Ranelagh Gardens

Ranelagh Gardens was a public pleasure garden of the 18th century in London. He lay in Chelsea and extended up to the banks of the Thames. Today the garden is a part of the gardens of the neighboring Royal Hospital Chelsea.

1688 began Richard Jones, 1st Earl Ranelagh with the construction of Ranelagh House as the official residence of the treasurer for the neighboring hospital, which wourde opened as a home for invalids and old soldiers in 1691. Ranelagh died in debt in 1712, then fell into his house with the surrounding garden. 1741 house and grounds were leased to a company that wanted to create a public pleasure garden on the grounds. The architect William Jones was tasked with creating a new of the garden. Jones put the focus of the system on the construction of a mighty, domed hall, the Rotunda. Inside the rotunda contained two-storey galleries, visitors could promenade and there was musical entertainment on offer; 1765 occurred in the nine year-old Mozart here. In addition to the rotunda of the garden contained a number of elements of garden architecture such as a channel, a pond, a lime avenue, a Chinese bridge and ornamental temple. Although the garden was dominated by the rotunda, the garden was suitable for promenading and for walks and enjoyed until the end of the 18th century with the visitors highest popularity. In his popularity he could with the much older, Vauxhall Gardens, opened in 1660 to compete. The garden was closed in 1803, Ranelagh House and the Rotunda were demolished in 1805, the garden was again a part of the hospital.

Between 1859 and 1866 the garden was redesigned by landscape architect John Gibson, who was also involved in the investment of Battersea Park on the opposite bank of the Thames. Since then he has designed with artificial hills, winding paths and trees and bushes in the style of an English landscape garden.

Canaletto painted the rotunda from the inside and from the outside.