Terry Foreman on 13 Apr 2011  •  Link

Folly

The name of this floating entertainment centre on the Thames was facetious: "In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly

nix on 14 Apr 2011  •  Link

"1659 saw the first mention of the Twickenham Ferry, although ferrymen had already been operating in the area for many generations. Sometime before 1743 a 'pirate' ferry appears to have been started by Twickenham inhabitants. There is speculation that it operated to serve 'The Folly' — a floating hostelry of some kind. Several residents wrote to the Lord Mayor of the City of London:

"'...Complaining that there is lately fixed near the Shore of Twickenham on the River Thames a Vessell made like a Barge and called the Folly wherein divers loose and disorderly persons are frequently entertained who have behaved in a very indecent Manner and do frequently afront divers persons of Fashion and Distinction who often in an Evening Walk near that place, and desired so great a Nuisance might be removed,....'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twic…

nix on 15 Apr 2011  •  Link

"The Lord Mayor was authorised to deal with the matter on behalf of the Quality. In fact both the Ferry and the Folly were closed in the following year [1746] when the Earl of Dysart took the matter to the Court of Common Pleas and obtained judgment on 5 March together with a bond for £100 against default."

http://thewildsideoflife.tripod.c…