Drinking tea outdoors may have begun in the 12th century with japanese tea houses. These tea houses connected the indoor and outdoor space by its design and architecture. The tea ceremony was a precise process which began with “roji” or a “cha-ni-wa” - essentially a garden path that led you to a sacrosanct space. As with ancient and modern gardens, “it was a means of separation from the busy surrounding world and a way of declaring entry into another realm.” 1.
"Summer Afternoon", Theo van Rysselberghe 1901
Pleasure gardens in Europe were designed for the drinking of tea and strolling. They flourished in the late 18th century, particularly in London.
Tea time in the garden has been captured in paintings by european masters such as Matisse, Johnson, Renoir, van Rysselberg, and many others.
Tea table in the Garden, Esther Borough Johnson 1925 ©Brighton and Hove Museums
Tea in the Garden, Henri Matisse 1919 ©LA County Museum of Art
Tea Time, Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1911 ©The Barnes Foundation
There is a surprising history of enjoying tea in the idyllic landscape of a New York City garden.
As New Amsterdam passed into British hands in 1674 and was rechristened New York, it proceeded to acquire English manners. Copying the idea of the London pleasure gardens of the first half of the 18th century, tea gardens were added to the coffee houses and taverns.
New York Vauxhill Gardens
At Lafayette & Astor Place, was New York’s first botanical garden, established by a Swiss physician, Jacob Sperry, who farmed flowers, hothouse plants and fruit for the New York market in 1803. A mile from what was then the edge of the city, Sperry's gardens became the destination of weekend strollers up Broadway from Wall St and the City’s Common (at Greenwich Street between Warren and Chambers streets). Later on, Sperry sold his gardens to John Jacob Astor, who then leased the property to a Frenchman named Delacroix. Delacroix, who needed a larger garden for his already thriving pleasure garden business, transformed Sperry's property into the fashionable new Vauxhall Garden, a New York garden design where New Yorkers could also eat, drink, socialize, and be entertained by band music and, in the evenings, by fireworks and theatrical events. The Ranelagh, which lasted for twenty years was on Broadway between Duane and Worth Streets, was another Manhattan garden design. From advertisements of the period, we learn that there were fireworks and band concerts twice a week at these gardens. They were for ‘breakfasting’ as well as the evening entertainment of ladies and gentlemen.” 2
Precursors of the modern park, tea gardens also became instrumental in spreading the popularity of ice cream!
Pleasure gardens of Lower Manhattan - the first Vauxhill Garden
-1. All About Tea by William Harrison Ukers
-2. Landscape Design, a Cultural and Architectural History, by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.
