page_title: Renton Nicholson
section_title: Cremorne Gardens
hierarchical_section_title: Renton Nicholson / Cremorne Gardens
context_page_description: Renton Nicholson was an English impresario, businessman, actor, and writer. He is best known for his Judge and Jury Society performances and for his ownership of the newspaper The Town.
  After being orphaned at a young age, Nicholson was raised by his sisters, and became an apprentice to a pawnbroker. He then opened a series of unsuccessful businesses that often catered to the lower classes of London, selling cigars, wine and jewels. These ventures were frequently unsuccessful, and he often faced insolvency.
  After a stint in the gambling industry, he began serving as the editor of The Town newspaper. It typically covered scandals in London high society. A public feud later erupted between Nicholson and another editor, Barnard Gregory, who published a competing paper. Nicholson also published other periodicals and several literary works, including an autobiography. After leaving the newspaper industry, Nicholson began operating a hotel. There Nicholson began his Judge and Jury Society performances, which lasted for two decades. These acts mocked and satirised members of London society and the preoccupations of the popular press.
context_section_description: In 1843 Nicholson purchased a 12-acre (0.049 km²) rural sporting arena in Chelsea, London, on the banks of the River Thames, that had opened eleven years earlier. It featured entrances from King's Road and the River Thames. Originally an unremarkable location, Nicholson made drastic changes soon after his purchase, including a large pagoda that was surrounded by a large dancing platform and housed a large orchestra. The facility was surrounded by gardens. Nicholson added refreshment booths and tables so guests could sit and eat at the gardens. While most of the contemporary pleasure gardens were exclusive venues, Nicholson envisioned Cremorne Gardens as a popular amusement park for common people.
  Nicholson's financial situation soon deteriorated, and he was forced to sell the gardens. By this time Nicholson was well known for the licentiousness of The Town and the Judge and Jury Society performances. Because of this association, Cremorne Gardens also came to represent sexual immorality. Even after he sold Cremorne Gardens, it retained its reputation, and in London the name "Cremorne" became a general term for sexual excesses.
caption: ’’The Dancing Platform at Cremorne Gardens’’ by Phoebus Levin
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "View shows crowd on typical summer's evening in the southwestern corner of Cremorne Gardens. The dancing platform and its central pagoda, where a dance orchestra played, are seen in the centre; in distance are double tiers of supper boxes. Cremorne Gardens, opened in 1846, were located west of Battersea Bridge between King's Road and the Thames. The 12-acre gardens boasted a circus, theatre and orchestra with dancing platform represented here. Pleasure gardens had a reputation as places of debauchery since the 18th century. In this painting Levin depicts many examples of licentious behaviour which gives us a rare insight into sexual freedom in the 1860s. Prostitutes and loose liaisons are shown against a background of drinking and a medley of rough characters.", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "305", "Image YResolution": "305", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:03:12 10:51:12", "Image Copyright": "\u2018This is a non commercial image. Not to be sold as a print or for image licensing. Do not publish to MemoryPrints or PictureRights.\u2019\n\t\nRights to use: \u00a9 Museum of London\n\t\nThis image may only be used in conjunction with editorial promoting the Museum of London, Museum of London Docklands and Museum of London Archaeology. If you want to use this image for anything else or have any questions about rights to use then please get in touch with the press office on press@museumoflondon.org.uk", "Image ExifOffset": "1460", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1598", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "0", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1379", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "864"}