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Spas, Wells, & Pleasure-Gardens of London

It is not widely known or remembered that London was once blessed with a number of spas set in gardens, where beneficial waters could be consumed and enjoyed in agreeable surroundings. This comprehensive 280-page illustrated book publishes Curl's research of the sites and brings new and original scholarly insight to these natural water-spas and wells found within what was at that time, the grim, sooty bounds of London and its Home Counties suburbs. The spas owe their existence to London’s geology and many are on the site of medieval holy wells. Curl begins by describing this provenance and goes on to investigate in detail the individual Spas, Wells and Pleasure-Gardens established and extant from the 17th to the 19th Centuries. The subjects span celebrated Spas including those at Bagnigge, Islington and Beulah; the later more famous (or infamous) pleasure gardens, such as Vauxhall and Ranelagh; and the simple medicinal Wells including the well at Sydenham, and others now only remembered through street names. Curl develops the theme with a detailed examination of the Tea and Pleasure Gardens that also once provided entertainment and relaxed distancing from the insalubrious London air.

The book is focused on presenting new insights into this very specific and neglected aspect of architecture and design, and complements Curl’s significant research and writing on Georgian architecture and on funerary design. The book is illustrated with 198 images of well-known sites, and also includes rare, unfamiliar visualisations in engravings, watercolours and drawings. The scholarly research adds to the knowledge of London from the Restoration to the reign of Victoria, spanning social history, architecture and landscape design. The book combines Curl’s rigorous investigative scholarship with his characteristically clear and illuminating writing, to make this a unique and accessible point of reference on this neglected subject.