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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Valley of Fear (Pt. 1, Chaps. 4-7) and the chosen topic is Victorian Exercise.
A few facts (unless stated otherwise, my source is the book How To Be A Victorian by Ruth Goodman):
🏃 Doctors and parents both believed in was in girls’ best interest not to engage in vigorous exercise, as this would damage their developing reproductive organs.
🏃In the 1860s, Dr Pye Chevasse, along with most mainstream members of the medical profession recommended walking [for women and girls].
🏃Callisthenics were also recommended for girls. Callisthenics concentrated particularly upon moving the arms and shoulders, and generally left the torso immobile.
🏃For schoolchildren there was drill. This involved a series of formal exercises such as marching on the spot, arm swinging, trunk bending, skipping, etc. It was thought to help children follow instructions, improve coordination and health, and prepare them for work and military service. [John Malam]
🏃For men there were gymnastics and public gymnasiums: knee bends, stretches, arm waving, shadow-boxing and running on the spot for ten to twenty minutes every morning was considered a good way to start the day…
🏃Lambeth Public Baths in London drained its main pools in the winter to convert them into gymnasiums. By 1881, the baths’ posters advertised ‘every appliance for healthful and manly exercise of all kinds, and a good track for running, walking, etc.’ It offered parallel bars, a boxing ring, a high bar, trapeze-like swings, dumb-bells and fencing, as well as a running track. Entrance fees were 3d a session…
🏃 There were also outdoor gymnasiums. Ruth Goodman mentions ones at Primrose Hill in London and Peel Park in Salford; and she mentions one being constructed in 1858 on Smithdown Road in Liverpool, with three more opening in the city over the next five years. There was also the “Alton Towers” of gymnasiums, the Royal Patent Gymnasium, which opened in 1865 in Edinburgh: Capable of entertaining thousands - through either gentle exercise, placid spectating or a tough workout… Its prime attraction [was] the Patent Rotary Boat, a sort of merry-go-round on water, [which] could hold 600 passengers and 125 rowers… [The Scotsman]
🏃The Victorian strongman Eugen Sandow (1867-1925) was partly responsible for the surge in popularity in bodybuilding. (Incidentally, he was a friend of ACD.)
Some useful resources:
Calisthenics for Ladies From Cassells Household Guide on The Dictionary of Victorian London.
Victorian [American] Women's Fitness Workout, Exercise & Gymnastics Video on YouTube: 4 minutes, 53 seconds long. Contemporary illustrations and photographs, set to music and partially animated. Images taken from the book "Daughters of the Lost Century: The Playful Pioneers of American Women's Sports & Fitness".
Victorian keep-fit exercises and gym regimes revealed by Smitha Mundasad, Health reporter on BBC News.
The portable gymnasium: a manual of exercises, arranged for self instruction in the use of the portable gymnasium by Gustav Ernst (1861). The whole book in a scanned form online. Part of the Wellcome Library.
Victorian and Edwardian drill lesson Exercises for Victorian and Edwardian children. Authentic lesson plan taught by Miss Constance M. Domleo, from the 1909 school syllabus. Article by John Malam.
Victorian health and fitness On The Vitality Blog.
Dog Health Diet and Exercise Advice from a Victorian Era Magazine The article was published on 4th May 1895 in a London magazine: Home Chat, “A Weekly Magazine for the Home”. Posted on Miss Mary’s Gazette.
Lost Edinburgh: The Royal Patent Gymnasium On The Scotsman’s website.
Victorian ‘Alton Towers’ rediscovered in Edinburgh The article shows a poster for the Royal Patent Gymnasium.
Eugen Sandow - Father of Bodybuilding On The Human Marvels. The article also gives a link to a brief 1894 film on YouTube, which shows Sandow demonstrating his muscles.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts (unless stated otherwise, my source is the book How To Be A Victorian by Ruth Goodman):
🏃 Doctors and parents both believed in was in girls’ best interest not to engage in vigorous exercise, as this would damage their developing reproductive organs.
🏃In the 1860s, Dr Pye Chevasse, along with most mainstream members of the medical profession recommended walking [for women and girls].
🏃Callisthenics were also recommended for girls. Callisthenics concentrated particularly upon moving the arms and shoulders, and generally left the torso immobile.
🏃For schoolchildren there was drill. This involved a series of formal exercises such as marching on the spot, arm swinging, trunk bending, skipping, etc. It was thought to help children follow instructions, improve coordination and health, and prepare them for work and military service. [John Malam]
🏃For men there were gymnastics and public gymnasiums: knee bends, stretches, arm waving, shadow-boxing and running on the spot for ten to twenty minutes every morning was considered a good way to start the day…
🏃Lambeth Public Baths in London drained its main pools in the winter to convert them into gymnasiums. By 1881, the baths’ posters advertised ‘every appliance for healthful and manly exercise of all kinds, and a good track for running, walking, etc.’ It offered parallel bars, a boxing ring, a high bar, trapeze-like swings, dumb-bells and fencing, as well as a running track. Entrance fees were 3d a session…
🏃 There were also outdoor gymnasiums. Ruth Goodman mentions ones at Primrose Hill in London and Peel Park in Salford; and she mentions one being constructed in 1858 on Smithdown Road in Liverpool, with three more opening in the city over the next five years. There was also the “Alton Towers” of gymnasiums, the Royal Patent Gymnasium, which opened in 1865 in Edinburgh: Capable of entertaining thousands - through either gentle exercise, placid spectating or a tough workout… Its prime attraction [was] the Patent Rotary Boat, a sort of merry-go-round on water, [which] could hold 600 passengers and 125 rowers… [The Scotsman]
🏃The Victorian strongman Eugen Sandow (1867-1925) was partly responsible for the surge in popularity in bodybuilding. (Incidentally, he was a friend of ACD.)
Some useful resources:
Calisthenics for Ladies From Cassells Household Guide on The Dictionary of Victorian London.
Victorian [American] Women's Fitness Workout, Exercise & Gymnastics Video on YouTube: 4 minutes, 53 seconds long. Contemporary illustrations and photographs, set to music and partially animated. Images taken from the book "Daughters of the Lost Century: The Playful Pioneers of American Women's Sports & Fitness".
Victorian keep-fit exercises and gym regimes revealed by Smitha Mundasad, Health reporter on BBC News.
The portable gymnasium: a manual of exercises, arranged for self instruction in the use of the portable gymnasium by Gustav Ernst (1861). The whole book in a scanned form online. Part of the Wellcome Library.
Victorian and Edwardian drill lesson Exercises for Victorian and Edwardian children. Authentic lesson plan taught by Miss Constance M. Domleo, from the 1909 school syllabus. Article by John Malam.
Victorian health and fitness On The Vitality Blog.
Dog Health Diet and Exercise Advice from a Victorian Era Magazine The article was published on 4th May 1895 in a London magazine: Home Chat, “A Weekly Magazine for the Home”. Posted on Miss Mary’s Gazette.
Lost Edinburgh: The Royal Patent Gymnasium On The Scotsman’s website.
Victorian ‘Alton Towers’ rediscovered in Edinburgh The article shows a poster for the Royal Patent Gymnasium.
Eugen Sandow - Father of Bodybuilding On The Human Marvels. The article also gives a link to a brief 1894 film on YouTube, which shows Sandow demonstrating his muscles.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
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no subject
Date: 2016-06-19 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-19 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 05:14 pm (UTC)Wow. Alton Towers sounds amazing, a lot more like something I'd call an amusement park than anything I'd call a gym. (And is making me want to actually write the Watson/trapeze story I was noodling with, gdi.)
And looking at that Sandow film, there is no way he didn't have a huge gay following. None at all.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 10:42 pm (UTC)And looking at that Sandow film, there is no way he didn't have a huge gay following. I really don't doubt it ^_^
no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 11:15 pm (UTC)(Btw, I should probably mention that Alton Towers is a modern-day English theme park - the article is just comparing the Victorian Gymnasium to it ^^")
no subject
Date: 2016-06-28 11:37 pm (UTC)Heh, Holmes promised Watson he wouldn't laugh -- that's what the dialog in there is about -- but he didn't quite manage it. ("It's only a smile!") Happily, we get to laugh all we want. :-D