James Lesh reconstructed the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens, gold-rush Melbourne’s premier leisure attraction. This involved extensive archival research and a global literature review.
Cremorne Gardens was located in south of Richmond on the Yarra river. For ten summer seasons, from 1853 to 1863, Cremorne welcomed thousands of visitors. Cremorne’s three proprietors, including the prominent businessman and politician George Coppin, carefully arranged this commercial venture. Cremorne became an alluring urban space that produced new social experiences and provoked contested responses, inflected by contemporary standards of social etiquette and public morality. Cremorne thus reflected broader urban, social and cultural patterns of the era.
Key Outputs
- Research Article
Commendations and Awards:
- A.G.L. Shaw Summer Research Fellowship, State Library of Victoria.
- Shortlist, Victorian Community History Awards.
- Shortlist, John Adams Prize, Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
Links:
- Purchase the article from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
- Learn about the AGL Shaw Summer Research Fellowship
- Check out hidden stories of Melbourne (The Age)
Featured Image: Walter Woodbury, ‘Iron Pagoda, Dancing Platform and Painted Panorama at Cremorne Gardens’, c.1855 (Courtesy Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, RPS.3093:9-2018)