The History of Wandsworth Common

Ballooning

Banks....

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Close-up of Battersea Fields etc top right [from a different print, of course-.

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I'm puzzled by some of the names e.g. Garnerin / Garneron / Poitevin... Is the 1850s' Garneron any relation to the Garnerins of c.1800? Is Garneron the same as Poitevin?

Sun — Saturday 26 July 1851

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The Era — Sunday 27 July 1851

CREMORNE GARDENS

On Friday night Madame Palmyre Garneron made a succcessful balloon ascent from this excellent al fresco place of amusement. The evening was very fine, and highly favourable for aerial navigation. After rising steadily for a few hundred feet, the balloon took a south-westerly direction, and after a short but pleasant passage across the river, Madame Garneron effected a safe descent on Wandsworth-common. The gardens were very full.

[BNA: Link.]

Incidentally, this is not the only time a balloon crashed on Wandsworth Common. On which subject, more another time.

NB She would be back on Wandsworth Common on Tuesday 21 September 1852

Examiner — 2 August 1851

Examiner, 2 August 1851

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ACCIDENTS AND OCCURRENCES.

BALLOON ACCIDENT TO MADAME PALMYRE GARNERON.

Monday evening witnessed an accident which all but resulted with loss of life to the celebrated Madame Palmyre Garneron. The scene of her operations was Batty's Hippodrome, at Kensington, from whence Mrs Graham took her disastrous flight last June.

Six o'clock was the time appointed for the ascent, but in consequence of some little difficulty about the inflation, it did not take place till nearly a quarter to seven. The wind was rather strong at the time, and blowing south-west, and the moment the machine was released from its moorings, it rose very heavily, and barely cleared the Circus enclosure.

Madame Garneron immediately emptied a bag of ballast among a large crowd, who were watching it in Victoria road, but before she was able to discharge another, the car of the balloon struck the projecting garret window of No. 1 Madeley villas, which is just on the opposite side of Victoria road to the Circus, and in an instant the poor lady was seen with her feet entangled in the netting at the side of the half-inverted car, and hanging right out of it with her head downwards.

A loud exclamation of horror burst from the frightened crowd, and just at the critical moment, when they ecpected to see the balloon (out of which a sand-bag had rolled) rise with its unhappy occupant in that fearful situation, the netting caught in a stack of chimneys, the balloon at once collapsed with the shock, and in a few seconds it was hanging helplessly flapping over the house-side into the garden, while the unfortunate lady was left lying ow the roof.

Wonderful to say she had received no injury, and after she had recovered from the faintness caused by the sudden escape of such a volume of gas she stood up and feebly waved heracknowleigemeuto to the spectators below, who hailed her safety with loud cheers.

She was back again on Wandsworth Common the following year:

South Eastern Gazette — Tuesday 21 September 1852

AN AERIAL OMNIBUS

On Monday evening M. Poitevin, accompanied by twenty-five ladies and gentlemen, ascended from Cremorne Gardens in the largest balloon ever constructed, it requiring upwards of 120,000 feet of gas. Some idea may gained of its ascending power when it is stated that nearly two tons of sand, in bags, was attached to it, and 40 men were occupied in preventing its untimely ascent.

Madame Poitevin made another very successful descent in a parachute, landing in a garden near Clapham-common, and the party in the balloon also descended in safety at Beckenham.

FOURTH PARACHUTE DESCENT OF MADAME POITEVIN

On Thursday evening Madame Poitevin again ascended from Cremorne in a parachute, and effected a successful descent near Wandsworth Common, returning to the gardens within an hour of her aerial departure.

[BNA: Link]

Morning Herald (London) — Friday 17 September 1852

CREMORNE. — FOURTH SAFE PARACHUTE DESCENT OF MADAME POITEVIN.

The inflation of the immense balloon Le Globe was prevented in consequence of the state of the weather on Wednesday, and this was expected to have caused some little disappointment, but the simultaneous cheers of the assembled thousands at the ascent of the less gigantic, but not less beautiful, machine, Le Zodiac, set aside all fears on that head.

The selection of an earlier hour for its departure gave considerable satisfaction, and the wisdom of this determination was apparent in the lengthened and clear view every spectator had from the gardens from the moment when the elegant little machine was, as on former occasions, cut away from its hitherto protecting guide to the period when it was hidden by the foliage of the trees intervening, which overhang the outskirts of Wandsworth-common.

A military gentleman placed his splendid four-in-hand and himself at the service of the lady, by whom she was conducted to the gardens within half on hour of her departure. It was rumoured on the grounds that Monsieur Poitevin would ascend again on Monday, and that the gentleman who so kindly escorted Madame Poitevin last night would descend [ascend?] in the parachute with her.

[BNA: Link]

This time, she did not ascend over Wandsworth Common astride a bull, as she had the previous month.

21 September 1852

But if Lunardi's sounds like a perplexing floating menagerie, London had to wait another 68 years for the bizarrest — and perhaps cruellest — balloon stunt of all. It involved a seasoned French aeronaut, Madame Poitevin, and a bull — and it would put a stop to the frankly demented practice of forcing animals to fly.

By the mid 1850s, the cityscapes of London and Paris had balloons bobbing up and down on a near-daily basis. A newspaper from 1852 writes: "The rage for balloons never manifested itself through such incessant exhibitions as at the present moment.".

Of course, you've got to keep the punters coming back for more, which means doing increasingly wacky (stupid) things.

In August 1852, Madame Poitevin took le biscuit, when she announced she would ascend from Chelsea's Cremorne Gardens — a well-known pleasure garden of the day — riding on the back of a bull, in a depiction of the Greek goddess Europa.

The heartless stunt had previously been pulled off with horses: Monsieur Poitevin had drifted above the rooftops of Paris on horseback in 1850. But this was the first time the feat had been attempted on a bull. Wonder why.

On 30 August, the ill-advised flight went ahead, with Madame Poitevin and the bull ascending above Cremorne Gardens before drifting eastward and eventually landing in a field in Ilford. They were 'greeted' by a 'mob' who were "astonished at seeing a bull fall from a balloon — a thing not seen every day in Essex."

Poitevin was unharmed but the bull was (obviously) terrified out of its wits — so much so, it was decided the best cause of action was slaughter the poor creature.

The stunt was a bridge too far, and landed the Poitevins in hot water. Newspaper court reports from the time say that Madame Poitevin and the proprietor of Cremorne Gardens, Mr Simpson, pleaded guilty to "ill-using and ill treating a heifer", accepted a fine of five pounds each, and agreed not to take any kind of animal up in a balloon again.

This didn't discourage the Poitevins from flying though; the very next month, an article in the London Evening Standard recounted the couple ascending 5,000 feet above Clapham Common in a balloon, before Monsieur Poitevin leapt out with a parachute. (He survived.)

[The Londonist: Will Noble, "When A French Woman Rode Over London On The Back Of Floating Bull"]

Wikipedia: André-Jacques Garnerin and his niece Elisa c.1800 [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q538750]

VictorianLondon: Entertainment and Recreation — Ballooning — experiences of (Some vg pics and quotes, including a lovely one from Henry Mayhew.)

LondonOverlooke: Frederick Harwood, or, The Surrey Cricketer and the Hot Air Balloon (5 June 1854).