The genre we know today as 鈥渃ircus鈥� can be traced back to the equestrian performances of Phillip Astley and his wife, Patty, at Ha鈥檖enny Hatch, Lambeth in the late 1760鈥檚. While the first spectacles at what would become known as Astley鈥檚 Amphitheatre and Riding School consisted largely of feats of horsemanship, the nightly entertainments soon came to incorporate acts such as acrobatics, musical automatons, a 鈥渓earned horse,鈥� trained bees swarming around their 鈥渢rainer鈥� in the shape of a wig, pantomimes, fireworks, hot air balloons, comic songs and re-enactments of occasions like the storming of the Bastille. In short, the performances at Astley鈥檚 offered a public space which re-presented the latest novelties as well as current events, re-mixing them along with a variety of astonishing physical entertainments. Given its huge popularity, it was small wonder that Astley鈥檚 inspired rival circus sites within London and the rest of the British Isles as well as in Europe and North America.
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The website provides a searchable database of newspaper advertisements listing the featured acts at Astley鈥檚 from 1768-1833. It takes us back to an era before the circus became synonymous with wild animals and ring-leaders in order to help us learn more about this neglected popular entertainment, early circus, and about the age in which it flourished.
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