Rosherville Pleasure Gardens

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Rosherville Gardens was one of the largest and most popular Victorian pleasure gardens.  It survived for seventy years, having been laid out in 1837 and finally closing to the public just before the First World War.  The gardens were built in a disused chalk pit near the River Thames. Much of the land in the area belonged to Jeremiah Rosher who had invented the name Rosherville for this part of Northfleet.

George Jones, a businessman from Islington, formed the “Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Company” and persuaded people to become shareholders.  The company leased the chalk pit for 99 years from 1837.  The gardens were laid out with a terrace, a bear pit, an archery ground, a lake, amaze, flower beds, statues, a lookout tower on a spur of rock and winding paths.

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