The Gardens were opened on 11 May 1795 as the Sydney Gardens Vauxhall, providing a site for public breakfasts, promenades, and galas. Jane Austen, who came to live at 4 Sydney Place in 1801, attended a gala held at Sydney Gardens on 18 June 1799. On Wednesday 12st January, 1801, she wrote to her sister, Cassandra: ‘It would be very pleasant to be near Sydney Gardens; we might go into the labyrinth every day.’ She also remarked of her new abode: ‘There is a public breakfast in Sydney Gardens every morning, so we shall not be wholly starved.’
The walled pleasure grounds were surrounded by a ride or carriage drive, with bowling greens on either side of a central walk and a Labyrinth. The main building was the Sydney House Tavern (now housing the Holburne Museum), which stood at the west end of the central walk and contained tea and card rooms, a ballroom and a coffee room. During the first quarter of the 19th century various new attractions were introduced, including a Cascade in1810, an artificial rural scene with figures and water falling down a ravine, moved by a clockwork mechanism; an Aviary in1824; a Cosmorama, where pictures were lit and viewed through convex glass windows so as to appear life-size; a Hermit's Cot including a robed puppet figure as the hermit; a Watermill or Miller's Habitation, powered by water from one of the natural springs in the upper part of the Gardens; and a Theatre.
