LONDON. A View of the Canal Chinese building, rotunde in Ranelagh, Gardens with masquarade & c. Copperplate by Lechil? after Antonio Canaletto. Paris, after 1770. Original colouring. 25 x 43 cm. Good copy. A naively executed view of the floating chinese pavillion, with the Rotunda in the background, in Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens, Chelsea, west London, enlivened with fashionable patrons in exotic fancy dress. Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens were laid out in 1742. The Rotunda, built by William Jones, a surveyor for the East India Company, was 150 feet in diameter and heated by an enormous four sided fireplace in the centre which also formed part of the support for the roof. Around the walls were booths for eating and drinking, and an orchestra in which Mozart once played. The extensive gardens were laid out in a series of walks and groves, dimly lit at night with chinese lanterns, providing ideal trysting places for lovers. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the gardens had become a resort for less fashionable sections of society and the haunt of thieves and pickpockets. In 1803 the Rotunda was demolished and the gardens finally closed two years later. The site is now part of Chelsea Hospital gardens. [Ordernr.: 5816 ]