"The ice was remarkably good, and the quadrilles of several members of the Skating Club attracted a large circle round that portion of the ice, on which they practised their graceful evolution." - "London Evening Standard", January 26, 1838
"Thou'st here, at last, attained thy true perfection under the gallant Skating Club's protection!" - Excerpt from a poem published in "The Illustrated London News", 1844
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you're in a horse-drawn carriage riding through the side streets of Victorian England. It's a chilly afternoon between Christmas and New Year's Day - cold enough you can see your breath. You pass coopers and chimney sweeps, milliners and tea merchants. As you approach your destination, you gaze out the carriage window at the frozen Serpentine River. Your coachman stops and opens the door. You breathe in the crisp winter air and beam. It's the first day of the skating season.
Long before the days of indoor rinks, English figure skaters were dependent entirely on the weather. Some winters saw weeks of good skating; others none at all. Though 'skaiting' had its devotees in the eighteenth century, it wasn't until April 28, 1830, when Henry C. Chilton organized a meeting of winter-hardy figure skaters, that the first organized group of skating enthusiasts in Victorian England was founded. This group was known to its members and the public as The Skating Club. The Club's first skating session was held on December 27 of that year. An account in the "Evening Mail" recalled, "The Skating Club had their first meeting on the Serpentine River, in Hyde-park, on Monday afternoon, at two o'clock. It is composed of the best skaters in town, and the members are distinguished by wearing a small model of a skate in silver suspended from the button-hole. The club will now meet daily at two o'clock, near the Receiving-house, in Hyde-park." The next month, members of The Skating Club took to the ice in Regent's Park in their black coats, trousers and tall hats. The January 31, 1831 issue of the "Globe" described the scene thusly: "There was a vast assemblage of beauty, rank and fashion on the banks, to witness the skating. The weather was remarkably favourable altogether, and the garden of this delightful park presented a most animated scene."
An article that appeared in the "Morning Post" on January 6, 1832, provides the exact location of The Skating Club's first sessions, as well as a list of its early members: "The Skating Club met yesterday in the Regent's Park, on that part of the lake next [to] the Marquis of Hertford's Eastern [also referred to as 'Hindoo'] Pavilion. There was a considerable degree of grace and science displayed by [Thomas Heron Jones the] Viscount Ranelagh, Mr. [William] Newton, Captain [John] Trotter, Mr. [Frederick] Byng, the two Chiltons [Rev. Cyril and George], Mr. [Edward] Shepherd, Mr. Joy, Marquis of Clanricarde, Mr. T. Staveley, Mr. Weston, Mr. G.A. Thompson and Mr. T. Rivell. All the skates were upon an improved principle."
The formation of The Skating Club not only generated considerable interest in the art; it also created jobs. Skaters needed skates and they obtained them from a cutler named Mr. W. Coleman, who had a shop on the Haymarket. He ran an advertisement in the newspapers aimed at "the Gentlemen of the Skating Club and Amateurs of the Manly Art of Skating". Mr. Coleman wasn't the only one who profited from the Club.
Many men and boys of the "humble classes" would strap and screw on the well-to-do's skates in exchange for a shiny coin or two. T. Maxwell Witham recalled, "The well-known words, 'Ave a pair on, sir? Skates on, sir?' invited the promenaders in the London parks in every direction, and it was apparent that thousands of the humble classes were getting their daily bread in a most inclement season by ministering to the wants of the skater." When the ice would bear, entrepreneurial vendors also showed up in droves. An 1865 article from "The Sporting Magazine" noted that they sold "hot-baked potatoes, buns, gingerbread, peppermints, hot coffee well flavoured with chicory, porter and beer with a dash of pump water mixed with them, leather straps for disabled skates, walking-sticks to hold up the timid and the learner, with sundry other 'good and useful' articles such as the necessity of the occasion would seem to require."
As one can imagine, safety was a huge concern of the members of The Skating Club. From the get-go, they made generous donations to the Royal Humane Society for their services. The 'icemen' had several plans in place if the ice broke and a skater fell in. They stocked up on ladders and erected a pole on the shore of Regent's Park, from which they hung ropes, and placed signs marked 'Dangerous' near sections of bad ice. They even had a special rescue boat made. In 1839, eight members of the Club were rescued when the ice broke. When an unlucky skater was pulled from the water, they were offered a warm bath, blankets and "stimulants" of some variety and sent home in a carriage to recuperate immediately. The 'icemen' were also tasked with assisting the injured. The newspapers of the day often wrote of unfortunate skaters who suffered fractured limbs and "broken heads".
Illustration from a scrapbook of The Skating Club. Photo courtesy Surrey History Centre.
Though The Skating Club was very much a gentlemen's Club, ladies skated with members as early as the 1830's. In 1837, one of the members - a banker named Mr. Weston - brought his two daughters with him. An article from "Saint James's Chronicle" noted that "The Misses Weston... in the quadrilles displayed an ease and grace which were quite charming." In 1838, "a lady, about 30 years of age," joined the Club members on the ice. She was "habited from head to foot in green-coloured clothes [and] ran a race along the ice in skates with a gentleman, which created so much confusion, that it was found necessary for the police in attendance to interfere, who accordingly conducted her to the bank, where she took off her skates." By 1867, the Club had "about 40 lady skaters".
The Skating Club eventually obtained special permission from the Ranger of The Commissioners of Woods and Forests to install a large pavilion on the banks of the Serpentine River, where they enjoyed cognac and cigars in peace between skating sessions. They were 'left alone' for a time, but eventually the Club's favourite skating haunts were being inundated with recreational skaters. On January 3, 1837, the "Saint James's Chronicle" recorded, "Soon after noon there were assembled on the ice about 500 persons, principally of the lower grade; a few of them were skaters, but the greater proportion sliders. There might have been about a half-a-dozen adepts in the figure movements, but we saw none who appeared to be the ranks of gentlemen." The Club's upper-class members found that performing their figures was nearly impossible on a crowded ice surface, so they regularly shuffled around between St. James's Park, the Serpentine in Hyde Park, Battersea Park and the Long Water and Round Pond at Kensington-Garden. There, too, they often found the ice "literally studded with human beings". This 'problem' was temporarily solved when England's first indoor rink, The Glaciarium, opened at Baker-Street Bazaar. Sir William Newton, the Club's President, "pronounced it better than bad ice, but inferior to the best" and a group of roughly twenty members of the Club skated there during the winter of 1843. In 1855, Club members "obtained permission to appropriate to their special use a piece of water known as the intermediate reservoir" on the grounds of the Crystal Palace.
Illustration of skaters on the crowded Serpentine in 1850, from Richard 'Dicky' Doyle's book "Manners & Customs of ye Englyshe"
By the 1850s, The Skating Club's popularity had inspired the formation of similar clubs in Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. These other clubs weren't as choosy as The Skating Club. The Oxford Skating Club counted tradesmen, mechanics and students among its members. What made The Skating Club stand out amongst its peers were its royal connections. In 1841, Prince Albert was presented with a golden skate to hang in his buttonhole. In 1864, the Prince and Princess of Wales met with members of the Club at Virginia Water. The January 16, 1864 issue of "The Illustrated London News" reported, "Her Royal Highness, who is said to be an excellent skater, did not, of course, take part in that exercise, but was occasionally driven about in a sledge." The royals weren't just interested in skating; they were interested in the ice itself. In 1853, the "London Evening Standard" reported, "Several noblemen and gentlemen belonging to the Skating Club took an active part in the performance [in Hyde Park] and cut with their skates upon the ice many grotesque figures, serpents and letters.... The ice... was three inches thick, and that part nearest the east end is to be broken for the purpose of supplying her Majesty's kitchen so that the skaters will have to be very careful in not venturing too near the opening when that is done."
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