Belle Vue Chetham library visit and lecture.
Belle Vue was one of the most popular destinations for people to visit for a holiday in England. In 1820 jenison owned a pub and to make it different from the rest, he caged rats, squirrels and other small animals in the garden of his pub. people then never saw things like this and we're extremely curious. He then opened up a zoo, this was when Belle Vue was created.
The park was run by the family, everything was made in the park and had its own bakery and brewery etc it had the biggest beer license in the country and would sell 40,000 pints of beer a day. They would sell on average 20,000 biscuits/slices of cake a day. It even had its own rail network and public transport bringing in 80,000 people a day.
Green coloured paper would be used to advertise the park, with each town having a different holiday they worked out the dates of each holiday and would advertise in that certain town using large green posters, so a huge amount of people would go.
The circus was one of the main attractions.
Images from the Chetham library archive. In this book the family kept a huge log of everything.Monkeys would be walked around the park.
exotic animals would be used to perform daring stunts. As in the zoo, the animals were cheap to buy but only lasted a few weeks/months. The elephants didn't have enough room to even turn around in their cages. The animals would still be used once dead, they would be stuffed and placed in museums for people to still observe.The park had 100 acres of land which also had lakes, stables,dance halls and the zoo.People often enjoyed dancing at Belle vue and is well known for couples to have met here. Dance halls would have been huge with sometimes controversial same sex dancing would happen.
The park was used as a place for everyone to go on holiday, the trains would bring people in and would stay all day till night.The fireworks were the conclusion of the day to lure people in staying the whole day which then would make more money by buying food and drinks. with over 400 people employed to be in the firework display which was themed 'Battle of Waterloo'. Belle vue even had its own firework factory to make the masses of fireworks.
The park was also a musical attraction with brass bands. There would be dirt track racing. In the 1920's one of the biggest roller coasters in the world (at the time) was opened called 'Bobs' this would cost a shilling to ride hence the name 'Bobs'.
The roller coasters remind me of the ones at Blackpool Pleasure beach at the same time. These were also not very safe and people had to hold on to stay in their seats.Belle Vue had its own TV show and broadcast on the BBC. this was extremely popular and had elephants in the background which Belle Vue is iconic for.
In the 60's the park started emptying, It had had its time and people were no longer very interested as seaside amusement parks seemed more desirable to visit for a holiday and no longer offered anything different. The park then operated as a concert hall for big acts to play such as Led Zeplin, The monkeys and Rod stewart.The venue would have concerts where the Rolling stones and the Beatles played, they started to get celebrities to place their hands and feet in concrete creating prints. On sundays it would host an audience of black people as in some clubs they wouldn't allow them in. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye gigged here.
Belle Vue was extremely popular with people still talking about it. I like the history of it and the vintage feel to the images.
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