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Social history in some turns and the National Clearing the fog Palaces of Pleasure Vigilance Association condemned Lee Jackson (Yale, £20) the undoubted ease with which the music hall’s clientele could This portrait of Queen ’s childhood provides a vivid enhancement to the growing Unlike the roistering Geor- meet prostitutes. gians or debonair Edwardians, the Phoebus Pleasure gardens, such as the library of books exploring different aspects of her life, says Matthew Dennison Victorians have a reputation for Levin’s 1864 once elegant Vauxhall Gardens, high-mindedness. Not everyone’s The Dancing slid down the social scale as the moral tone, however, was elevated Platform at 19th century progressed; the Biography denied by Victoria as queen, and people still had to enjoy Cremorne Surrey Zoological Gardens, opened portrayed them as lovers—and themselves. Where could they let Gardens under the patronage of Queen Deirdre Murphy Victoria herself struggled to their hair down? This fascinating Adelaide, ended by offering an (Yale, £35) exonerate her mother from book is a guide to the pleasure could dart in without having to Music halls grew out of ‘free Aquatic Velocipedist, a magician her fury at the unscrupulous domes of 19th-century England, run the gauntlet of a male clientele and easy’ nights in pubs, a fea- and ‘shooting saloons, Cave challenge to Queen Conroy, regarding them as part- most of which would have been who assumed she was a prostitute. ture of which was glee singing. of Mystery, Wire Walkers, Dogs Victoria’s own version ners in crime. closed if campaigners for moral Absence of seating encouraged Again, moralists complained that and Monkies, Dagger Throwers, A of her childhood and Miss Murphy describes the improvement had got their way. customers to knock back their women could go to free and easies Cosmoramas, Wizards, Ghosts, upbringing as ‘very unhappy’ extent of Conroy’s influence The killjoys were not always ‘blue ruin’ or ‘flash of lightning’ without censure. Later, music Swings’ among its attractions. lies at the heart of this beauti- over the Duchess of Kent, but religious. Gin palaces, brightly —to name two of the many slang halls, such as the Alhambra in Exhibitions were more improv- fully illustrated account of the also illustrates the Duchess’s lit and glittering with cut mirror terms for gin—in short order. Leicester Square, could be sump- ing and seaside piers generally great queen’s early life, by the powerful love for her daughter glass, were opposed by the The establishments’ very splen- tuous and offered a range of acts a money-spinner (they had a cap- late Historic Royal Palaces and her determination to win powerful brewing interests. The dour was thought to be insulting that might include Léotard on the tive market). The FA Cup final senior curator Deirdre Murphy. for her the glittering prizes she brewers preferred the drinking to respectable households, by trapeze or Blondin on a tightrope. attracted a crowd of 110,000 by If Miss Murphy’s account does considered Victoria’s birthright. public to get slowly fuddled in bringing the luxury of clubs Although Lottie Collins—the 1901. Mass entertainment was on not, as its cover proclaims, offer In 1825, the Chancellor of the the multitude of cosy rooms within reach of the poor. However, high-kicking singer of Ta-ra-ra the rise. From today’s perspective, ‘an entirely new perspective’, Exchequer pointed to the ‘prin- in a traditional pub—on beer. after a reform in the licensing laws Boom-de-ay—won a libel case some of the entertainments sound it certainly balances Victoria’s ciples of piety and morality’ that Particular objection was taken of 1828 prohibited magistrates against a magazine that called her more fun than others—yet often highly selective memories to shaped the Duchess’s directing to the direct access that a gin from having business links with performance ‘vulgar’, there was more innocent in content than TV.

create a less shilling-shockerish of her daughter’s education and Museum London, of UK/Bridgemanpalace Images gave to the street: a woman breweries, they proliferated. plenty of smutty double-entendre Clive Aslet portrait of her first 18 years. upbringing and it is certainly true that the Duchess not only worked hard to educate Victoria Victoria’s to rule, but also took pains to ensure that her efforts won loathing of her influential supporters, thereby mother’s advisor, strengthening Victoria’s claim to the Crown among key Estab- Conroy, clouded lishment figures. The Duchess of Kent emerges her memories Princess Victoria aged nine (1828) by Stephen Catterson Smith from Miss Murphy’s telling as a somewhat poignant figure, The young Victoria’s life of Kent—known for his martinet therefore, widely referred to as mostly well intentioned, but was undoubtedly isolated; she approach to military discipline the heiress presumptive. misguided in her attachment enjoyed little peer companion- and, surprisingly, an apparently William IV lived just long to Conroy. ship. This book demonstrates contradictory interest in social enough to see Victoria attain her ’s life has been the extent to which, in the years reform—and his previously majority—thereby ruling out the more often retold and more before her accession, Victoria’s married German wife, Marie possibility of her mother exer- rigorously researched than that loathing of her mother’s closest Luise Victoria, Dowager Prin- cising regency powers—and of many of this country’s sover- advisor, the saurian, but dash- cess of Leiningen, known as Victoria became queen at the age eigns. The current account ing Sir , came to Victoire, she might easily have of 18. ‘The English like Queens,’ benefits from its author’s access cloud her long-term memories lost her place in the line of suc- her maternal grandmother, the to papers in the Royal Archives, of an upbringing characterised cession to a child born to one Dowager Duchess of Saxe- items in the Royal Collection by marked maternal affection, of her father’s elder brothers. Coburg-Saalfield, had commented and in the custodianship of a rich cultural life and a house- In particular, to William, Duke of at her birth, and so it proved. Historic Royal Palaces. hold at Kensington Palace that Clarence, afterwards William IV, For her part, Victoria mostly Here is a wonderful collection included devoted attendants and and his young wife, Adelaide enjoyed her singular destiny. of visual source material, too, tutors, visits from doting uncles of Saxe-Meiningen. Among the strengths of The a beguiling enhancement to an and a busy menagerie of pets. Instead, Princesses Charlotte Young Victoria is Miss Murphy’s admirable and enjoyable study Victoria, of course, was an and Elizabeth of Clarence died careful separation of the of the young Victoria. outside runner for queenship in early infancy, in Charlotte’s Duchess of Kent and Conroy. Matthew Dennison is the on her birth 200 years ago. case at only seven hours old. Their association was certainly author of ‘Queen Victoria: The daughter of a younger son In her early teenage years, their close—indeed, unsubstantiated A Life of Contradictions’

Private Collection/Christopher Wood Gallery, London UK/Bridgeman London Gallery, Wood Collection/Christopher Private of George III, Edward, Duke robuster cousin Victoria was, rumours, afterwards vigorously (William Collins)

138 Country Life, May 22, 2019 www.countrylife.co.uk Art/architectural history Fictionalised family history Creating the V&A A Perfect Explanation Julius Bryant Eleanor Anstruther (Lund Humphries, £35) (Salt Publishing, £12.99)

The V&A, founded in 1852, is This impressive debut novel a complex place—Sir Roy Strong, is a fictionalised account of its director from 1974 to 1987, Eleanor Anstruther’s dysfunc- once called it ‘a capacious hand- tional family that interweaves bag’ and others have dubbed themes of privilege and emo- it ‘the nation’s attic’. In this tional deprivation, motherhood lavishly illustrated new book, and mental illness. The known a companion to his Designing facts are almost unbelievable: the V&A (2017), curator Julius in 1931, Enid Campbell, grand- Bryant explores the museum’s daughter of the 8th Duke of origins, telling the story at Argyll, sold her younger son a splendid pace and, especially, Ian—the author’s father—to her honouring the contribution older sister for £500. of Queen Victoria and Prince Treasures in Marlborough House, the forerunner to the V&A, in 1857 The book begins on a crucial day Albert themselves. in 1964, when Enid, approaching of Reform, to be a useful instru- an area of land that was rechrist- the end of her sad life in a care ment of social improvement.’ ened South Kensington. This home, awaits the weekly visit The area was The V&A grew out of the became the canvas for Albert’s of her daughter, who, she dis- teaching collection of the new further vision for a great national covers, has arranged to bring the canvas for Government School of Design, cultural centre, in which institu- along Ian. Enid hasn’t seen her Albert’s vision which was founded in 1837 and tions for art and science could son since the day she gave him up first housed at Somerset House. come together. and, in a panic, tries to cancel for a national A committee was appointed In 1853, Albert invited archi- the attempted reconciliation. to acquire objects from the tects to produce ambitious Ian has no filial feelings—not cultural centre Great Exhibition of 1851 and schemes for this vision, but the surprising, as we soon discover the teaching collection trans- Crimean War of 1854–56 diverted —although he does have his eye It was always to be a museum formed into a ‘Museum of Manu- public spending. A simple, if on her portrait by Augustus John. with a serious intent. ‘Unlike factures’, which opened in 1852 temporary, solution was agreed The story unfolds through the the British Museum and the at Marlborough House beside when Parliament voted £15,000 interwar decade, returning inter- National Gallery, which were St James’s Palace. Henry Cole for what Mr Bryant calls a ‘vast mittently to the denouement born of the Age of Enlighten- and John Robinson were key multipurpose prefabricated shed’. in 1964. Enid—disturbed, self- ment to provide knowledge and figures in its development. The Builder magazine dubbed centred, unmaternal—is forced beauty through surveys of his- Critically, the commissioners it ‘the Brompton Boilers’ and to make a duty marriage to pro- toric objects,’ Mr Bryant writes, of the 1851 Great Exhibition the Museum of Ornamental Art vide an heir to the family title ‘the V&A was born in the Age invested its profits in property, moved there in June 1857. and the fortune of her domineer- This carefully researched ing mother. Obliged to keep trying Sculpture between 1837 and 1855. The study also explores the flurry after giving birth to a severely Queen Victoria’s Equestrian background to their making of acquisitions (sometimes disabled son and then a daugh- Portrait Statues is a story of rivalry between of whole collections) that were ter, she finally produces Ian, but Philip Ward-Jackson leading sculptors—principally made for the museum: the suffers from post-natal depres- (Public Monuments and James Wyatt, Thomas Thorny- maiolica, sculpture, altarpieces, sion and abandons her children Sculpture Association, £8.95) croft and Carlo Marochetti— fountains, doorcases, chimney- and unfaithful husband to join Queen Victoria was the first of upstaging, art criticism, pieces, paintings, photography a Christian Science community. contemporary woman—and, xenophobia and Pyrrhic victory. and much more. Despite her flaws, it’s clear indeed, queen—to be depicted Sculpture historian Philip Prince Albert had poured his that Enid is more victim than in a three-dimensional eques- Ward-Jackson tells it in this energies into the wider South villain and her granddaughter, trian portrait, as displayed by scholarly, yet engaging little Kensington project and his in this honest, compassionate a group of sculptures created book, providing insight into the death in 1861 might have been portrait, elicits our sympathy development of these works, a serious problem. However, his rather than disapproval. which show the Queen as widow made sure the comple- Almost all the protagonists she is not usually envisaged: tion of a permanent building, were dead by the time Miss as a young woman seated designed by Francis Fowke, Anstruther was born, but, armed side-saddle on a spirited horse. became a memorial to him. The with the facts revealed to her by They range from Thornycroft’s Duke of Devonshire was given her father before he died, as well bronze statuette (left: Capes- the task of advising the Queen as family archives, she has used thorne Hall’s version) to Maro- that the museum should be her imagination to bring her chetti’s prestigious statue, named not only after Albert, but family vividly back to life through first in St Vincent Place and to commemorate them both— a novel that is both beautifully now in St George Square, and so it became the V&A. written and transfixing. Glasgow, both of 1853. MM

Courtauld Institute, reproduced courtesy Capesthorne of Jeremy Hall; V&A Museum Musson Richenda Miers

140 Country Life, May 22, 2019 www.countrylife.co.uk