Philip Astley Esquire is the name. Six foot tall ex-cavalry
man with an outstanding talent for horse training! I am proud
to be the inventor of the modern circus. Let me recount the
tale. After a spell in the army I opened a riding school in
Lambeth where I taught in the morning and performed equestrian
tricks in the afternoon. Musical accompaniment was provided
by my good wife Patty who beat a big drum. When we established
Astley’s Riding School at the southern end of Westminster Bridge
in 1768 she joined me in executing tricks on horseback.
One of my wife’s best tricks involved circling the ring on
horseback with swarms of bees covering her hands and arms like
a muff. I meanwhile performed extraordinary tricks on horseback.
My most famous act was
The Tailor of Brentford in which I was the first to combine comedy with equestrian expertise.
I quickly began to incorporate other acts from the fairs and
pleasure gardens of London and the boulevards of Paris. These
were acrobats, jugglers, rope-dancers, clowns and strong men.
We were the talk of the town! By 1780 I had built a roof over
the entire arena so that my audiences could enjoy winter evening
amusements.
You may like to know that I am credited with discovering that
the ideal size for a circus ring is 42 feet in diameter. This
is the optimum size that enabled me to use centrifugal force
to help balance on a horse’s back. As I rode at speed around
the ring I used gravity to push me into the horse’s back and
thus prevent me from taking a nasty tumble onto the sawdust
floor.
Unfortunately, my rival Mr Charles Dibdin had the impudence
to open
The Royal Circus a short distance along the river in 1782. Using my excellent
formula he presented dramatic equestrian entertainment and coined
the name Circus.
Astley’s Amphitheatre
