The London Season - "Coming Out"

You often hear, when reading literature about the Georgian and Victorian period or watching films and television programmes set in this time, about “the season” in London. This colloquial term refers to a period of time every year when aristocratic and gentry families would travel to London from their country houses and would live in London socialising and visiting friends and family.

A Drawing Room at St James Palace
Photo Source: Regency History Website

The London season itself first came into being as wives and families of members of parliament accompanied their husbands to London for the parliamentary session and needed events and things to do to keep them occupied during this time. The parliamentary session ran roughly from October/November to May/June and so families would find themselves in London for half of the year and subsequently needed activities to fill their time.

Visiting friends, family and acquaintances, visiting the opera and the ballet, walking in the numerous parks, attending an exhibition or visiting a museum, and of course public and private balls and assemblies were all diversions for the aristocracy and gentry to take part in whilst they stayed in London and as the season became more popular, more and more social events were available.

As this habit became a regular occurrence each year, the popularity of the season began to grow and soon it became a fashionable thing to do as well as practical. For one to remain popular within society circles and indeed in order to broaden one’s social circle, you had to travel to London for the ‘season.’

Lady Rose being presented at Court in Downton Abbey
Photo Source: NumberOneLondon

Mothers began to recognise that by coming to London and attending a range of public and private events, that eligible bachelors were more accessible for their daughters to meet than when they were sequestered away at their country estates. Therefore, the London season became known as a marriage market as well as a parliamentary event and young women who were eligible to marry, planned their ‘coming out’ into society balls for during this period, knowing they would be able to attract more bachelors and therefore increase their chances of meeting their future husband.

‘Coming out’ in society marked a change from child to adult and would mean a daughter could take part in more social events, would be able to go out on an evening to social events, and of course would be able to find a husband and get married. A young lady ‘coming out’ into society was marked by a ceremony where the young woman would be presented to the monarch at Court. This tradition is still upheld to this day with young women from some families still being presented to the monarch at court.

Georgiana, 5th Duchess of Devonshire with her infant daughter
Georgiana who would become the 6th Countess of Carlisle
Photo Source: Wikipedia

Georgiana, 5^th Duchess of Devonshire organised a lavish coming out ball for her eldest daughter Georgiana Cavendish during the London season of 1800 where she met George Howard, Viscount Morpeth who was the heir to the 5^th Earl of Carlisle and lived at the palatial Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. George Howard fell in love with Georgiana and courted her for a year, spending time getting to know the beautiful young woman and the following year they married.

The London season was at its most popular in the 19^th century and since the twentieth century has disappeared as the nature of society and London as a city has changed. Aristocratic families began to give up their London houses, particularly after the first world war, and an increasing number of public events meant that it was harder to maintain exclusivity. From this time on, aristocratic families tended to move back to their country estates, privatising their balls and instead favouring the ‘country house, house party’, an altogether more exclusive, invite only event.

Lost Country House Postcards

Photo owned and reproduced with kind permission from Country House Postcards Facebook Page

Postcards may be a dying art these days with the rise of social media, email and television, and especially the internet which allows us to research and see pictures of any place on the planet. However, some people do still enjoy picking up a postcard with beautiful images of the places they visit, writing a small greeting on the back, and sending it to friends or family.

In previous decades however, before cameras were as widely available and before televisions were in everyone’s homes, the only way for friends and family to be able to see where you had been on holiday would be for you to send them a postcard or to bring postcards back with you from your holiday. This did not just mean holidays abroad, this also applied to visits across the UK.

One of the trends of the early 20th century included purchasing and collecting country house post cards. These were photographs of the thousands of country houses across the UK. These post cards may have become lost in the annals of time were it not for the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century, the country house went into decline.

Houses were taken over for the war, sons did not return from war, the fashion for country house ‘parties’ were not as popular any more, servants began to think of other careers, and the economy changed to the point that country houses being run in the way they were during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, was no longer feasible.

In the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, hundreds of country houses were abandoned by families who simply couldn’t afford the upkeep any more. Many of them suffered as a result of being commissioned and misused by the war office during the first and second world wars, and others were simply left closed and empty for decades. Decay as a result of poor maintenance occurred quickly and were eventually demolished when they had become a hazard or when the owner decided to sell the land. This is before buildings could be listed and protected.

Now, in the twenty first century there is an increasing popularity for country house postcards which can be bought at craft and antique fairs which document many of the UK’s lost country houses. These postcards may be some of the last images we have of some of the finest architectural buildings of the 19th and 20th century.

These Longleat postcards are currently on sale on eBay:

Although as we know Longleat is not 'lost,' it gives you a good taste of what the postcards were like. 

Let's instead have a look at some houses that we know are now 'lost' . . . 

Anyone who lives in West Yorkshire knows about Saltaire and Salts Mill. The below house, Milner Fields was built for Titus Salt Jr. but the house was said to have terrible bad luck and was never a successful country house pile. It was completed around 1873 and demolished in the 1950's.

Both images from Pinterest

Eaton Hall in Chester was probably one of my favourite lost country houses due to the scale and the gothic grandeur . . . it's like something from a horror movie. How I would love to be able to travel in time and explore this house! The Eaton estate was home to the Grosvenor family from around the mis 1440's and their fortune was vast. This house was completed in 1881 and cost £32.5m in todays money to build. Unfortunately, post WW2 the family's fortune could not sustain such a sizeable house and it was demolished and replaced with a newer, smaller (although not small in our terms) house. Eaton Hall is still very much the home of the Duke of Westminster and some of the outbuildings of this great Victorian home did survive demolition. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area!

These images are featured on and belong to www.lostheritage.org.uk which is one of my favourite websites on the internet! Please do go and check it out as it has many more photographs of lost country houses. . . you could get lost yourself looking at them all!

I hope you enjoyed this quick post . . . see you again soon! x