Pageantry at the Chelsea Fringe Festival!
Last night, as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival, I gave a free talk at King's College London to a small-but-enthusiastic audience made up of members of the public. The Fringe first took place in 2012, and is aimed at anyone who is interested in gardens and gardening. Most events are free, participation is encouraged, and it runs alongside the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Anyone can enter an event, as long as its legal (!) and about gardens, flowers, growing vegetables, or landscape. My talk was only one of several events that have been organised by Clare Hickman and I - over the next few weeks we'll also be staging discussion events (with more 'refreshments'!) on topics of gardens and health, as well as guided walks around London to look at hospital gardens and history. Check out our programme here. Our next event is going to be a walk around the healthy spaces of Southwark, with the wonderful Clare Hickman as guide - see here for more information.
I based my presentation around the Chelsea Historical Pageant of 1908. This pageant took place in the Ranelagh Gardens, now the site of the Chelsea Flower Show, and depended on an interpretation of the past and present of the garden for the episodes that were presented. As the Daily Mail said at the time:
“The quiet green ampitheatre which is the scene of the Chelsea pageant has been well and wisely chosen. Its stage is a lawn of the short crisp turf which is only to be found in England, and an encircling background of elms and leafy bushes, behind the compact little group of English may-trees immediately in front of the stand, forms an admirable setting for the series of pictures in which the chief events of Chelsea’s past history are set forth.”
In the actual episodes of the pageant, it was an idyllic notion of Chelsea's garden past that provided guidance for how its Edwardian citizens should act, and pride in the beauty and splendour of Chelsea's regal and religious past. In the fourth episode, Erasmus, while walking with Sir Thomas More, declared Chelsea a 'Utopia' and 'the happiest home in Europe' - King Henry VIII, when he turned up soon after, agreed, declaring that 'the air of Chelsea' and its 'fresh garden' suited him well. In the seventh episode Queen Elizabeth I made overtures to the loyalty and godliness of Chelsea's people. in the eighth episode it was the actual history of the Ranelagh Gardens that was depicted, as Charles II was tricked by Nell Gwynne into founding the Chelsea Hospital in 1681. The pageant came to a triumphant close with the tenth episode, which showed a Royal Fete in the gardens in 1749, complete with contemporary celebrities and royals, decked out in resplendent costumes.
Understanding why Chelsea staged a pageant in 1908, and whether it was modern, anti-modern, or something else entirely formed the basis for the interesting discussion that followed the talk. After answering questions for what must have been 20-30 minutes I was exhausted, but satisfied that historical pageants are something that definitely interest people outside of academia. Everyone present was enthused with debating the representation of the past in pageants, as well as trying to connect the British movement with similar folk traditions in continental Europe. With helpful comments from the audience we now have other things we know we need to think about - like pageantry's relationship to historical battle re-enactment, the portrayal of pageants in novels of which we had not heard, and, if we can, more about how people got together to produce such splendid costumes.
The Chelsea Fringe is exactly the kind of thing with which we want to get involved; to bring historical pageants to public as well as academic audiences, and to share encouraging and interesting discussion over a friendly glass of wine.