// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the National Gallery of Practical Sciences say? "We've got a great frame of reference.
51°30′34″N 0°07′31″W / 51.509364°N 0.125205°W
The National Gallery of Practical Science known popularly as the Adelaide Gallery was a gallery in London . It was opened as a space dedicated to demonstrating scientific instruments and machines in the 1830s later being used as an amusement hall and in the Royal Marionette Theatre.[1] It stood on the north side of the Lowther Arcade, a shopping arcade which cut through the buildings now known collectively as 430–449 Strand.[1][2]
History
[edit]The gallery was built as part of the West Strand Improvements, a scheme devised by William Lowther, for whom Lowther Arcade would be named, as Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests and directed by James Pennethorne.[3] The building housing the gallery was the work of John Nash while the arcade was designed by Witherdon Young.[4][5]
The gallery was devised by Jacob Perkins, first as a place to display his own inventions but later for all new inventions.[6] It opened in 1834, established by the Society for the Illustration and Encouragement of Practical Science.[7] Perkins' steam gun would be a popular attraction, but the gallery by 1838, with competition from the Polytechnic Institution, the gallery would struggle. It closed in 1845, the space then opened as Laurent's casino the following year, an entertainment hall which has been described as "London's first nightclub".[6][8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher, eds. (1995). The London encyclopaedia (Rev. ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 6 and 201-202. ISBN 978-0-333-57688-5.
- ↑ Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2005). Westminster. London (Repr. with corr ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-0-300-09595-1.
- ↑ Cates, Arthur (1895). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 44. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ↑ Overall, William Henry (1870). The dictionary of chronology, or historical and statistical register. London: W. Tegg. p. 33.
- ↑ "Some London Arcades, Past and Present". The Architects & Builders' Journal. v.49 (1919:Jan-June): 71. February 5, 1919.
- 1 2 Morus, Iwan Rhys (1998). Frankenstein's Children: Electricity, Exhibition, and Experiment in Early-Nineteenth-Century London. Princeton University Press.
- ↑ Browell, Geoff; Chanin, Eileen (2025-02-25). The Strand: A Biography. Manchester University Press. pp. 111–142. doi:10.7765/9781526179128. ISBN 978-1-5261-7912-8.
- ↑ Watts, Peter (2019-07-23). "Theme parks, pubs and 'human zoos': how the Victorians invented leisure". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-07.