{"id":1691,"date":"2020-04-08T13:35:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T13:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recordsandarchives.westminster.ac.uk\/?page_id=1691"},"modified":"2022-01-06T11:53:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:53:50","slug":"the-annual-garden-party","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/archive-blog\/the-annual-garden-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annual Garden Party"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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On 19<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>\u00a0May 1906 the Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground was officially opened with a ceremony and f\u00eate.\u00a0 The event was such a success that a Garden Party<\/span><\/span>\u00a0at Chiswick<\/span><\/span>\u00a0became an annual feature in the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Polytechnic calendar with the first being held on 8<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>\u00a0June 1907.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The Garden Parties were open to all members of the Poly, their families and friends. They featured a variety of sporting events, including displays by the ladies and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>gents<\/span><\/span>\u00a0gymnastics clubs, exhibition bouts by the Boxing, Fencing and Wrestling Clubs, and athletics competitions by the Ladies and Gents Athletics Clubs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Wheelbarrow Race, 1911<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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They also included more light-hearted entertainment for everyone such as a push-ball match, costume race,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>ladies<\/span><\/span>\u00a0vs gents cricket, ladies vs gents basketball, potato race, tug of war, and races for children.\u00a0 The Poly Military Band was on hand to provide music for dancing.\u00a0 Attendance at the second Garden Party was recorded at over 1,000 people<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and in 1932 it was estimated at 7,000 people.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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During the First World War the Garden Party ceased.\u00a0 However, in 1919 it was\u00a0<\/span>reintroduced with a special Gard<\/span>en Party and Welcome Home. The P<\/span>resident of the Poly, JEK\u00a0Studd<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0received all the demobilised Poly Boys at the Party and\u00a0<\/span>tributes\u00a0<\/span>were\u00a0<\/span>paid to those who had fought<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

By the late 1920s<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the Garden F<\/span><\/span>\u00ea<\/span><\/span>te<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0as it was now called<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0was a\u00a0<\/span><\/span>grand affair from 3.30pm until 9.45pm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>In addition to the Club displays,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>d<\/span><\/span>onkey rides, swings and a mat slide were provided for children and there was even a celebrated palmist, Madame Xenia<\/span><\/span>, in<\/span><\/span>\u00a0attenda<\/span><\/span>nce. Each Poly sports club\u00a0<\/span><\/span>organised a<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u2018Fun at the Fair\u2019 stand and the evening finished with Dancing on the Green accompanied by the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Band of the Metropolitan Police T Division<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 Entrance was the cost of a programme \u2013 threepence.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0
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Mat Slide 1938<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Flyer, 1934<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In 1933 the event was renamed the Summer F\u00eate.\u00a0 In 1937,\u00a0<\/span>G<\/span>eorge\u00a0<\/span>VI became\u00a0<\/span>K<\/span>ing and the F\u00ea<\/span>te b<\/span>ecame a Coronation<\/span>\u00a0F\u00eate.\u00a0 According to reports in the Polytechnic Magazine, it was a perfect summer\u2019s day with the most popular events being the keep fit demonstration and the skipping display by the Ladies Gymnastic Class.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Once again<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0war put a halt to the Summer\u00a0F\u00eate\u00a0and it ran for the last time in 1939.<\/span>\u00a0 During the war the\u00a0<\/span>council and later the Army used the ground<\/span>.\u00a0 Chiswick sustained substantial bomb damage during the Second World War, including damage to the Ladies Pavilion and Boathouse.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In 1953<\/span><\/span>\u00a0a special effort was made to revive the F\u00eate, once again in the form of a Coronation F\u00eate<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0celebrati<\/span><\/span>ng the coronation of HM T<\/span><\/span>he Queen. The event<\/span><\/span>, which was the last until the present day,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0took place on a warm and sunny 27th June with 1<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>500 people in attendance.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Programme,1953<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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University Records and Archives, June 2019<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to the blog<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 19th\u00a0May 1906 the Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground was officially opened with a ceremony and f\u00eate.\u00a0 The event was such a success that a Garden Party\u00a0at Chiswick\u00a0became an annual feature in the\u00a0Polytechnic calendar with the first being held on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"parent":3461,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1691","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1691\/revisions\/3483"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}