Carved Work - Switchbacks and Scenics
Switchback rides, and their electrified version the Scenic Railway, set the standards for fairground splendour at the turn of the 19th Century. The ride was an innovative, closed experience and brought to form the ambition to create a grand and undulating roundabout. The celebration of such a mechanical achievement was matched by an excess of carved and decorated work - the rides saturated in mirrors, painted panels, grand centre-piece organs, carved aspects such as crown and pillars, and exotic and gaudy mounts. Much of the mechanism was exposed and even exemplified through carved attractions, celebrating the pinnacle of achievement of movement.
Classic Switchback.
Savages of King's Lynn began manufacture of the Steam Switchback around 1885, with simple machines from this agricultural company soon becoming more sophisticated due to the ever present competition between showmen looking to outdo each other with what quickly became a successful ride. Initial chariots to convey passengers were of a very simple design and referred to as "toast racks", although the main body of the ride utilised carved pillars, rounding boards, domes and droppers. The simple chariots were soon replaced with Venetian gondolas, as the fairground imagination took flight and the need to suspend disbelief grew stronger. It is said the Savage carving shop, situated in Islington, had up to 60 staff on their books.
Spooner of Burton-on-Trent was soon involved in carving incredible work - their gondolas and rounding boards exhibiting a rich tapestry of forms including heraldic influences, mermaids and sea life, portaits of royalty, and general scenes of life. Outside of the fair a revival of Neo Gothic forms in ecclesiastical and secular Victorian architecture was taking place, and this quickly permeated onto the fairground. Spooner's workshop was said to employ original Italian artisans and carvers, but in effect consisted of highly skilled local craftsmen who were consulting a library of art books showcasing classical European styles! Many of these reference books have survived and form part of the NFA's Orton and Spooner collection. Braithwaite describes this work as "recognisable Baroque disciplines... typical Venetian scenes, grotesque figured consoles and fantastic carving of centre and gondolas... all perfectly in balance". The Switchback gondola was replaced briefly with motor cars, as this invention spread to the aspiring classes in the UK. John Walter Waddington added motor cars to his Switchback in the 1910s, replacing the ornate gondolas and (to some historians) signalled an intention to end the sedate period.
Heraldic carving.
Heads of royalty.
However, the 'dream fabric' of the fairground returned with a vengeance with the invention of the Scenic Railway. The Scenic is essentially an electrically driven Switchback, with Savages creating a example in 1910. To emphasise the newness of the ride Savages went for a completely new concept, borrowing from the Scenic Railway Roller Coaster built for the 1908 France-British Exhibition in name and in decorative impetus - recreating a thrilling journey through a scenic land. The Savage roundabout had carved scenery and a waterfall.
Orton and Spooner moved into pole position with the production of Scenics, and moved towards creating an overall singular effect rather than a miasma of travelling themes. Braithwaite describes this outlook, producing incredible dragon, whale, neptune, peacock and dolphin themed rides, as a reaction to the motor car in the form of "stubborn romanticism".
Ex Harry Hall 'Neptune' Scenic.
It was, however, Orton and Spooner who precipitated change, with the rise of artist A.S. Howell in the paint shops. His craft at creating jungle scenes was set alongside Herbert Darby's trompe l'oeil effects in reproducing a flattened version of carved work. As painting started to overtake carving as the premier form of decoration, the Scenic went in to demise with the depression in the 1920s. In this period foreign rides, cheaper and simpler and yet faster and more thrilling, were coming to prominence on the British fairground. The turn of fairground painting was about to follow, though to many historians a golden age of aesthetics was passing. It was certainly an age of opulence. Braithwaite sees out this era with reference towards a "nastier opulence" of "partially digested notions of linear architecture and cubism, simulated marble and chromium plate". As we shall see with other articles, this was a natural progression of fairground design, chiming with wider dynamics in society and technology.
Internal view of Scenic.
Classic Scenic.
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