Bohemian & Libertine · London, Greater London
Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (the Dark Walks)
For two centuries London's great pleasure garden, where ten thousand a night promenaded by lamplight — and the unlit 'Dark Walks' at the garden's edge were the most notorious assignation spot in Georgian England. Pepys complained as early as the 1660s that one could not walk them without hearing what he ought not.
More stories at this spot
- The Dark (or 'Druid') Walks and their nightly scandals
- Masquerade nights and the demi-monde
Sources
Nearby on the map
The last standing fragment of Whitehall Palace, the sprawling warren where the Merry Monarch kept his court and his mistresses — Barbara Villiers chief among them — sometimes within corridors of the Queen's own apartments. The palace burned in 1698; the gossip proved more durable.
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Documented historyHot spotSpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.