Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne
Cremorne Gardens was a
The wowser element in Melbourne did not approve of the pleasure gardens. Ellis had invested much money in them and they were very popular, but criticism of the availability of liquor and the use of the venue by prostitutes went against him. Ellis had tried to gain social favour by donating percentages of profits to charity but that did not help him. The disapproval was an attitude which had frequently been taken against the large pleasure gardens in London on which Ellis had based his colonial duplicate. It would not, however, have been beneath Ellis to take advantage of the needs of diggers holidaying in Melbourne and on the hunt for a bit of fun. His detractors forced his sale of Cremorne Gardens but they survived in the hands of someone who had the skill and experience to administer and develop them. Ellis went on to own a hotel in Fitzroy.
The gardens were acquired by the popular theatrical entrepreneur and local identity
In the 1860s, the Gardens became hugely unprofitable and could no longer be maintained; Coppin closed the doors in February 1863.[2] The land was sold and became an asylum which itself closed in the 1880s. The land was then subdivided for housing by Thomas Bent. With the turn of the century much of the housing gave way to small and large industrial establishments but much of the small working class housing remains today and has been progressively gentrified. A small park is at the southern end of the area previously occupied by the gardens and a plaque marks their location and the place from which the hot air balloons were launched. The site of the gardens no longer fronts the river because of the construction of the South Eastern Freeway in 1961. The area of Richmond in which the gardens were located was formally renamed Cremorne in 1999 and is used by locals as much out of historical respect as to avoid the old working class implications of the name Richmond. A view of Cremorne from South Yarra can be found in the works of S. T. Gill[3] and the site is described in
References
- ^ "The News of the Day". The Age. No. 1, 989. Victoria, Australia. 9 March 1861. p. 5. Retrieved 13 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Last of Cremorne". The Herald (Melbourne). Vol. LXXIII, no. 5309. Victoria, Australia. 10 February 1863. p. 7. Retrieved 13 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^
Gill, Samuel Thomas; Victorian Vision (1985 : National Gallery of Victoria) (1855), Cremorne Gardens from nr. the residence of Col. Anderson. 1854, James J. Blundell, retrieved 14 November 2011
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OL 20481333M
External links
- Map of Cremorne Gardens
- Allom Lovell & Associates, 1998, City of Yarra Heritage Review: Volume 3?, Thematic History, Accessed 21 August, 2015 Page101 – 102 "Cremorne Gardens, Richmond" in Excerpt of Pages 99 to 109.
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