We
were given the opportunity to go and view a Belle Vue
fairground archive at Chetham’s
Library in Manchester. Here we were able to get close up with a lot of
interesting photographs taken at Belle Vue and it was here where you was actually
able to see the sheer size of the complex which was once situated here in Manchesters
city. From posters, maps, leaflets and a huge scrapbook which was made by the
owners of Belle Vue this
give me more inspiration about the people and performers at belle vue and
there clothing/costume attire.
Early on within our research week, we
had a lecture with Claire Turner about Belle Vue. She was part of the Manchester
Histories Festival, who are putting on some workshops, talks and mini archives
from Belle Vue at
the end of the month..which I will make sure to definitely attend!
Living not to far away from Manchester, I
was amazed that until we had started this project, I had never heard of
Belle Vue
before. So finding out as much information as I could from a first hand
recollection was really intriguing.
Belle Vue
pretty much had everything, from Fairground Rides, Circus, Zoo, Side Shows,
Dancing, Boxing, Wheel of Death, Speedway Racing and also live Concerts where
many famous people would play, from Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones to The Who!
Millions of people from all over the country would visit Belle Vue each
year, it was such a popular and exciting place and everyone wanted to be a a
part of it. Clare also touched up on Pat Pearson who was a trapeaze
artist and Globe of Death rider who was doing a tlak as part of the Manchester Histories
Festival, I thought this would be great to link in with my project as I wanted
to look at the detail within the costumes of those worn by dancers/ performers
etc. So she would be a perfect example!
A bizarre fact that I found out from the
lecture was that amongst many of the exotic animals acquired at Belle Vue they
also had an elephant, Maharajah. She was to travel down to Manchester
by train from Edinburgh, but as the “myth” goes, with its trainer who was also to
travel down with Maharajah started to poke the elephant with pins so that she
would destroy the train compartment and
consequently then have to travel by foot in result. This was successful, but was largely
seen as a publicity stunt to promote
that of Belle Vue.
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