Cremorne Gardens, London

Cremorne Gardens were popular pleasure gardens by the side of the River Thames in Chelsea, London. They lay between Chelsea Harbour and the end of the King's Road and flourished between 1845 and 1877; today only a vestige survives, on the river at the southern end of Cheyne Walk. Cremorne is also a ward of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 7,974.

Originally the property of the Earl of Huntingdon (c. 1750), father of Steele's Aspasia, who built a mansion here, the property passed through various hands into those of the Irish Peer, Thomas Dawson, Baron Dartrey and Viscount Cremorne (1725–1813), who greatly beautified it.

The name Cremorne is from the peer's seat in County Monaghan which is still known as the Barony of Cremorne, and is an Anglicisation of what in modern Gaelic is Crìoch Mhùrn. This means the Bounds of Mourne, from the territorial domain of an ancient clan or sept called Mughdorna in Old Irish. The name is cognate with the Mountains of Mourne.

The property was sold by the family in 1831 to a Baron de Berenger, who was a convicted fraudster whose real name was Charles Random. de Berenger converted the site into a sports facility, called The Stadium, and became a proponent of self-defence techniques. The business failed in 1843, but not before de Berenger had added some attractions of pleasure gardens of the time, including hosting a balloon ascent in 1838. For two years the gardens opened for summer, including an opening festival billed as "Pie de Nie" with Balloon ascent, for instance, were held, and the property was sold in 1845. James Ellis took over the license in January 1845. The twelve acre site was then developed by James Ellis into a proprietary place of entertainment and spectacle, being popular as such from 1845 to 1877. The Cremorne Gardens occupied a large site running between the Thames and the King's Road. Opened in 1845, they were noisy and colourful pleasure gardens featuring restaurants, entertainments, dancing and balloon ascents, and could be entered from the north gate on Kings Road or another by the Cremorne Pier on the river.

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