In the daytime, Cremorne Gardens was a fashionable place to stroll through well-maintained grounds. At night, however, the park attracted a seedy crowd. The London Standard reported on the gardens’ double life in 1877: “For about three-quarters of an hour before closing a great deal of bad champagne and brandy-and-water was drunk … But throughout the afternoon and early evening the exquisitely pretty gardens, with their tall old trees, their sparkling flower-beds, and their leafy arbors, were the resort of honest and well-behaved folk ….” Fireworks set off in the gardens are featured in several of Whistler’s Nocturnes.
