urces available due to the venture's prosperity it was rebuilt and, in due course was rebuilt again after successive fires, and eventually grew to become Astley's Royal Amphitheatre. In 1782, Astley established the first purpose-built circus in France, the Amphitheatre Anglais in Paris. Astley then established 18 other permanent circuses in cities throughout Europe.
Astley's first competitor was equestrian Charles Hughes, who had previously worked with Astley. Together with Charles Dibdin, a famous author of pantomimes, Hughes opened a rival amphitheatre in London, which Dibdin called Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy.
During the summers and other times when his London establishment was inactive, Astley established wooden amphitheaters throughout Great Britain; the first of these was erected in 1773 in Dublin, Ireland. He later established eighteen other circuses in European cities, was patronised by a great number of royals, and was famous, envied, and occasionally rich. He never used wild animals in the circus arena. In 1806, with the profits he'd earned from his amphitheatre, Astley opened a new venue, the Olympic Pavilion (also known as the Olympic Theatre) on Wych Street, Westminster, near to the Strand. This tent-like structure, partly built from the remains of a French warship, did not prove a success, and in 1813 he sold it to Robert William Elliston, who renamed it the Little Drury Lane. Astley died a year later in Paris and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, the cause of his death being gout in the stomach.
Astley's Amphitheatre is mentioned in the popular fiction of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray among others. In Jane Austen's Emma, in Chapter 54: "He delivered these papers to John, at his chambers, and was asked by him to join their party the same evening to Astley's. They were going to take the two eldest boys to Astley's." It is also a motif of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
Astley's fame is also marked by the existence of three dance tunes which bear his name - Astley's Ride(s), Astley's Flag and more common, Astley's Hornpipe. Astley's Ride appears as the first tune in the music manuscript book of poet John Clare.
Astley's Circus is featured prominently in Tracy Chevalier's novel Burning Bright.
In 1992 the British magician illusionist Andrew Van Buren Commissioned a life size statue to be made of Philip Astley. Andrew is also the leading light in the Philip Astley Project - creating & uniting a series of events to celebrate the 250th anniversary, in 2018, of the first modern circus ring.
- The book of days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography, & history, curiosities of literature and oddities of human life and character p.474. W. & R. Chambers, 1864
- "The circus comes to the Circus". BBC News. Retrieved December 13, 2014
- Schechter, Joel (2001) The pickle clowns: new American circus comedy p.11. Southern Illinois University Press
- The first circus Victoria and Albert Museum.
- Joe Nickell (2005). "Secrets of the sideshows". p.8. University Press of Kentucky, 2005
- Samuel McKechnie, Popular Entertainments through the Ages. London; Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd., 1931; Explore PA history.com - Historical Markers
- Loxton, Howard (1997). "The golden age of the circus". p.14. Smithmark, 1997
- Charles Dickens (1837). Sketches by 'Boz'. p.266.
- Jane Austen (1833). Emma. p.423.
- The Wallet of Time
- New International Encyclopedia
- Philip Astley (British circus manager) Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Victor L. Leathers (1959). "British entertainers in France" p.29. University of Toronto Press, 1959
- The Book of Days
- William Makepeace Thackeray (1854). The Newcomes: memoirs of a most respectable family p.156.
- See Folkopedia
- The Philip Astley Project news
|Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Philip Astley.|
- Astley's Natural Magic, or, Physical Amusements Revealed From the McManus-Young Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Div