being those employed in the Dublin Exhibition held some years back.
The front of the palace overlooks the park and river, and the grounds have been laid out for the innocent, diversion both of adults and of children. The building principally consists of a lengthy nave with a gallery running its entire length of nearly 500ft. The width is nearly 90ft., and the height 60ft., the roof being entirely glass. The latter feature of the construction evoked much favourable comment on Saturday, when, despite the gloom weather - for a few moments of the afternoon resembling the yellow haze of a November fog of the " good old pattern - the aspect of lightness and airiness within was not lost. Midway the line of continuity is broken by a semi-circular space in which an orchestral platform has been erected. From this platform the band will play for promenade concerts, &c. At the further end of the nave is an annexe, a fine concert room, called the "Connaught Hall," in which it is intended to give oratorios or other compositions of a high class scarcely suited to promenade entertainments, music entering largely into the arrangements already made by the manager, Sir Edward Lee. By-and-by a machinery annexe and a theatre will be added. In due course also the floor of the nave will be embellished with stands and eases of curiosities, of manufactures, and of artistic objects. Mr Alfred J. Caldicott, the musical director, has placed a military band, organised for the outdoor or supplementary music, under the conductorship of Mr Hiram Henton, and will personally wield the baton for the performances of a specially-selected orchestra, composed entirely of British players, and led by Mr Frye Parker.
The formal opening of the building on Saturday afternoon last did not long engross the attention of a throng sufficiently numerous to fill the Connaught Hall, despite the very unfavourable and depressing weather. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Sheriffs Whitehead and Phillips, and the civic suite made an inspection of the building under the guidance of the directors, the Lord Mayor expressing his gratification with what he was enabled to see during his progress, and finally the party took their places on a dais fronting the orchestra, on which Mr Caldicott with his vocal and instrumental force was assembled. The National Anthem (the late Sir Michael Costa's arrangement) was given, and Sir Robert Carden, M.P., by right of his office as chairman of the executive committee, read the following address:-
"My Lord Mayor, - The Albert Palace has been established to provide rational amusement and recreation for the public, and such an institution cannot fail to prove a great boon to the densely populated district south of the Thames. The fine arts and music, interpreted by a permanent orchestra composed exclusively of British-born musicians, will form a prominent feature of attraction; and the council, moreover, venture to think that the proximity of this building to the admittedly picturesque park of Battersea will greatly tend to popularise the latter, as being the site chosen by the late Prince Consort for the re-erection of the Great Exhibition of 1851, ultimately rebuilt on the slopes of the Surrey hills. It remains for me personally, and on behalf of the council, to welcome your lordship and the Sheriffs, and to thank you for your presence on what I believe to be a most interesting occasion; and I now ask your lordship to confer upon it your good wishes, and declare it open, and dedicated to the public."
The Lord. Mayor, in his brief reply, after congratulating the directors upon what they had already achieved in connection with the Albert Palace, said he was sure the building, as a boon to the district, would be extensively patronised by the neighbouring residents, and he trusted it would also receive support from the inhabitants of the metropolis at large. He then declared the palace open to the public.
With a fanfare of trumpets the official proceedings ended, and very soon after the performance of "The Dedication Ode," written by Mr W. A. Barrett, and set to music by Mr A. J. Caldicott, the civic party quitted the building. In view of the memories of the Prince Consort awakened both by the name and the site of the new building, it makes very conspicuous reference to one:
Who knew each blessing that from labour springs,
A kingly sire, and a sire of kings.
Mr Barrett's lines throughout run smoothly, and embrace some poetic ideas unaffectedly expressed, whilst, being himself a skilled musician, not a word of his text requires alteration for vocal purposes. As a composer Mr Caldicott is best known to metropolitan audiences by his humorous partsongs set to nursery rhymes, and by his contributions to the German Reed entertainment, but he has written something more substantial than these morceaux. In 1881, it may be remembered, he composed especially for the Worcester Musical Festival a sacred cantata called "The Widow of Nain," which secured the marked satisfaction of all who heard it given in the cathedral. Carrying out his share of associating the Prince Consort with the Albert Palace, Mr Caldicott has introduced as the finale to his work the chorale "Gotha," composed by the Prince, and for the use of which, in this Ode, the Queen has accorded permission.
Mr Caldieott's work is thoughtful, striking, and unlaboured, and certainly deserves another hearing. Madame Valleria and Mr Herbert Thorndike on Saturday sang the solos, and both band and chorus did well under the conductorship of the composer, who was loudly applauded at the close. The ode was followed by an efficient performance of The Hymn, of Praise, in which the solos were taken by Madame Valleria, Miss Winthrop, and Mr Edward Lloyd. The elaborate symphony was nicely played, and Mr J. M. Coward presided at the organ. The extreme accessibility of the palace will, no doubt, greatly contribute to its popularity, as stations on the South-Western, the London, Chatham, and Dover, and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway systems are but a few minutes' walk from the building, and trams and omnibuses run near it from various parts of the metropolis and suburbs.'
The above text in quotes on the opening of the Albert Palace, Battersea was first published in the ERA, 13th June 1885.
The Albert Palace Open Air Theatre
In 1886 an open air Theatre was added to the Albert Palace, erected by Edward Toms for the Albert Palace's then lessee W. Holland. The Theatre was designed in the 'orientalesque style' by the now renowned Theatre Architect Frank Matcham, and decorated in brown, cream, and gold, by Edward Bell. For the opening of the Theatre in June 1886 the area in front of the Theatre was illuminated by two 'huge electric lights' and smaller electric lights on wires, and gas jets in coloured globes.
The Albert Palace and Theatre were beset by financial problems from the start and by 1888 the building was closed due to the owners going into liquidation. Although efforts were made to save the building it was eventually demolished and the site was used for the construction of the Albert Palace Mansions and Prince of Wales Mansions. The Albert Palace Gardens were replaced by the Battersea Polytechnic and York Mansions. The Albert Palace’s organ was saved and reinstalled in Scotland's Fort Augustus Abbey.
There is a small image of the Albert Palace here.
If you have any more images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.
Archive newspaper reports on this page were collated and kindly sent in for inclusion by B.F.