Surrey Gardens
SURREY GARDENS: Balloon launching site
(Full name ROYAL SURREY GARDENS, aka SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS)
Location: Roughly 1nm ENE of the Oval cricket ground
Period of operation: It is not known over what period balloon ascents took place. The site opened in 1837 but closed in 1877.
Site area: Roughly 15 acres
NOTES:
The first record I have found is of balloon ascents, probably tethered I would think, in 1838. A poster proclaimed that a Grand Fete was being held to celebrate "Princess Victoria's Birth Day" on the 25th and 26th of May. The star attraction was "Mr. Green with his 'Grand Coronation Balloon', one hundred feet in circumference, from a 'Raft on the Lake'. "
Charles Green, a most astute businessman as well a being arguably the most famous British aeronaut in the nineteenth century, had negotiated in 1836 with the proprietors of VAUXHALL GARDENS to make their site his main venue for balloon ascents in London. But, he did move his balloons around, presumably and quite correctly, if the price was right. It is reported that he made five hundred and twenty six ascents during his career.
ANOTHER FAMOUS AERONAUT
It is recorded that the famous aeronaut Henry Tracy Coxwell made at least one ascent from SURREY GARDENS, probably in the 1860s.
In 1862 Coxwell made three high altitude flights with James Glaisher, meteorologist at the Greenwich Observatory and it appears that the third flight, (at least?) took place in WOLVERHAMPTON where an altitude record was set, (or at least claimed), then another twenty five flights between 1862 and 1866.
What is left of the site, but now on a much smaller scale, is now known as Pasley Park. It is well worth looking up the history of this very interesting site.
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