The Curious History Of Hampton Court Palace Fair

The funfair returns to Hampton Court Palace Green this Easter, but did you know that we can trace its history back to the Victorian era, and it includes the story of a thrilling rescue? Our historian has been dep in the archives to find out more.

As historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan writes in his book on the Palace garden and parks: ‘every Easter from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Hampton Court Green was transformed into a fairground’.

One of the most exciting episodes in the funfair’s history happened on Thursday 5th July, 1883.

It was a beautiful summer’s day, and Reverend G.H.W. Bromfield had brought his Sunday school children from Lambeth to Hampton Court for a day out. It was a trip that he made often, to give the youngsters some time outside of the city.

A boy known only by the surname Taylor was playing on the riverbank. He was 10 and a half years old and lived at 9 Broad Street, not far from Lambeth Palace. He had grown up near the river, but that day, at 2.30pm, it nearly took his life.

“Taylor was paddling at the side of the river and fell forward into a deep hole.”

But help was on the way, in the shape of a man from the fair called Danny Stevens. 

“Stevens ran at full spend and jumping in found the boy, who clutched him so tightly that it is with great difficulty they were got ashore.”

When Danny, 21, dived into the Thames, his wife Sophia was heavily pregnant with their first child. Perhaps it was the thought of his unborn baby and impending fatherhood that made Danny so determined to save the boy – despite the fact that he couldn’t swim.

The Reverend was so impressed that he nominated Danny for a bravery award from the Royal Humane Society. (The extract above is from their casebook, which is now in the London Archives. Reference numbers are available on request).

On 3rd November 1883, the Surrey Comet praised “the courageous act of Stevens (who, it appears, was himself unable to swim)”. Charmingly, Taylor’s schoolfellows, who were not from a rich area, wanted to reward Danny too:

“A small sum of money was also collected among the children of the Sunday school, in token of their gratitude to the man who had, at, great risk to himself, saved their schoolfellow from death.”

Not much is known about Taylor, we know his hero was baptised in in St Peter’s Church in West Molesey. He was 18 years old  and living in a ‘travelling van’ in Molesey Street for the 1881 census. Five months later, he married his sweetheart Sophia Dixey, from Barnes, in St Mary’s Church, Long Ditton. Their son Perrin was born the day after the newspaper report.

Sophia was described as a ‘caterer of amusements’ and ‘fair booth proprietress’ – and their descendants are still involved in the funfair business today. 

But what was the fair like in those days?

Here is the story of a Kingston fair in 1871 that boasted a giant (!), performing monkeys riding dogs, and lots of funfair rides:

“The whirligigs and velocipede circuses appeared to do a thriving trade. Some were worked by steam, others by hand, but all going at a rate which made it at times rather uncomfortable for some of the riders. A young girl named Minnie Phillips, the daughter of a labourer living at Thames Ditton. got on one of these roundabouts, and after a while became giddy and fell off.”

Thankfully health and safety have come a long way since then!

Angelo Maresi, whose family ran the Pagoda café and who visited the fair every year since 1926, had some charming memories to share of Hampton Court Palace fair in the 20th century:

“I remember there was a bloke who used to sell bunches of bananas and he used to get the kids up and have a banana competition. The first one to eat it would get a bunch of bananas and I won the bunch of bananas.  They had a lot of stuff there, everything you could imagine.”
“The thing I remember most would have to be Stewart’s boxing show and eating them bananas, because I’d never had them before. It was all good, it was one of the best fairs in London”.

George Irvin’s family have been involved with Hampton Court Palace Green Fair since the nineteenth century, and George took over the running of it in 1994. Although you won’t find any boxing shows or dancing monkeys nowadays, you can ride Irvin’s magnificent carousel, modelled on the ones that delighted Victorian audiences, as well as a host of modern rides for all ages. 

You and your family can follow in the footsteps of local hero Danny Stevens from Thursday 17th April to Tuesday 22nd April, open from 12 noon to 11pm. Rides are half-price on Tuesday and Thursday.