''Venice in London'' was a spectacular held at Olympia in London from 26 December 1891 to January 1893. It was also variously described as ''Venice The Bride of the Sea at Olympia'', ''Venice at Olympia'', etc.

Genesis

The show was the brainchild of the caterer

Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He began his career in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), ...

and his business partner Harold Hartley."Olympia Corporate History 1884-1999"
John Glanfield, Exhibition Study Group, January 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2016.''The coronation year''
W.H. Allen & Co., London, 1914. pp. 447–448. Hartley, who owned the Pure Water Company, had met Lyons when supplying

aerated water Aerated water is, correctly speaking, water to which air is added. The term is, however, frequently applied to carbonated water. Purpose of aeration Sulfur compounds dissolved in water are not necessarily dangerous, but can give the water a b ...

to the builders of the

Imperial Institute The Commonwealth Education Trust is a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational pro ...

(completed 1893)."Mr. Harold Hartley". ''The Times'' 28 July 1939, p. 19. As Hartley told it in his memoirs, ''Eighty-eight Not Out'' (1939):

One evening later on Lyons, who had never travelled, asked me if I had ever been to Venice, as he had an idea that it might be reproduced with its canals in an attractive form. Being well acquainted with Venice, I at once realized its possibilities and thus "Venice in London" was born. Visions of the Grand Canal, with its churches, palaces, and gondolas flashed through my mind.

The event

Through his firm J. Lyons and Co., Lyons and his business partners had the contract for the catering at Olympia. The event combined catering by Lyons, entertainments and opportunities to purchase souvenirs with a stage show designed and directed by the theatrical impresario Imre Kiralfy who specialised in spectacular events and lent his name to the production in order to increase its appeal to the public. It required the import of 100

gondola The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, ...

s from Venice with Venetian gondoliers. According to ''The Times'', 4,893,980 people visited the event in its first year with 24,737 visiting on Boxing Day 1892."Venice in London", ''The Times'', 27 December 1892, p. 9.

References

External links

* 1890s in London Entertainment in London Theatre in London {{London-stub