Talk of the Ton

Established in the 18th century, Home House was originally commissioned by the notorious Elizabeth, Countess of Home as a sophisticated palace purely for enjoyment and entertainment. In 1773, the immensely grand Countess of Home, made plans for a suitably palatial home in London to entertain royalty as well as her glittering friends, and the House became a venue for the most illustrious parties of the 18th Century. Lavish parties, scandal and high-society gossip aside, we take a look back at what else would have been on the social calendar to keep Lady Home entertained during the Georgian era.

Theatre

The 18th century was the great age of theatre, and London was the place to be. Drury Lane, Covent Garden and the Haymarket theatres all prospered during the Georgian period, and by the 1760s, each of these venues seated several thousand people who would flock to the purpose-built auditoriums to see plays, musical performances, ballets, rope-walkers, acrobats and even horsemanship. Wealthy theatre-goers and opera fans were seated in boxes placed alongside the stage, while the wealthiest patrons were seated on the stage itself. What a lark!

Pleasure Gardens

Pleasure gardens were also incredibly popular in Georgian London. First opening in 1746, Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens in Chelsea boasted acres of formal gardens with long sweeping avenues, attracting swathes of rich and fashionable pedestrians taking a stroll.

Vauxhall Gardens were established in 1729, and as Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens would go on to do, required a ticket of admission – making the experience an increasingly exclusive pastime. Other, smaller gardens were established at Sadler’s Wells, Marylebone and Hampstead, and all were sites for music, dancing, eating and drinking, as well as hosting regular fireworks displays, operas and masquerades.

London Season

For the wealthy Georgian man or woman about town, the highlight of the year was the London Season – the annual period when it was customary for the country’s elite families to unite for balls, dinner parties, dances and theatre outings – decked in their finest attire. The concept evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries but truly hit its stride in the 19th when British high society was dominated by the landed gentry. A daily highlight of the London Season came to be known as ‘the fashionable hour’, whereby the cream of English society (members of the 2,000 or so aristocratic families known as ‘the ton’) paraded around Hyde Park – all exquisitely dressed, naturally.

Shopping

With increasing variety in clothes, food and household items, shopping became an important cultural activity in the 18th century. London’s various specialist establishments catered specifically to refined tastes, and shopping in them came to define social status. In particular, milliners, haberdashers, goldsmiths and furniture sellers appealed to the latest tastes among the wealthy, and a wide choice of exclusive shops were opened in elegant urban districts such as in the Strand and Piccadilly.

Fashion

Beauty was an embodiment of nobility and of great wealth in the 18th century, and acquiring the latest fashion was a pursuit only available for a select few. Inspired by Marie Antoinette, fashionable London ladies were drawn to rich embroidery, full skirts, fine silk brocades, lace, and high heels – the latter also being worn by men, who donned elaborate wigs. Women’s hair varied from big to small and wavy to curly with each year, and caps were popular for the majority of women and were adorned with lace around the brim. For the better part of the century, women wore corsets and covered their legs with a petticoat and overskirt, which included a ‘false rump’ which was normally made of cork, although ‘fan hoops’-style dresses were later favoured which pushed out the fabric on all sides. At the end of the 18th century women favoured a one-piece dress, which featured a high waist, straight skirt (unsupported by petticoats) and short sleeves. However the flamboyance wasn’t reserved entirely for women; well-dressed men wore three piece suits paired with stockings, black leather shoes, ruffled shirts with waistcoats and cloaks – and always with breaches underneath.

Netflix’s Bridgerton is set in 1813 in the Regency period (1811 to 1820), which was towards the end of the Georgian era (1714 to1830–37).

Food and Drink

Wining and dining remained fashionable in high society (mainly for men), who could choose from a plethora of smart Mayfair hotels, oyster rooms, inns, chop houses, markets, taverns, coffee houses, inns, tea gardens and cake shops. By 1800, the men’s clubs in Pall Mall, such as the former chocolate house, ‘White’s’ oozed exclusivity and remained largely male enclaves – as were coffee houses where newspapers were read and matters of business and politics were discussed. Establishments such as the Piazza Coffee House in Covent Garden held elegant dinners for large and small parties.

When it came to alcohol, port was the drink of choice for those that considered themselves refined, whilst others favoured wine, brandy, claret, spirits, punch, rum, porter and sometimes beer or cider. The aristocracy and gentry (and ‘honorary gentry’ like the clergy) often drank quite heavily in their day-to-day life, and men boasted of their ability to drink huge amounts and remain able to function. During his time as Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger was said to drink up to six bottles of port a day, and was known to drink an entire bottle before giving a speech before the House of Commons. It’s no surprise, then, that gout was rife – especially in men – who were the heaviest drinkers.

Fairs

Fairs were important parts of the yearly calendar, which usually lasted for a week or more, and were attended by thousands of people. The largest by far was Bartholomew Fair, which was held in London every September for four days and was host to numerous entertainment options including tumbling, acrobatics, tightrope walking, exotic animals, boxing competitions, puppet shows, displays of human strength, comic sketches, theatre plays, operettas and various recitals – and much eating and drinking.

Sport

Popular sporting activities included tennis, golf, lawn bowling, Pall Mall (a precursor to modern croquet) and cricket. In the winter, ice skating was common, while the summer months saw an influx of boating for the purposes of fishing, picnicking and watching regattas. Hunting was also popular, as was horse racing.

Transport

To get from A to B, a stagecoach was the order of the day. These first appeared on England’s roads in the early 16th century, and the first coaches were fairly crude and slow.

The formation of a stage company in 1706 established a regular coach route between York and London, and by 1797 there were 42 coach routes throughout the country linking most major cities. In 1754, a company in Manchester began a new service called the ‘Flying Coach’, which it claimed could (barring accidents!) travel from Manchester to London in just four and a half days. A similar service began from Liverpool three years later, employing coaches with a new steel spring suspension. These reached 8 miles an hour and completed the journey to London in three days. In the last 30 years of the Georgian period, over 1,000 vehicles left London every day, using around 4,000 horses.

Other Entertainment

Art shows were another source of entertainment, where wax figures, sculptures, and paintings were popular. High society balls offered opportunities for courtship, while gambling and card games were also common sources of entertainment. Up and down the Strand in London, exhibitions of imported exotic animals were on display – some performing tricks for the amusement of the general public. At the end of the century, a famous ‘performing pig’ became well known across the country for its apparent ability to spell.

With the light comes the dark, and the unsightly side of the entertainment world included the public’s curiosity to gawp at ‘mad’ people at London’s Bethlehem hospital (or Bedlam), which attracted queues of sightseers who paid to watch the behaviour of inmates afflicted with mental illnesses. Giants, midgets, the obese, natives of foreign countries and a host of sufferers of various medical conditions were all put on display.

Georgian England also had very different attitudes when it came to the treatment of animals. Animal baiting and organised blood sports were also popular during the 18th century, including bull baiting. In England during the time of Queen Anne, bull-baiting took place twice a week in London at Hockley-in-the-Hole. Animal baiting was outlawed under the Cruelty to Animals Act in 1835, which forbade the keeping of any house, pit, or other place for baiting or fighting any bull, bear, dog or other animal.