Music for the Royal Fireworks
Enormous crowds could be accommodated at Spring Gardens, Vauxhall. In 1749 a rehearsal of Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" attracted an audience of 12,000, and in 1786 a fancy-dress jubilee to celebrate the proprietor's long ownership was thronged with 61,000 revellers. Many of the best known musicians and singers of the day performed at the Gardens, for example Sophia Baddeley. In 1732, their fashionable status was confirmed by a fancy dress ball attended by Frederick, Prince of Wales. At that time access from the West End was by water, but the opening of Westminster Bridge in the 1740s made access easier though less charming.