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Trends in Mathematics
Piotr Kielanowski
Anatol Odzijewicz
Emma Previato
Editors
Geometric
Methods in
Physics XXXV
Workshop and Summer School,
Białowieża, Poland, June 26 – July 2, 2016
Trends in Mathematics
Trends in Mathematics is a series devoted to the publication of volumes arising
from conferences and lecture series focusing on a particular topic from any area of
mathematics. Its aim is to make current developments available to the community as
rapidly as possible without compromise to quality and to archive these for reference.
Proposals for volumes can be submitted using the Online Book Project Submission
Form at our website www.birkhauser-science.com.
All contributions should undergo a reviewing process similar to that carried out by
journals and be checked for correct use of language which, as a rule, is English.
Articles without proofs, or which do not contain any significantly new results, should
be rejected. High quality survey papers, however, are welcome.
We expect the organizers to deliver manuscripts in a form that is essentially ready for
direct reproduction. Any version of TEX is acceptable, but the entire collection of files
must be in one particular dialect of TEX and unified according to simple instructions
available from Birkhäuser.
Emma Previato
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Boston University
Boston, MA, USA
Mathmatics Subject Classification (2010): 01-06, 01A70, 20N99, 58A50, 58Z05, 81P16, 33D80, 51P05
G.A. Goldin
In Memory of S. Twareque Ali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
A. Antonevich
Quasi-periodic Algebras and Their Physical Automorphisms . . . . . . . . . 3
¸
T. Brzeziński and L. Dabrowski
A Curious Differential Calculus on the Quantum Disc and Cones . . . . 19
M. Fecko
Nambu Mechanics: Symmetries and Conserved Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . 27
B. Mielnik
The Puzzle of Empty Bottle in Quantum Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
V.F. Molchanov
Poisson Transforms for Tensor Products in Compact Picture . . . . . . . . 61
A.K. Prykarpatski
Hamilton Operators and Related Integrable Differential
Algebraic Novikov–Leibniz Type Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
vi Contents
C. Roger
An Algebraic Background for Hierarchies of PDE
in Dimension (2|1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
A.I. Shafarevich
Lagrangian Manifolds and Maslov Indices Corresponding
to the Spectral Series of the Schrödinger Operators
with Delta-potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
E. Stróżyna
Formal Normal Forms for Germs of Vector Fields with Quadratic
Leading Part. The Rational First Integral Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
H. Żoladek
¸
The Poncelet Theorems in Interpretation of Rafal Kolodziej . . . . . . . . . 129
I. Cheltsov
On a Conjecture of Hong and Won . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
I. Horozov
Periods of Mixed Tate Motives over Real Quadratic
Number Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
A. Bolsinov
Integrable Geodesic Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
M. Bożejko
Anyonic Fock Spaces, q-CCR Relations for |q| = 1 and Relations
with Yang–Baxter Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
T. Brzeziński
Differential and Integral Forms on Non-commutative Algebras . . . . . . . 249
J. Kijowski
General Relativity Theory and Its Canonical Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
B. Mielnik
Exponential Formulae in Quantum Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
E. Previato
Complex Algebraic Geometry Applied to Integrable Dynamics:
Concrete Examples and Open Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Th. Voronov
Volumes of Classical Supermanifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Trends in Mathematics, ix–x
c 2018 Springer International Publishing
Preface
This book contains a selection of papers presented during the Thirty-Fifth “Work-
shop on Geometric Methods in Physics” (WGMPXXXV) and abstracts of lectures
given during the Fifth “School on Geometry and Physics”, which both took place
in Bialowieża, Poland, in the summer 2016. These two coordinated activities are
an annual event. Information on the previous and the upcoming occurrences and
related materials can be found at the URL: http://wgmp.uwb.edu.pl.
The volume is divided into four parts. It opens with a paper dedicated to the
memory of S. Twareque Ali – for many years an active member of the Organizing
Committee of our workshop who died suddenly in 2016. The second part, “Geom-
etry and Physics”, includes papers based on talks delivered during the workshop.
The third part, “Integrability and Geometry”, is based on the eponymous special
session, organized by G.A. Goldin, A. Odesskii, E. Previato, E. Shemyakova and
Th. Voronov. The final part contains extended abstracts of the lecture-series given
during the Fifth “School on Geometry and Physics”.
The WGMP is an international conference organized each year by the De-
partment of Mathematical Physics in the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer
Science of the University of Bialystok, Poland. The main theme of the workshops,
consistent with the title, is the application of geometric methods in mathematical
physics and it includes a study of non-commutative systems, Poisson geometry,
completely integrable systems, quantization, infinite-dimensional groups, super-
groups and supersymmetry, quantum groups, Lie groupoids and algebroids as well
as related topics. Participation in the workshops is open; the typical audience con-
sists of physicists and mathematicians from many countries in several continents
with a wide spectrum of interests.
Workshop and School are held in Bialowieża, a village located in the east of
Poland near the border with Belarus. Bialowieża is situated on the edge of the
Bialowieża Forest, shared between Poland and Belarus, which is one of the last
remnants of the primeval forest that covered the European Plain before human
settlement and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The peaceful at-
mosphere of a small village, combined with natural beauty, yields a unique environ-
ment for learning and cooperating: as a result, the core audience of the WGMPs has
become a strong scientific community, documented by this series of Proceedings.
The Organizing Committee of the 2016 WGMP gratefully acknowledges the
financial support of the University of Bialystok and the Belgian Science Policy Of-
x Preface
fice (BELSPO), IAP Grant P7/18 DYGEST. Thanks also go to the U.S. National
Science Foundation for providing support to participants in the “Integrability and
Geometry” session of the event, Grant DMS 1609812. Last but not least, credit
is due to early-career scholars and students from the University of Bialystok, who
contributed limitless time and effort to setting up and hosting the event, aside
from being active participants in the scientific activities.
The Editors
1. Remembering Twareque
Syed Twareque Ali, whom we all knew as Twareque, was born in 1942, and died
in January 2016. This brief tribute is the second one I have prepared for him in
a short period of time. With each sentence I reflect again on his extraordinary
personality, his remarkable career – and, of course, on the profound influence he
had in my life. Twareque was more than a colleague – he was a close friend, a
confidant, and a teacher in the deepest sense.
When I remember Twareque, the first thing that comes to mind is his laugh-
ter. He found humor in his early changes of nationality: born in the British Empire,
a subject of George VI, Emperor of India, he lived in pre-independence India, be-
came a citizen of Pakistan, and then of Bangladesh – all without moving from
home. Eventually he became a Canadian citizen, residing with his family in Mon-
treal for many years.
Twareque’s laughter was a balm. In times of sadness or disappointment, he
was a source of optimism to all around him. His positive view of life was rooted
in deep, almost unconsciously-held wisdom. Although he personally experienced
profound nostalgia for those lost to him, he knew how to live with joy. He could
laugh at himself, never taking difficulties too seriously.
And he loved to tell silly, inappropriate jokes – which, of course, cannot be
repeated publicly. He introduced me to the clever novels by David Lodge, Changing
Places, and Small World, which satirize the academic world mercilessly. In Lodge’s
characters, Twareque and I saw plenty of similarities to academic researchers we
both knew in real life – especially, to ourselves.
Twareque was fluent in several languages, a true “citizen of the world.” He
loved poetry, reciting lengthy passages from memory in English, German, Italian,
or Bengali. In Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, translated by Edward Fitzgerald, he
found verses that spoke to him. These are among them:
...
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly – and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
...
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread – and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
...
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
In Memory of S. Twareque Ali xiii
him, wrote [2], “If anything in our lives became too complicated it was a clear sign
we needed to talk to Dr. Ali. Every meeting with him provided a big dose of en-
couragement and new energy, never accompanied with any criticism or judgment.”
This was Twareque’s gift – to understand, to inspire, to give of himself.
Twareque died suddenly and unexpectedly January 24, 2016 in Malaysia, af-
ter participating actively in the 8th Expository Quantum Lecture Series (EqualS8)
– indeed, doing the kind of thing he loved most.
3. Concluding thoughts
Twareque believed passionately in world peace, in service to humanity, and in
international cooperation. He understood the broad sweep of history. His tradition
was Islam, as mine is Judaism, and although neither of us adhered to all the rituals
of our traditions, we shared an interest in their history, their commonalities, and
their contributions to world culture. We even researched correspondences between
the roots of words in Arabic and Hebrew. On a first visit to Israel for a conference in
1993, we visited Jerusalem together. Twareque did much to aid the less privileged
and less fortunate – in the best of our traditions, often anonymously.
Often one closes a retrospective on someone’s life with a sunset, marking the
ending of day and the beginning of night. My choice for Twareque is different. He
is someone who joined a scientific mind with a spiritual heart, and for Twareque,
the park and the forest in Bialowieża were at the center of his spirituality. So I
imagine him looking at us, even now, and marveling at the beauty of heavenly
clouds reflected in the water.
Acknowledgment
I am deeply indebted to Twareque’s family, friends, students, and colleagues.
Thanks to the organizers of the 35th Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics
for this opportunity to honor and remember him.
References
[1] S. Twareque Ali, Kalyan B. Sinha (eds.), A Tribute to Gérard G. Emch. Hindustan
Book Agency, New Delhi, 2007.
[2] J.-P. Antoine, J.P. Gazeau, G. Goldin, J. Harnad, M. Ismail, A. Krasowska, R. Dep-
tula, R.R. Ramos. In memoriam, S. Twareque Ali (1942–2016). Le Bulletin, Centre
de Recherches Mathématiques 22 (1) (2016), 9–12.
[3] F. Schroeck, J.-P. Antoine, G. Goldin, R. Benaduci. Syed Twareque Ali: Obituary.
Journal of Geometry and Symmetry in Physics 41 (2016), 105–111.
[4] G.A. Goldin, In Memoriam: Syed Twareque Ali. Proceedings of the 31st Interna-
tional Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics. Springer, 2017 (to be
published).
[5] S.T. Ali, Stochastic localization, quantum mechanics on phase space and quantum
space-time. La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento 8 (11) (1985), 1.
[6] S.T. Ali, J.A. Brooke, P. Busch, R. Gagnon, F. Schroeck, Current conservation as a
geometric property of space-time. Canadian J Phys 66 (3) (1988), 238–44.
[7] S.T. Ali, J.-P. Antoine, J.P. Gazeau, Square integrability of group representations
on homogeneous spaces I. Reproducing triples and frames. Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré
55 (1991), 829–856.
[8] S.T. Ali, J.-P. Antoine, J.P. Gazeau, Continuous frames in Hilbert space. Annals of
Physics 222, 1–37; Relativistic quantum frames, Ann. of Phys. 222 (1993), 38–88.
[9] S.T. Ali, J.-P. Antoine, J.P. Gazeau, U.A. Müller, Coherent states and their gener-
alizations: A mathematical overview. Reviews in Math. Phys. 7 (1995), 1013–1104.
[10] S.T. Ali, J.-P. Antoine, J.P. Gazeau Coherent States, Wavelets and their General-
izations (and references therein). Springer, 2000; 2nd edn., 2014.
[11] S.T. Ali, M. Englis̆, Quantization Methods: A Guide for Physicists and Analysts.
Rev. Math. Phys. 17 (2005), 391–490.
[12] S.T. Ali, F. Bagarello, J.P. Gazeau, Quantizations from reproducing kernel spaces.
Ann. Phys. 332 (2013), 127–142.
Gerald A. Goldin
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
e-mail: geraldgoldin@dimacs.rutgers.edu
Part I
Geometry & Physics
Geometric Methods in Physics. XXXV Workshop 2016
Trends in Mathematics, 3–9
c 2018 Springer International Publishing
The vectors ξj are called frequencies of the function, the set {ξj } is called the
spectrum of the function a.
For a given almost periodic algebra A denote by H(A) the union of spectra
of all functions from A. The set H(A) ⊂ Rm is a subgroup in Rm and is called
the frequencies group of the algebra A.
The subgroup Γ ∈ Rm with a finite number of generators is called the quasi-
lattice. As an abstract group, any quasi-lattice Γ is isomorphic to ZN , where N is
the number of independent generators.
In this terminology a subalgebra A is quasi-periodic, if H(A) is a quasi-lattice.
If H(A) ≈ ZN then A is called the algebra with N quasi-periods.
structure. It arises as an example of the strange attractor for the system of dif-
ferential equations (V.V. Nemytskii, V.V. Stepanov, 1940). The role of solinoid in
the theory of dynamical systems was detected by S. Smale and R.F. Wilson.
Solenoid can be constructed like the Möbius strip. Let K be the Cantor
discontinuum. Solenoid as a topological space can be obtained from the product
of [0, 1] × K by identifying {0} × K and {1} × K by means of an invertible map
φ : K → K : (0, ω) ∼ (1, φ(ω)).
√
Example 3. Let q = 3 + 2 2. Then W (A0 ) is an algebra with a period q. It is easy
to check that algebra A with the frequencies group
√ √
H(A) = {n + k(3 + 2 2) : n, k ∈ Z} = {n + k2 2 : n, k ∈ Z}
is invariant with √respect to the corresponding α and it is invariant with respect to
α−1 (x) = [3 − 2 2]x. We get here the first example of a quasi-periodic algebra,
two-sided invariant under a linear mapping.
Note that if we consider a very similar quasi-periodic algebra with a group
of frequencies √
{n + k 2 : n, k ∈ Z},
then there is no linear map with respect to which the algebra is two-sided invariant,
in other words, there are no non-trivial symmetries.
3.3. Physical automorphisms on Rm
The following definitions are similar to the well-known definitions from the number
theory. The matrix Q ∈ Cm×m is called algebraic if there is a polynomial
P (t) = pn tn + pn−1 tn−1 + · · · + p0 , pk ∈ Z,
such that P (Q) = 0. It is called the integer algebraic if pn = 1. Integer algebraic
matrix Q is called the algebraic unit if the inverse Q−1 is also an algebraic integer
(which is equivalent to pn = 1 and p0 = ±1).
The different structures of the smallest invariant almost periodic algebras
from the examined above examples are determined by different algebraic properties
of the corresponding numbers q. Indeed, number π is not √ algebraic, numbers 2 is
algebraic integer but not an algebraic unit, and q = 3 + 2 2 is an algebraic unit,
since it is a root of the polynomial t2 − 6t + 1 = 0.
The next theorem asserts that for arbitrary m the results are similar.
Algebra A0 is called irreducible with respect to Q if minimal vector subspace
S of Rm , containing H(A0 ) and invariant with respect to the conjugate map
x → QT x is the Rm .
Theorem 3 ([8]). Let A0 be a quasi-periodic algebra on (Rm ), α(x) = Qx and A0
is irreducible with respect to Q.
The smallest closed two-sided invariant subalgebra A, that includes A0 , is
quasi-periodic if and only if Q is an algebraic unit.
In this case M(A) = TN , and the induced homeomorphism α : TN → TN is
an algebraic automorphism of the torus: the covering mapping of RN is given by a
Quasi-periodic Algebras 9
References
[1] I.A. Dynnikov, S.P. Novikov, Topology of quasi-periodic functions on plane. Uspekhi
matem. nauk 60:1(361) (2005), 3–28.
[2] Le Ty Quok Thang, S.A. Piunikhin S.A., Sadov V.A., Geometry of quasi-crystals.
Uspekhi matem. nauk, 1993, 48:1(289), 41–102.
[3] A.B. Antonevich, Linear functional equations. Operator approach. Birkhäuser, 1996.
[4] R. Exel, A new look at the crossed product of a C ∗ -algebra by an endomorphism,
Ergodic Theory Dynam. Systems 23(2003) 1733–1750.
[5] A.B. Antonevich, V.I. Bakhtin, A.V. Lebedev, Crossed product by an endomorphism,
algebras of coefficients and transfer-operators, Math. Sbornik, 202:9(2011), 3–34.
[6] B.M. Levitan, V.V. Zhikov, Almost periodic functions and differential equations,
MGU, Moscow, 1978.
[7] L.S. Pontryagin, Continuous Groups, “Nauka”, Moscow,1973. English transl. Topo-
logical Groups, Gordon and Breach, New York, 1066.
[8] A.B. Antonevich, A.N. Glaz, Quasi-periodic algebras invariant with respect to linear
mapping, Doklady NAN Belarusi. – 2014. – N. 5. – N. 30–35.
A. Antonevich
Institute of Mathematics
University of Bialystok
Ciolkowskego 1M
15-245 Bialystok, Poland
e-mail: antonevich@bsu.by
A. Glaz
Belorusian State University
Nezavisimosti 4
220030 Minsk, Belarus
e-mail: anna-glaz@yandex.ru
Geometric Methods in Physics. XXXV Workshop 2016
Trends in Mathematics, 11–17
c 2018 Springer International Publishing
1. Introduction
Let V be a finite-dimensional complex Hilbert space and N be a second countable
smooth manifold with a fixed Radon measure μ. We denote by L2 (N, V; μ) the
complex Hilbert space of (equivalence classes of) V-valued functions μ-measurable
on N that are absolutely square integrable with respect to μ. We also endow
the space of smooth functions C ∞ (N, V) with the Fréchet topology of uniform
convergence on compact sets together with their derivatives of arbitrarily high
degree.
If H ⊆ L2 (N, V) is a closed linear subspace with H ⊆ C ∞ (N, V), then the
inclusion map H → C ∞ (N, V) is continuous, hence for every x ∈ N the evaluation
map Kx : H → V, f → f (x), is continuous. The map
K : N × N → B(V), K(x, y) := Kx Ky∗
is called the reproducing kernel of the Hilbert space H. Then for every linear
operator A ∈ B(H) we define its full symbol as
K A : N × N → B(V), K A (x, y) := Kx AKy∗ : V → V
The research of the first two named authors has been partially supported by grant of the Ro-
manian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS–UEFISCDI, project
number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0370.
12 I. Beltiţă, D. Beltiţă and B. Cahen
and K A ∈ C ∞ (N × N, B(V)). See [12, §I.2] for a detailed discussion of this con-
struction, which goes back to [6] and [7].
Main problem
In the above setting, the full symbol map
B(H) → C ∞ (N × N, B(V)), A → KA
is injective, as easily checked (see also Proposition 1(1) below). Therefore it is in-
teresting to find sufficient conditions on a continuous map ι : Γ → N × N , ensuring
that the corresponding ι-restricted symbol map
S ι : B(H) → C(Γ, B(V)), A → KA ◦ ι
is still injective. The case of the diagonal embedding ι : Γ = N → N × N , x →
(x, x), is particularly important and in this case the ι-restricted symbol map is
called the (non-normalized) Berezin covariant symbol map and is denoted simply
by S, hence
S : B(H) → C ∞ (N, B(V)), (S(A))(x) := Kx AKx∗ : V → V.
In the present paper we will discuss the above problem and we will briefly sketch
an approach to that problem based on results from our forthcoming paper [4]. This
approach blends some techniques of reproducing kernels and some basic ideas of
linear partial differential equations, in order to address a problem motivated by
representation theory of Lie groups (see [8–11]). This problem is also related to
some representations of infinite-dimensional Lie groups that occur in the study
of magnetic fields (see [1] and [3]). Let us also mention that linear differential
operators associated to reproducing kernels have been earlier used in the literature
(see, for instance, [5]).
4. If A ∈ S2 (H), then
A2S2 (H) = K A (x, y)2S2 (V) dμ(x)dμ(y)
N ×N
Proof. See [4] for more general versions of these assertions, in which in particular
the Hilbert space V is infinite-dimensional. Assertion (1) is a generalization of
[12, Ex. I.2.3(c)], Assertion (1) is a generalization of [12, Prop. I.1.8(b)], while
Assertion (1) is a generalization of [12, Cor. A.I.12].
where on O we consider the Liouville measure normalized such that the Fourier
transform is unitary when extended to L2 (O) → L2 (ge ). We denote by F̌ the
inverse Fourier transform of F ∈ L2 (g0 ).
14 I. Beltiţă, D. Beltiţă and B. Cahen
To find accurate descriptions of the kernels of the above operators is a very im-
portant problem for many reasons, as explained in [8–11] also for other classes of
Lie groups than the nilpotent ones.
We refer to [4] for a more complete discussion and for proofs of the above
assertions in a much more general setting. To conclude this paper we will just
briefly discuss an important example.
Richard Temple
Viscount Cobham, &c.
Walker & Equtall Ph Sc
But the chief attraction was the Walks; the promenade where the
beau strutted with his long sword beribboned with scarlet, and ladies
fragrant with Powder of Orange and Jessamine discussed one
another and the fashions:—
Lord! madam, did you e’er behold
(Says one) a dress so very old?
Sure that commode was made, i’ faith,
In days of Queen Elizabeth;
Or else it was esteemed the fashion
At Charles the Second’s coronation:
The lady, by her mantua’s forebody,
Sure takes a pride to dress like nobody.[12]
The same mixed company thus frequented the Spa as of old, and
when my Lord Cobham honoured the garden with a visit, there were
light-fingered knaves at hand to relieve him of his gold repeater. The
physician who at this time attended at the Well was “Dr.” Misaubin,
famous for his pills, and for his design to ruin the University of
Cambridge (which had refused him a doctor’s degree) by sending his
son to the University of Oxford. Among the habitués of the garden
was an eccentric person named Martin, known as the Tunbridge
Knight. He wore a yellow cockade and carried a hawk on his fist,
which he named Royal Jack, out of respect to the Royal Family.
ISLINGTON SPA IN 1733. BY GEORGE BICKHAM.
[Listen]
[Listen]
Fashion probably soon again deserted the Spa; but from about
1750 to 1770 it was a good deal frequented by water-drinkers and
visitors who lodged for a time at the Wells. One young lady of good
family, who was on a visit to London in June 1753, wrote home to
her friends[15] that New Tunbridge Wells was “a very pretty
Romantick place,” and the water “very much like Bath water, but
makes one vastly cold and Hungary.” A ticket costing eighteenpence
gave admission to the public breakfasting[16] and to the dancing from
eleven to three. It was endeavoured to preserve the most perfect
decorum, and no person of exceptionable character was to be
admitted to the ball-room.[17] This invitation to the dance reads oddly
at a time when the Spa was being industriously recommended to the
gouty, the nervous, the weak-kneed, and the stiff-jointed.[18]
In 1770 the Spa was taken by Mr. John Holland, and from that
year, or somewhat earlier, the place was popular as an afternoon
tea-garden. The “Sunday Rambler” describes it as genteel, but
judging from George Colman’s farce, The Spleen; or Islington Spa
(first acted in 1776), its gentility was that of publicans and
tradesmen. “The Spa (says Mrs. Rubrick) grows as genteel as
Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Southampton or Margate. Live in the
most social way upon earth: all the company acquainted with each
other. Walks, balls, raffles and subscriptions. Mrs. Jenkins of the
Three Blue Balls, Mrs. Rummer and family from the King’s Arms;
and several other people of condition, to be there this season! And
then Eliza’s wedding, you know, was owing to the Spa. Oh, the
watering-places are the only places to get young women lovers and
husbands!”
In 1777, Holland became bankrupt, and next year a Mr. John
Howard opened the gardens in the morning and afternoon, charging
the water-drinkers sixpence or threepence, or a guinea subscription.
He enriched the place with a bowling-green[19] and with a series of
“astronomical lectures in Lent, accompanied by an orrery.” A band
played in the morning, and the afternoon tea-drinking sometimes
(1784) took place to the accompaniment of French horns.[20] Sir
John Hawkins, the author of The History of Music, frequented the
Spa for his health in 1789. On returning home after drinking the
water one day in May (Wednesday 20th, 1789) he complained of a
pain in his head and died the next morning of a fever in the brain.
“Whether (as a journalist of the time observes) it was owing to the
mineral spring being taken when the blood was in an improper state
to receive its salubrious effect, or whether it was the sudden
visitation of Providence, the sight of the human mind is incompetent
to discover.”
The Spa continued to be resorted to till the beginning of the
present century when the water and tea-drinking began to lose their
attractions. The author of Londinium redivivum, writing about 1803,
[21] speaks, however, of the gardens with enthusiasm as “really very
beautiful, particularly at the entrance. Pedestals and vases are
grouped with taste under some extremely picturesque trees, whose
foliage (is) seen to much advantage from the neighbouring fields.” At
last, about 1810, the proprietor, Howard, pulled down the greater
part of the old coffee-house,[22] and the gardens were curtailed by
the formation of Charlotte Street (now Thomas Street). At the same
time the old entrance to the gardens, facing the New River Head,
was removed for the building of Eliza Place.[23] A new entrance was
then made in Lloyd’s Row, and the proprietor lived in a house
adjoining. A later proprietor, named Hardy, opened the gardens in
1826 as a Spa only. The old Well was enclosed, as formerly, by
grotto work and the garden walks were still pleasant. Finally in 1840,
the two rows of houses called Spa Cottages were built upon the site
of the gardens.
A surgeon named Molloy, who resided about 1840–1842 in the
proprietor’s house in Lloyd’s Row, preserved the Well, and by printed
circulars invited invalids to drink the water for an annual subscription
of one guinea, or for sixpence each visit. In Molloy’s time the Well
was contained in an outbuilding attached to the east side of his
house. The water was not advertised after his tenancy, though it
continued to flow as late as 1860. In the autumn of 1894, the writers
of this volume visited the house and found the outbuilding occupied
as a dwelling-room of a very humble description. Standing in this
place it was impossible to realise that we were within a few feet of
the famous Well. A door, which we had imagined on entering to be
the door of a cupboard, proved to be the entrance to a small cellar
two or three steps below the level of the room. Here, indeed, we
found the remains of the grotto that had once adorned the Well, but
the healing spring no longer flowed.[24]
Eliza Place was swept away for the formation of Rosebery
Avenue, and the two northernmost plots of the three little public
gardens, opened by the London County Council on 31 July, 1895,[25]
as Spa Green, are now on part of the site of the old Spa. The Spa
Cottages still remain, as well as the proprietor’s house in Lloyd’s
Row, and beneath the coping-stone of the last-named the passer-by
may read the inscription cut in bold letters: Islington Spa or New
Tunbridge Wells.
[Besides the authorities cited in the text and notes and in the
account in Pinks’s Clerkenwell, p. 398, ff., the following may be
mentioned:—Experimental observations on the water of the mineral
spring near Islington commonly called New Tunbridge Wells. London,
1751, 8vo; another ed., 1773, 8vo (the Brit. Mus. copy of the latter
contains some newspaper cuttings); Dodsley’s London, 1761, s.v.
“Islington”; Kearsley’s Strangers’ Guide, s.v. “Islington”; Lewis’s
Islington; Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. 2, p. 554, ff.; advertisements, &c., in
Percival’s Sadler’s Wells Collection and in W. Coll.; Wheatley’s
London, ii. 268, and iii. p. 199.]
VIEWS.
1. View of the gardens, coffee-house, &c., engraved frontispiece to
Lockman’s poem, The Humours of New Tunbridge Wells at Islington,
London, 1734, 8vo (cp. Pinks, 401, note, and 402).
2. View of the gardens, well, coffee-house, &c., engraved by G.
Bickham, jun., as the headpiece of “The Charms of Dishabille or New
Tunbridge Wells” (Bickham’s Musical Entertainer, 1733, &c., vol. i. No.
42).
3. Engravings of the proprietor’s house in Lloyd’s Row; Cromwell’s
Clerkenwell, 352; Pinks, 405. The house is still as there represented.
THE PANTHEON, SPA FIELDS
The Spa Fields Pantheon stood on the south side of the present
Exmouth Street, and occupied the site of the Ducking Pond House,
[26] a wayside inn, with a pond in the rear used for the sport of duck-
hunting.
The Ducking Pond premises having been acquired by Rosoman
of Sadler’s Wells, were by him sub-let to William Craven, a publican,
who, at a cost of £6,000, laid out a garden and erected on the site of
the old inn a great tea-house called the Pantheon, or sometimes the
Little Pantheon, when it was necessary to distinguish it from “the
stately Pantheon” in Oxford Street, built in 1770–1771, and first
opened in January 1772.[27]
The Spa Fields Pantheon was opened to the public early in 1770,
and consisted of a large Rotunda, with two galleries running round
the whole of the interior, and a large stove in the centre.
The place was principally resorted to by apprentices and small
tradesmen, and on the afternoon and evening of Sunday, the day
when it was chiefly frequented, hundreds of gaily-dressed people
were to be found in the Rotunda, listening to the organ,[28] and
regaling themselves with tea, coffee and negus, or with supplies of
punch and red port. A nearer examination of this crowded assembly
showed that it consisted of journeymen tailors, hairdressers, milliners
and servant maids, whose behaviour, though boisterous, may have
been sufficiently harmless.
The proprietor endeavoured to secure the strict maintenance of
order by selling nothing after ten o’clock in the evening. But his
efforts, it would seem, were not entirely successful. “Speculator,” a
correspondent of the St. James’s Chronicle, who visited the place in
May 1772, “after coming from church,” looked down from his
vantage-ground in one of the galleries upon what he describes as a
dissipated scene. To his observation the ladies constituted by far the
greater part of the assembly, and he was shocked more than once
by the request, “Pray, Sir, will you treat me with a dish of tea?”
A tavern with tea-rooms for more select parties stood on the east
of the Rotunda. Behind the buildings was a pretty garden, with
walks, shrubs and fruit trees. There was a pond or canal stocked
with fish, and near it neat boxes and alcoves for the tea-drinkers.
Seats were dispersed about the garden, the attractions of which
were completed by a summer-house up a handsome flight of stone
steps, and a statue of Hercules, with his club, on a high pedestal.
The extent of the garden was about four acres.
A writer in the Town and Country Magazine for April 1770 (p. 195),
speaks contemptuously of the canal “as about the size of a butcher’s
tray, where citizens of quality and their spouses come on Sunday to
view the amorous flutterings of a duck and drake.” This, however, is
the opinion of a fashionable gentleman who goes alternately to
Almack’s and Cornelys’s, while Ranelagh (he says) “affords me great
relief.”
The career of the Pantheon was brief; for in March 1774 the
building and its grounds were announced for sale on account of
Craven’s bankruptcy. According to the statement of the auctioneer
the place was then in full trade, and the returns almost incredible,
upwards of one thousand persons having sometimes been
accommodated in the Rotunda. It is uncertain if another proprietor
tried his hand, if so he was probably unsuccessful, for the Pantheon
was certainly closed as a place of amusement in 1776.
In July 1777 the Rotunda, after having been used for a time as a
depot for the sale of carriages, was opened for services of the
Church of England under the name of Northampton Chapel. One of
the preachers, moralising on the profane antecedents of the place,
adopted the text, “And he called the name of that place Bethel, but
the name of that city was called Luz at the first.”
The building was afterwards purchased by the Countess of
Huntingdon, and opened in March 1779 under the name of Spa
Fields Chapel as a place of worship in her connexion. Various
alterations were at that time, and subsequently, made in the building,
and a statue of Fame, sounding a trumpet, which had stood outside
the Pantheon on the lantern surmounting the cupola was removed.
The tavern belonging to the Pantheon, on the east side of the
Rotunda, was occupied by Lady Huntingdon as her residence. It was
a large house partly covered by branches of jessamine.
The gardens, in the rear of the Rotunda, were converted in 1777
into the Spa Fields burial-ground, which became notorious in 1843
for its over-crowded and pestilential condition, and for some
repulsive disclosures as to the systematic exhumation of bodies in
order to make room for fresh interments.
Spa Fields Chapel was pulled down in the beginning of 1887, and
the present church of the Holy Redeemer was erected on its site,
and consecrated for services of the Church of England on 13
October, 1888. Such have been the strange vicissitudes of the
Pantheon tea-house and its gardens.
[Pinks’s Clerkenwell; Walford, O. and N. London; The Sunday
Ramble; Tomlins’s Perambulation of Islington, p. 158; Notes and
Queries, 1st ser. ii. p. 404; Spa Fields Chapel and its Associations,
London, 1884.]
VIEWS.
1. View of Northampton or Spa Fields Chapel, with the Countess of
Huntingdon’s house adjoining. Hamilton, del., Thornton sculp., 1783.
Crace, Cat. p. 589, No. 43.
2. Exterior of Chapel and Lady Huntingdon’s house, engraving in
Britton’s Picture of London, 1829, p. 120.
3. Later views of the Chapel (interior and exterior) engraved in
Pinks’s Clerkenwell, pp. 146, 147.
THE LONDON SPA
The annual Welsh fair, held in the Spa Field hard by, must have
brought additional custom to the tavern, and in 1754 the proprietor,
George Dodswell, informed the public that they would meet with the
most inviting usage at his hands, and that during the fair there would
be the “usual entertainment of roast pork with the oft-famed
flavoured Spaw ale.” From this date onwards the London Spa would
appear to have been merely frequented as a tavern.[30] The present
public-house was built on the old site in 1835.
MAY DAY AT THE LONDON SPA. 1720.
[The London Spaw, an advertisement, August 1685, folio sheet in
British Museum; Pinks’s Clerkenwell.]
VIEWS.
1. A view of the London Spa in Lempriere’s set of views, 1731;
Crace, Cat. p. 588, No. 41. Cp. Pinks’s Clerkenwell, p. 168.
2. Engraving of the Spa garden, T. Badeslade, inv.; S. Parker,
sculp.; frontispiece to May Day, or the Origin of Garlands, 1720.
THE NEW WELLS, NEAR THE LONDON SPA
VIEWS.
Two engravings, probably contemporary, showing well-dressed
gentlemen playing at ninepins near the mulberry tree: Guildhall
Library, London (Catal. p. 210). One of these views is engraved in
Pinks, p. 128.
SADLER’S WELLS
In 1698 (23 May) a vocal and instrumental concert was given, and
the company enjoyed such harmony as can be produced by an
orchestra composed of violins, hautboys, trumpets and kettledrums.
This was one of the concerts given in the Music House twice a week
throughout the season and lasting from ten o’clock to one. In 1699
James Miles and Francis Forcer (d. 1705?), a musician, appear to
have been joint proprietors of Sadler’s Wells, which was for some
years styled Miles’s Music House. In this year (1699) there was an
exhibition of an “ingurgitating monster,” a man, who, for a stake of
five guineas, performed the hardly credible feat of eating a live cock.
This disgusting scene was witnessed by a very rough audience,
including however some beaux from the Inns of Court. A brightly