The structure of Vauxhall was well known to all residents of England and became quite notorious in its own right. As you entered the gardens you came to face the open-air orchestra, and main buildings of the gardens. These included the booths to sit and eat in, and the rooms in which those seeking a quite evening could find one, admiring the paintings of “generalissimos” on the walls. These structures were set in the largest open space of the entire gardens; a place where those of all classes could mingle and rub elbows with each other. It was indeed a place where all the people of England could go equally. This open area was decorated with paintings, statues and false ruins that would fool many on a dark night. Though certain class distinctions were still evident and those of the lower classes would often yield to the authority of those of the upper classes, it was rare an instance if you saw such a thing.
The rooms in which those of the upper class stayed are probably the structures most often dividing the people of the upper and lower classes. Women of the upper class often went to visit these rooms as it was often not safe to be out among the crowds of people by themselves (surprisingly, it seems that rich, helpless women were consistent favorites with thieves and bandits back in jolly ol’ England as well). These rooms not only gave for these women, but entertainment as well. These were places where they would see their friends and meet women of other households. Often this gave them room and time to discuss matters of their lives that they would not or simply could not while their husbands were present. In the book, Evelina, we find Madame Duval here with the company of some of the older men, though men often preferred to walk with the masses as they were not prone to attack or robbery.
The Dark Walks were a place where prostitution and criminal behavior was the norm. They were easily the most infamous of all the parts of Vauxhall. There was not a Londoner who did not know what the Dark Walks were. The Dark Walks were the avenues in Vauxhall which, instead of connecting with the other walks, ended and so provided the least amount of light, due to the difficulty of the staff to reach the lanterns. Since the beaten paths of the Dark Walks ended, instead of turning onto another avenue at Vauxhall, it made it very easy for people to become trapped or cornered at the end of the Dark Walks. The seclusion provided by the Dark Walks also offered protection to the most notorious service provided at Vauxhall: prostitution. For this reason the Dark Walks were often given the ironic name of the “Lover’s Walk.” This mingling of prostitution with crime and robbery gave the Dark Walks their notorious reputation during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Women and the elderly knew to keep their distance from that part of Vauxhall, although men normally ventured on to them for any of the many “services” offered their. At one point the authorities in London became so concerned over the issues of safety that the Dark Walks posed that they attempted to shut them down completely. However, this was to last little time at all. In 1763 the authorities attempted to cut off the Dark Walks to the people by placing barricades at the entrances; though soon there after the barricades were torn down by the crowd in a riot one evening at Vauxhall. Never again did the authorities of London attempt to close the Dark Walks, they simply answered with a higher tax on the land and a larger police force on the grounds to compensate for the growing level of crime, though both the prostitution and the crime continued without end.
The existence of prostitution at the gardens says a great deal more about English society and the cultural importance of Vauxhall than it does at first glance. The English society of the 18th century was pre-Victorian and yet somehow prostitution was an accepted practice at one of the largest venues in the entire country of England. Somehow people managed to look down on it and allow it all at the same time. It was a service enjoyed by all classes of men and was not simply restricted to the use of the lower class. Men of high society often ventured down the Dark Walks in search of something for the evening and so it was assumed that when Sir Clement found Evelina on the Dark Walks that he had been there himself for a little fun. Prostitution in itself holds the entire cultural significance for Vauxhall. Even the great John Keats recognized this when he wrote “Sonnet to a Lady seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall.” It was the release from the real world that many came to find and that many needed. The rest of Vauxhall simply offered itself to those the ladies and those who didn’t approve as a colorful façade to distract and amuse. My assumption would be that as soon as the prostitution left Vauxhall, so did its cultural importance, and therefore its popularity with the people of London. The basis of Vauxhall’s cultural significance resting upon the prostitution also goes to show how powerful the male agenda is in England. Prostitution, like “last night,” came to be a staple of Vauxhall.
The rioting at the end of Vauxhall’s open season known as “last night” was the culmination of a year’s angst and hard felt resentment toward the rigid structure of English society. The participants of last night were therefore, more often than not, members of the lower classes. Who would have more anger towards English society than those who lived the worse part of it? Young Branghton’s statement about first night in the book implies his attendance to a previous year’s, and therefore, his position in the class structure. The wanton destruction of property and a place that meant so much to the rest of London can only be explained by this: Why does the child break his only toy? Out of his anger and sadness for only having one toy. Simply put: the object of our survival often becomes the object of our frustration for needing it. The people of London needed Vauxhall and because of that they destroyed it yearly. Vauxhall would then be repaired to serve again as a venue for London, and be there the next year to fulfill the need of society once again.
Vauxhall served as an escape for all those imprisoned by a strong English society where every son seemed to inherit the place of his father and you were lucky to move anywhere in the world. It began as a manor for a mercenary of King John named Fulk le Breant, and was originally called Fulk’s Hall. Slowly, over the years, the name became corrupted into Vauxhall. Perhaps the gardens had had a dark nature about them since before their founding. The duality of the lighter, more open side of Vauxhall with the other, more infamous areas like the Dark Walks are almost representative of the obvious duality in English society. It was a society that tried to create a world of Lord Orvilles that was inevitably populated by Sir Clement’s and Sir John’s.
