Equine thrills, locomotive spills, Vesuvian pyrodramas and other frolics at Victorian Ally Pally

What connects Pompeii, Donald Trump, the Isle of Man and Coney Island to the Harringay Ladder?

A little while back I was approached by Alexandra Palace with a request to use what content we have on HoL as the basis for writing a piece for their website about the miniature railway that many remember from fifties and sixties.

I wasn't able to fit anything in to meet the required timescale, and I'm aware that there's already an excellent article written by John Liffen for the Hornsey Historical Society.¹ Taking a whirlwind look the period before that, I came across an early circular railway along with two other rail-based attractions at the Palace. One has been mentioned before on this site due to the extraordinary survival of a clip of an 1898 film showing it. The other, I discovered was invented by a man who lived in Pemberton Road, Harringay. I dug a bit deeper and in the article below I share some of what I discovered about the weird and wonderful attractions at Ally Pally in the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods and exactly what it is that connects Pompei, Donald Trump, the Isle of Man and Coney Island to the Harringay Ladder.

1. Alexandra Palace: Victorian Entertainment Destination

The Victorian era in Britain saw the arrival of many entertainment centres that went on to flourish into the Edwardian era and beyond. Perhaps most celebrated amongst them was the Crystal Palace. Housed in the transplanted 1851 Great Exhibition building, it was the inspiration for a complimentary establishment to the north of the great metropolis.

1. The first Alexandra Palace in 1873. It lasted just 16 days before being gutted by fire. The rebuilt edifice was reopened in 1875. This image is shown flipped horizontally on the Alexandra Palace website, but it was established beyond reasonable doubt in another discussion that this reverse presentation is the correct one.

Alexandra Palace, constructed from the materials of the 1862 International Exhibition building in South Kensington, was planned around the idea that the 250,000 square feet of the building space would be focussed on offering a "means of intellectual improvements" as well as relaxation, whereas the exterior spaces were to provide a natural environment for “the overcrowded and rapidly increasing population of London" as well as outdoor amusements like archery, cricket, tennis and “other amusements”.²

I've written previously about the race course, but there were a whole host of other attractions elsewhere around the park from soon after the Palace started operation. In 1878-80, newspapers carried reports of circus performances and shows such as one where the First Middlesex Engineer Volunteers constructed pontoons on one of the lakes, and afterwards fired at one another - and the public - with blank cartridges. On the same lakes, boating and canoeing was to be had. Nearby were swings, roundabouts, rifle-shooting and archery butts. Other reports of nineteenth century entertainments in the park tell us of balloon ascents with parachute drops, bicycle races, 'tent-pegging' events and military sports, and fireworks and illuminated shows in the 'Italian Gardens'.

At a little remove from the Palace, there were performances by bands in the Grove and "elsewhere for dancing purposes" and of "swimming feats" in the open air baths near the Wood Green entrance.

As part of the annual reopening exhibition in March 1885, the celebrated Charles Blondin walked the tightrope:

"The greatest of the outdoor attractions was, however, Blondin a his tightrope, eighty feet high. The" Emperor of the Air, as the advertisements call him, drew together 80,000 or 40,000 spectators, and he was favoured with the first interval of the day in the downpour of rain. Although sixty-one years old, he seemed as active and sure-footed as ever. He walked on the rope blindfolded and with a man on his back, after which be cooked an omelette, and excellently too, as several persons found when Blondin lowered it to the ground. But for the unfavourable weather he would also have ridden a bicycle upon the rope. He did enough, however, to win the hearty cheers of the crowd." (Hampstead and Highgate Express, 30 May 1885)

2. Poster for start of 1885 season at Alexandra Palace. (Image: Ally Pally Museum).

1.1. The Lakes

Reference to 'lakes' in the plural might confuse those who know the park's single large lake today. However, when it was first opened Alexandra Park extended further to the north with an area which included a string of small lakes. This section was sold for development at the end of the nineteenth century, but the line formerly traced by the lakes is still perceptible today since Grove Avenue was built up closely following it.

3. 1890s map showing the former lakes. The site of the circus is also shown just to the north of the large lake. (Ordnance Survey, London VI , 25 inch edition of 1894-96. Revised 1893 to 1894, Published 1896, National Library of Scotland).

1.2. Nineteenth century pyrotechnic spectaculars

Alexandra Palace has been well known for its firework displays ever since I have lived in the area and, it turns out for a very long time before. The history of pyrotechnics as part of the nineteenth century frolics at the Palace goes back to soon after the Palace opened to the public. A news report on amusements in 1880 included the following:

"The day's amusement was brought to a close at 9 o'clock by Mr. James Pain's aquatic fireworks, on the great lake. A general illumination of the water introduced flights of fiery tourbillons, monster shells, flying fish, water-fountains, water romans, devil-fish, bouquets of rockets, asteroid rockets, a prismatic torrent, great golden clouds, and an aerial bouquet." (North Middlesex Chronicle, 22 May 1880)

The name of Pain associated with fireworks will be familiar to many people from their childhoods. The firm which traces itself back to a rather loose connection with the Gunpowder Plot still exists today as a fireworks, special effects and pyrotechnics company based in Belfast. Back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the company was putting on what sound like the most amazing displays in the UK, the USA and Australia. One display they set up in Alexandra Park and the USA has particularly captured my imagination.

The Last Days of Pompeii was a, "pyrodrama" that "strung together athletic, musical, and dance elements over a simple Vesuvian narrative familiar to all audiences".³

4. 1888 poster for Last Days of Pompeii at Alexandra Palace. (Image: Ally Pally Museum).

The Morning Post described the set-up for the display at Ally Pally in May 1888:

"Arrangements have been made with Messrs. Pain and Sons to provide a gigantic and realistic representation of "The Last Days of Pompeii." This enormous pyrotechnical production never before attempted in this country illustrative of the destruction of Pompeii, is depicted in a vivid manner, necessitating the use of 20,000 square yards of canvas and the employment of 200 persons, showing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the destruction of the city by earthquake, the fall of the palaces and the flight of the inhabitants, and their rescue by gondolas &c" (Morning Post, 1 May 1888.)

5. Photo of the set for Last Days of Pompeii, date unknown. (Photo: Ally Pally Museum).

The photo in Fig. 5 reveals the massive scale of the sets. Collapsible versions were used for some events with painted backdrops being depended on for more limited engagements. Viewed in a larger size, the photo reveals the fold-marks in the canvas backdrop. Pompeii sounds like it was quite a spectacle! I'm told by the curator at Ally Pally Museum that Robert Paul (see Fig 8) filmed one of the 'Pompei'i shows but the film is lost!

The more I read about entertainments at the Palace, the more amazed I am at just how much used to happen there - and I've only touched on a fraction of the goings-on.

2. Track-based Attractions

2.1 The early "railways"

By 1881, the Palace had its first miniature circular railway. Travelling on a track with a diameter of about 50 feet, the train consisted of a small engine with three open cars. The attraction evidently quickly came of age and in the summer of 1881 while it was travelling at what was described as "a considerable pace", the two rear carriages derailed. Apparently two women had "rather serious injuries", including broken ribs and two boys were "cut about the face".⁴

Those eagle-eyed readers amongst you will have spotted that the 1885 poster shown in Fig. 2 includes mention of an "electric railway". By 1888, the railway was described in an advertisement for that year's entertainments as a "new patent panoramic circular railway".⁵ Whether the attractions described in the three different years were the one and the same or successive ones is not recorded. Nonetheless, in one form or another the circular railway seems to have lasted through the decade and beyond into the Edwardian era.⁶

In his article for the Bulletin, John Liffen refers to a short-lived straight line miniature railway on the South Terrace for the 1903 season. This is perhaps what is shown in a photo that I came across some years ago entitled 'Miniature railway at Alexandra Palace", shown in Fig, 6.

6. Miniature railway at Alexandra Palace. (Private collection).

The very detailed 1912 map of Alexandra Palace and Park (extracted in Fig. 10) shows attractions such as the switchback, but not the circular railway.⁷ So we might assume that the miniature trains had stopped operating by this point.

2.2 Roller coaster / Switchback

By 1888, in addition to promoting the panoramic railway, the Palace's annual poster also featured the apparently new attractions of a "roller coaster" and a "pony cycle".⁸

The development of the roller coaster can be traced from Catherine the Great’s 'ice mountain’ rides in eighteenth century Imperial Russia to the ‘Montagnes Russes’ in Paris early in the next century. The world's first modern roller coaster is generally credited as the six miles an hour Coney Island 'Switchback Railway' which was opened by the "Father of Gravity", LaMarcus Adna Thompson on 13th June 1884 at Coney Island, New York. However, Britain probably pipped Thompson to the post since the earliest roller coaster here was up and running at Crystal Palace for the Spring Bank Holiday on 2 June 1884.⁹

7. The switchback viewed from near the East Entrance to Alexandra Palace, 1905. (Private collection).

The first roller coaster at Ally Pally came four years after the one at its south London competitor and started operating from the spring of 1888. By 1889, the park's publicity was referring to the "New switchback railway".¹⁰ Whether this was a change of apparatus from the previous year seems unlikely but is possible.

Remarkably, there is surviving footage of this attraction from 1898, made by north London film pioneer Robert W. Paul and first posted on this website some five years back.

8. Film footage from 1898 of the roller-coaster at Ally Pally in a film made by Robert W Paul and brought to life by the Phoenix Cinema Trust. In the background Blandford Hall is visible¹¹The music was composed by Year 10 GCSE Music students from The Henrietta Barnett School in London.

9. The switchback railway at Alexandra Palace on a postcard postmarked 1909. (Private collection).

10. Switchback shown on 25 inch Ordnance Survey MapMiddlesex XII.1 Revised 1912, Published 1914. (National Library of Scotland).

11. The switchback photographed from the air 1907. (Ally Pally Museum).

12. The switchback shown  in the backdrop of an extract of a 1905 sketch, the primary subject of which was the ascent of Barton's airship. There are clearly two tracks on the switchback which are possibly joined by a 180° curve on the left of the image. (The Sphere, 29 July 1905).

The switchback continued running until the First World War. For a short period, a competing attraction was set up nearby, but by all accounts, the roller coaster retained its appeal throughout.

2.3. Pony-Cycle Racecourse

The precise nature of the 'pony-cycle' attraction is not clear. At first I thought it might be one of the many names of the attraction covered in the next section, but it seems that it was something quite different. It only appeared in the advertisements of 1888 in which it was billed as the, "novel pony cycle, 300ft in length".¹² The Hornsey Journal explained that it was, "a novelty in its way, and the only one in the kingdom".¹³ Other than these two references, I was able to find only one other mention of an attraction of this kind anywhere: in the Sporting Gazette in April 1888 a patent is referenced for, "Robert S Clark of Enfield for a pony cycle racecourse or a racecourse with model horses, vehicles, boats, &c., fitted with machine machinery for the purpose of sports, games, or racing, &c."¹⁴

I did manage to find an image which might offer a possibility as to its pedigree but not necessarily its identity.

13. Velocipede Horse Tricycle. This contraption had 22 inch rear wheels and was 36 inches in height. (Image: Online Bicycle Museum).

3. Steeplechase Switchback

A short-lived competitor to the roller coaster at Ally Pally was the 'Steeplechase Switchback', developed by the inventive and entrepreneurial Londoner and sometime resident of Harringay, John Cawdery (1859-1929). Born in Clerkenwell into a family of master carpenters, Cawdery initially followed the family trade and himself became a master carpenter. With his father George specialising in theatre scenery, John also worked as a stage machinist, stage designer and theatrical builder, and engineer. This early experience enabled him to develop a set of skills that he continued to use for the remainder of his working life.

In 1894 at the age of 35 Cawdery registered a patent on a 'Gravity Railway' (known commercially as the "Gravity Switchback", the "Gravity Steeplechase" or "Steeplechase Switchback").

14. Extract from Cawdery's patent application. (via Sands of Time).

The apparatus was described in detail in a number of newspapers and magazines:

"One of the attractions at Alexandra Palace is the new gravity steeplechase". It consists of four girder tracks, a thousand feet long, upon which life-size horses run, and is practically a switchback on horseback, with property hurdles, water jumps, and scenery". (Weekly Dispatch, 25 May 1902)

"The course is graded like the course of a switchback railway with successive hills and valleys to enable a good, but not a dangerous, speed to be kept up ... when the rider mounts his steed, and is started with a gentle push, the useful force of gravity takes the matter in hand, and sees horse and rider safely to the end of their ride". Cawdery's replicas were said to "present more than a tolerable likeness to the real animal." (Royal Magazine, Vol 8 May to Oct 1902)

"... and away they go with two people on each back, generally a young man and his "bent on enjoyment girl," youths and boys, and not infrequently old men and stout ladies have been detected taking a ride. Up and down they go amidst shrieks and laughter, while some adopt attitudes after the style of Sloan the famous American jockey. It is very funny and mirth-provoking, more so when one of the horses stops in the middle of the journey and has to be pushed along by an attendant, who has to run half-way up the track to come to the rider's aid." (Finchley Press 6, September 1902)

"The construction of the road bed is wood, and built in such a manner as to form hurdles and dips and a water jump. It requires but one half minute to make the trip of 1,000ft., and yet there is no motive power other than gravity." (Daily News, 19 May 1902)

"... something like a switchback — instead of cars, however, horses are used and races can be held on them. The course, too, is longer and includes the taking of a curve; and these facts, coupled with the knowledge that you have a ’oss to yourself which you can spur to feats of daring in the way of speed, and the taking of a water jump, made the round much more exciting." (North Middx Chronicle, 18 April 1903)

15. The 'water jump' in the steeplechase ride at Alexandra Palace. (Black and white Budget, May 31 1902).

16. The curve on the steeplechase showing a sign with the warning "What ho! Hold tight here". (Royal Magazine, Vol 8 May to Oct 1902).

17. View of the steeplechase from above the water jump showing the curve in the distance. Also visible under the outward-bound leg of the ride are the spaces made for the shops that never arrived. (Royal Magazine, Vol 8 May to Oct 1902).

18. Riders about to be given their push-start at the top of the steeplechase. (Royal Magazine, Vol 8 May to Oct 1902).

In the first year after his invention was developed, Cawdery formed the Grand National Gravity Steeplechase Company¹⁵ and had an installation up and running at an event advertised the “World’s Fair” at Olympia in Douglas on the Isle of Man between July and September, 1894.¹⁶ The attraction was then moved to The Palace in Douglas, where apparently it proved to be a great success. Cawdery claimed in 1896 that, “30,000 persons rode on the Steeplechase last season, and thousands were turned away for want of accommodation”.¹⁷

Picking up on the attraction a journalist for the Today newspaper saw in Cawdery’s invention quite another use than that for which it was intended and for which, as far as I can establish, it was never used. He wrote:

“When, the other day, I made a suggestion with a view of (sic) mitigating the perils of the “Row,”¹⁸ I had no idea that my plan was already an accomplished fact. It appears that at Douglas, in the Isle of Man, there exists a “Grand National Gravity Steeplechase Company,” providing “horse exercise free from danger,” just the very thing that society is clamouring for in London. … Now, here we have all that is needed the “fun” of horse exercise (as understood by society) without the “vulgarity” occasionally displayed by the real animal in breaking into a mad charge of eight and a-half miles an hour. Before next season I hope to find the “Grand National Gravity Steeplechase Company” in possession of Hyde Park. Then society will be able to ride with becoming gravity, and the “cockney cad” will no longer be able to urge his steed into a trot, and thereby empty every saddle he passes.”¹⁹

To raise capital for expanding his venture, in 1896 Cawdery formed J. W. Cawdery and Co.²⁰, funded by a share issue.

19. Share certificate for 1,00 shares in Cawdery's company founded in 1896. (Private collection)

Cawdery’s first major success came when American entrepreneur and showman George Tilyou bought the North American rights to the invention.²¹ Tilyou then acquired fifteen acres of land on Coney Island, New York and developed the land as the amusement venue Steeplechase Park. Between about 1890 and the Second World War Coney Island was America's number one entertainment destination with three huge entertainment parks of which Tilyou's was just one. With Cawdery's ride at its heart, Tilyou opened his park in the spring 1897. Both the ride and the whole park proved to be huge successes.

20. An early postcard showing Cawdery's ride at Coney Island. (Private collection).

21. Surviving film footage of Cawdery's ride at Coney Island.

In 1900 Cawdery arrived at 30 Pemberton Road, Harringay with his wife, children and a servant. It seems more than possible that his arrival in an area within walking distance of Alexandra Palace was related to his plans to install his ride there. The move apparently paid off since on October 23rd 1901 he entered into an agreement with the Palace Trustees to erect his attraction on part of the grounds near the lake. The deal had a provision that his premises would include forty lock-up shops which were to act a source of shared revenue for both Cawdery and the Trustees.

In what must have been a bitter disappointment for Cawdery, the significant cost of setting up the attraction evidently strained his finances and in 1902 he had to sell his shares in his five-year-old company and it was renamed The Gravity Steeplechase Ltd.²²

Nonetheless, the show went on. The new company was supposed to have the ride ready to launch when Alexandra Palace opened for its 1902 season in early May. However, despite it being advertised throughout May, as the Daily News wrote in a report of the Spring bank holiday, “workmen were still engaged upon its construction".²³ It finally opened in June and season seemed to go well. Set up near to the existing switchback / roller coaster, both neighbouring rides thrived.

In July, the Holloway Press reported, “… the Gravity Steeplechase, opened at last, proved very popular, and did a roaring trade till bed time.” ²⁴ The following month, the Islington Gazette echoed that the attraction, “… which commanded the greatest attention was the new gravity steeplechase, an invention which has much to boast of in the way of novelty, together with charm for the more daring of pleasure seekers.”²⁵

Despite the popularity of the ride and the sale of his shares, the economics of the venture left Cawdery somewhat high and dry and by September 1902 he was in court facing bankruptcy.

Other UK locations
According to Cawdery's advertisement for the sale of shares in 1896, in addition to the attraction's success on the Isle of Man, agreements had been secured to erect installations at both Blackpool and Southend. Although plans for these venues may have been relatively advanced, there is no evidence of either ever coming to fruition.  The fate of the ride at Southend was sealed when in 1900, the Official Receiver advertised the sale of 23 horses originally intended for Cawdery's ride there. I wonder if any survive?

22. Advertisement for the sale of Cawdery's horses from Kursall, Southend's former amusement park. (The Era, 24 November 1900).

4. Switchbacks Silenced

In 1903, the Holloway Press reported that, “… it was deemed advisable for the Gravity Steeplechase Limited, to work the Steeplechase for a period of six weeks, without prejudice to the legal rights of the Trustees.’²⁶ However, there is no evidence that the attraction ever ran again at Alexandra Palace after the 1902 season and in 1904, the fair ground was re-sited to, "... a portion of the land originally occupied by the gravity steeplechase”.²⁷

Cawdery had moved out of the house in Pemberton Road by 1904 and he returned to his work designing and building stages and other equipment for theatres. His bankruptcy was discharged in 1909.

Under a programme of improvements begun in 1910, designs for ambitious improvements for Alexandra Park were drawn up by E. J. Lovegrove, Engineer and Surveyor to the Borough of Hornsey. They included a scheme for a major redevelopment of the East Front, replacing the fairground and switchback railway with ornamental gardens.

Progress on the programme was interrupted by the First World War, with the Palace and Park being closed to the public and occupied by the army for use first a shelter for Belgian refugees and then as a prisoner of war camp:

"A transformation marks Alexandra Palace, the principal clearing-house of the continually arriving Belgian refugees: the silent "switchbacks," "electric ponds," "Tours in France" for the moment have ceased to have any significance.

"But the swings are still working: and the laughter of the little refugees as they rocked to and fro was the only sign of gaiety in the big central hall when I called there yesterday.

"Rows and rows of silent people sat side by side as if they were at a lecture..." (Daily News, 7 October 1914)

Following the War, work resumed on the improvement programme and notice was given to the proprietors of the fairground and switchback ride to remove their equipment and the East Front was laid out to Lovegrove's pre-war design with lawns, a refreshment chalet, flowering cherries and a rose garden.²⁸

23. 1913 map of Alexandra Palace and park overlaid with the design by E L Lovegrove. The switchback, shown in the original map is picked out in red. (Black and white map from Chiverton, credited to Haringey Culture, Libraries and Learning. Colourisation by author).

No roller coaster ride of any kind was ever to return to Ally Pally.

5. Elsewhere the ride went on

Whilst the tale of Cawdery's ride in the UK was a rather sorry one of frustration and failure, in the USA the rides there fared much better. In Coney Island, the Steeplechase Switchback ran from 1897 until Steeplechase Park closed in 1964,²⁹ meaning that it ended up being one of the world's longest running amusement park attractions. 

24. The Steeplechase Switchback in Tilyou's Steeplechase Park, 1928. (Image: From "Down to Coney", New Yorker, 23 June 1928).

25. A surviving original steeplechase horse from the Coney Island ride, now on display at the 'exhibit center' of the Coney Island History Project. (Image; From an original supplied by coneyislandhistory.org and used with their permission. ©Charles Denson).

Two years after the sale, the park was demolished by Fred Trump, father of Donald Trump. The New Yorker magazine's blog reported on the sad tale of the demolition in 2017:

"The young Donald (19 at the time) was on hand for his father’s “Demolition Party,” which featured scantily clad models who paraded in front of the park and encouraged guests to throw bricks at the stained glass windows of the historic Pavilion (of fun)". ("Down to Coney", A New Yorker State of Mind, 18 August 2017)

In a strange reversal of fortunes, the country which originally both spawned and spurned the steeplechase switchback is now apparently the only one which has any attraction of the sort still in operation. The owners of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach now claim that their American-made Steeplechase ride, erected in 1977 is now the only remaining ride of its kind in the world.

26. The Steeplchase roller coaster at Blackpool, 1982. (Image: Lachlan, via Coasterpedia, under a (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence).

Notes

1. John Liffen, "The Lakeside Miniature Railway at Alexandra Palace", Bulletin, Issue 60, 2019.

2. The quoted sections are from the original mission statement of Alexandra Palace held by the Ally Pally Museum.

3. "Pompeian Entertainments" in Exhibitions: The last Days of Pompeii, The J Paul Getty Museum)

4. Railway Review, 15 July 1881. The report of the accident described a railway with a 'radius' of 20-30 feet. It mentions that it had "been running for some time", without specifying if that referred to a period within the current year or beyond

5. Morning Post 1 May 1888.

6. Hornsey and Finsbury Park Journal, 2 August 1902.

7. The 1912 Ordnance Survey map was used as the basis of a map sheet published headed "Alexandra Park and Palace, Session 1913". I believe there is a copy at Bruce Castle Museum. The image of the map I have seen is annotated at the top in handwriting with, "Proposed Course for Motor Cycle Road Races. Length 1.95 miles". The course is sketched on the map.

8. Hampstead and Highgate Express, 19 May 1888.

9. Many sources give a date of 16th June for the start of the Coney Island ride. In Introductions to Heritage Assets: Historic Amusement Parks and Fairground Rides (2015) Heritage England gives the honour of the first British roller coaster to the one at Skegness which it says opened in June 1885.

10. Sporting Life, 20 April 1889.

11. Blandford Hall was known at this time as simply the 'Banquet Hall'.

12.Advertisement in Morning Post, 1 May 1888.

13. Hornsey and Finsbury Park Journal, 12 May 1888.

14. Sporting Gazette, 21 April 1888.

15. This first company was wound up in 1899, (Law Times, 3 June 1899).

16. Advertisements in The Era promoted an event called the Word’s Fair, though it is not listed in the history of World’s Fair venues. (The Era. 5 and 12 May, 1894)

17. The Scotsman, 21 July 1896.

18 . I assume that 'Row' refers to Rotten Row, the 17th century riding avenue in Hyde Park which still serves the same purpose today.

19. Today, 11 August 1894.

20. Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 25 July 1896.

21. Stephen M Silverman, The Amusement Park Workman Publishing Co., 2019.

22. Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald, 20 March 1909.

23. Daily News on 20 May 1902.

24. Holloway Press, 4 July 1902.

25. Islington Gazette, 5 August1902.

26. Holloway Press, 15 May 1903.

27. Hornsey and Finsbury Park Journal, 7 May 1904.

28. Margaret Chiverton, "Alexandra Park in the Great War",The London Gardener Vol no.19, 2014-2015.

29. "Dismounting from the steeplechase ride at Coney Island, customers had to cross a small bright stage ruled by a clown and a dwarf. It was called the Blowhole Theatre. As a couple stepped onto the stage a jet of air blew the woman's skirt up around her waist while the dwarf gleefully shocked her date with an electric cattle prod. The audience shrieked with laughter and waited for the next victim. ... Tilyou had discovered that customers would pay for the privilege of entertaining other customers that people liked seeing shows but they liked seeing people more." (From the commentary to a short video on YouTube, "Steeplechase's Blowhole Theater").

Primary Sources

British Newspaper Archive.

La Marcus Edna Thompson, Coney Island History Project.

Allan Brodie, and Paul Stamper (Ed), Historic Amusement Parks and Fairground Rides, Historic England 2015.

John W. Taylor, "John William Cawdery", Sands of Time, 2017.

Leonard W. Lillingston, Royal Magazine, Vol 8 May to Oct 1902 c Arthur Pearson Ltd.

Black and white Budget, May 31 1902.

Stephen M Silverman, The Amusement Park, Workman Publishing Co 2019.

Ron Carrington, Alexandra Park & Palace. A History, Greater London Council, 1975

Ally Pally Museum.

Margaret Chiverton, "Alexandra Park in the Great War" London Gardener, Vol no.19, 2014-2015, London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust.

Coney Island Project, coneyislandhistory.org.