The 1887 Jubilee – Perhaps a Highpoint in Chinese Lanterns

Today an engraving from the The Illustrated London News in June 1887 entitled Preparing for the Jubilee: Buying Flags and Chinese Lanterns. 1887 was Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (50 years on the throne). “Jubilee Mania” broke out as people celebrated and, it would seem, Chinese lanterns were integral to the mania…

The UK seriously celebrated with London decked out in flags, and it appears Chinese lanterns, as over 50 heads of state piled into town for the celebrations, Irish Republicans planned to blow up Westminster Abbey. London was not the only place with Chinese lanterns – Ashburton in Devon opted for them too, according to the Ashburton Guardian, reporting that, “At night, most of the shops were illuminated, and in many parts of the town Chinese lanterns were a noticeable feature.” Similarly so at Pakenham, a village in Suffolk,where “the village street was prettily decorated with Chinese lanterns.” It obviously caught on quick – Treaton, a village in South Yorkshire, also decorated their high street, Front Street, with Chinese lanterns.  At Beaumont School in Hertfordshire, “The outlines of the pediments had been traced in gas jets, the windows brilliantly lit up, and the front lodge and grounds decorated with Chinese lanterns.”

Indeed Chinese lanterns formed a major part of many processions too. For instance, in (the wonderfully named) Boggart Hole Clough, a park in Blackley in Manchester, “The North Central Manchester Division of the Boy Scouts marched in procession to the beacon in the park, each carrying a Chinese lantern.” The Manchester Guardian described the sight of all the little scouts with lanterns on their heads as “charming.” And so the list of villages up and down the UK that chose Chinese lanterns for their jubilee celebrations continues….Stansted Abbots in Hertfordshire, Eynsham near Oxford, Ryde on the Isle of Wight, Folkestone in Kent, Rolleston on Dove in Staffordshire, Leamington Spa in Warwickshire all used them on their high streets as did Carnarvon in Wales with the streets lit, “by a number of lighted candles, intermixed with pretty Chinese lanterns of varied colours.” The Market Place at North Walsham in Norfolk apparently outdid themselves with both Chinese and Japanese lanterns. Even Buffalo Bill, in town for the Jubilee with his Wild West Show as part of an American Exhibition, couldn’t resist a lantern – The Times noted, “At nightfall the grounds were illuminated in every part with innumerable coloured lamps and Chinese lanterns.”

The Marketplace, North Walsham, Norfolk on the Jubilee, 1887

And it seems it wasn’t just England that chose Chinese lanterns as a key part of the decor for the celebrations – in Melbourne an “Oriental” celebration of the Jubilee reportedly had Chinese lanterns, according to the Melbourne Argus, as did Slacks Creek, near Logan in Queensland, while elsewhere in the Empire similar scenes occurred – Victoria Market in Kingston, Jamaica featured, “lanterns placed upon Chinese umbrellas, in the manner of a chandelier.” Many other cities in the Empire did the same including Ottawa.

America joined in too – “The General Committee in charge of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria” reported in the Daily Alta California newspaper that, “they had secured Woodward’s Gardens for June 22d, for the entire day” and that, “In the evening the Gardens are to be illuminated by hundreds of colored lanterns, electric lights and Chinese lanterns.”

And Queen Victoria herself, the subject of the celebrations, didn’t miss the lanterns writing in her diaries of the Chinese lanterns she saw people holding as she arrived at Windsor Castle.