Venice in London

The show was the brainchild of the caterer Joseph Lyons and his business partner Harold Hartley. Hartley, who owned the Pure Water Company, had met Lyons when supplying aerated water to the builders of the Imperial Institute (completed 1893). As Hartley told it in his memoirs, Eighty-eight Not Out (1939): One evening later on Lyons, who had never travelled, asked me if I had ever been to Venice, as he had an idea that it might be reproduced with its canals in an attractive form. Being well acquainted with Venice, I at once realized its possibilities and thus "Venice in London" was born. Visions of the Grand Canal, with its churches, palaces, and gondolas flashed through my mind. ==The event==

Through his firm J. Lyons and Co., Lyons and his business partners had the contract for the catering at Olympia. The event combined catering by Lyons, entertainments and opportunities to purchase souvenirs with a stage show designed and directed by the theatrical impresario Imre Kiralfy who specialised in spectacular events and lent his name to the production in order to increase its appeal to the public. According to The Times, 4,893,980 people visited the event in its first year with 24,737 visiting on Boxing Day 1892. == References ==