Note 16c — CREMORNE GARDENS

G. Bryan, Chelsea (1869), p. 169; Walford, Old and New London, v. 86. In July, 1864, Eugène Godard’s huge Montgolfier balloon ascended from Cremorne, and came down in the East Greenwich marshes. It was heated by air, there being in the centre of the car a stove filled with rye-straw compressed into blocks. An earlier London ascent of a Montgolfier balloon took place at the Surrey Zoological Gardens (see infra). For Godard’s balloon, see Illustrated London News for July 30, 1864; Coxwell, My Life, second series, p. 207 f., with picture of the balloon. In August, 1865, Delamarne’s sailing balloon, L’Espérance, was shown. It was about 200 feet long, and had screw propellers and a rudder set in motion by machinery.