- LOCAL STUDIES & ARCHIVE CENTRE
- EXHIBITIONS
- COLLECTIONS
-
GUIDES & RESOURCES
- Interactive map: Trafford Blue Plaques
- The First World War in Trafford - Research Database
- Trafford History Trails
- Guide: Research your British Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research your Caribbean Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research your Irish Ancestors using Ancestry
- Guide: Research the History of your House
- Guide: Organising your Family History Research
- Guide: Understanding census records
- 'Get to Know Your Grandparent(s)!' Children's Interview Activity Sheet
- CONTRIBUTE
White City Amusement Park
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society was still struggling financially and public interest in the gardens was waning. The area was rapidly losing its peaceful atmosphere, particularly after the transformation of Trafford Park into an enormous industrial estate. After failing to sell the gardens to both the Stretford Urban District Council and the Manchester Corporation, the society leased the space to the White City Company as an amusement park, which opened to the public on 20 May 1907.
John Calvin Brown, the park’s managing director, has been compared to Walt Disney for his vision of an international chain of amusement parks. As well as White City, the Anglo-American entrepreneur managed attractions in Paris, Barcelona, and London’s Earl’s Court. In 1910, he was described by the Luton Times and Advertiser as ‘the largest possessor of amusement parks in the world’.
Plans submitted to Stretford Urban District Council give us a good idea of how the park was laid out. ‘A city of pleasure’, ‘the finest bands in the world’, a ballroom, a skating rink, and ‘brilliant illuminations’ were just some of the attractions to pull in the punters during the park’s first year of business. There was also a water chute and the famous ‘figure of eight’ rollercoaster, for those of stronger dispositions.
Troublingly, one of the ‘attractions’ offered by the Park in 1908 was a ‘filipino native village, with its Barbarian Feasts and Dances’. Indeed, in the early twentieth-century this was a popular way to ‘exhibit’ the culture of the people raised in the Philippine highlands, both in Europe and North America. The Filipino people lived within the park itself and were required to entertain the gawping public with the customs and behaviours of their tribe.
Though they are reported as “savage head hunters” appear to be gentle and amiable people. They have a most engaging way of smiling, and are ready to be sociable with their white visitors. Smoking is their favourite recreation, if one may judge from what one sees at the White City.
- The Manchester Guardian, 18 May 1908
Although the amusement park boasted impressive visitor figures during its first few years of business, it was not to last. Calvin Brown withdrew his interests in the park in 1912 and, by 1914, it was closed.
Sources
Patricia O. Afable, 'Journeys from Bontoc to the Western Fairs, 1904-1915: the "Nikimalika" and their Interpreters', Philippine Studies, Vol. 52, No.4 (2004)
Ann Brooks, ‘A Veritable Eden’, The Manchester Botanic Garden, a History, (Oxbow Books, 2011)
Josephine Kane, The Architecture of Pleasure: British Amusement Parks 1900-1939, (Ashgate, 2013)
Luton Times and Advertiser, 23 September 1910
Manchester Evening News, 29 May 1914
Manchester Guardian, 18 May 1907
Pall Mall Gazette, 23 August 1912