Wilde and Wonderful: Wonderland in New York City

Lynne Henderson - Alyssian Reporter-at-Large

While on my summer holiday this year, I lucked into two lovely Alyss/Alice experiences. One took me to a new place, the other a place I hadn’t visited in many years.

The same New York restaurant group that owns the marvelous Lillie’s Victorian Establishment has another delightful restaurant, Oscar Wilde. Through the end of August, the restaurant is amazingly decorated in a breathtaking homage to Wonderland. I was gobsmacked when I walked through the front door (a considerable achievement, as those who know me well will attest). An absolute riot of huge, colorful flowers hang from the ceiling and garlands of flowers and oversized playing cards hang on the walls, with figures of Wonderland’s denizens scattered throughout. I was a bit disappointed that they chose the live-action 2010 Disney versions instead of Tenniel’s classic engravings, but chacun à son gout, I suppose.

Images from the "Alice in Wonderland" instillation at the Oscar Wilde restaurant in New York City, featuring playing cards, hearts, and mushrooms hanging on the wall.

As in Lillie’s, you feel like you’ve stepped back into the Victorian era; lots of elaborately framed pictures, dark wood, tile floors, gaslight fixtures, marble and a huge, gorgeous stained glass window take you away from the hustle and bustle of our age for a couple of hours. Part of the fun is seeing characters unexpectedly peeking out at you from foliage or dark corners, as well as discovering Wilde’s quotes stenciled everywhere (my favorite is “The old believe everything, the middle aged suspect everything, the young know everything”; a lot of insight in that, I think). Tweedledum and Tweedledee seem to be the unofficial mascots, as they stood sentinel throughout, and flamingoes are seated on bright chairs suspended from the ceiling.

Images from the "Alice in Wonderland" instillation at the Oscar Wilde restaurant in New York City, featuring flamingos and Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

The food is very good, if a bit pricey, but I suppose all that atmosphere comes with a price tag. All in all, it was wonderful to lose myself in Wonderland, and I wished again to be able to step through a mirror and zoom through the Crystal Continuum to Heart Palace.

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The Museum of the City of New York, founded by Henry Collins Brown in 1923 to preserve and present the history of New York City and its people, is currently exhibiting an Alice artifact I never knew existed. Through September 27, the Museum’s exhibit Another Wonderland: Abram Champanier’s Alice Mural displays 15 of the 16 panels Champanier created between 1938-1940 for the children’s ward at Gouverneur Hospital, then located at 621 Water Street in lower Manhattan. Being confined in a hospital is no fun for anyone, especially children, and Champanier’s murals helped them imagine being outside to brighten their day. The hospital lost accreditation in 1959, and the murals were nearly lost as the building was slated for interior demolition, but were removed in 1981 by painting conservator Alan Farancz and restored over a ten-year period.

Mural by Abram Champanier featuring the Mad Hatter and other "Alice in Wonderland" characters outside the New York Public Library. From the Museum of the City of New York exhibition "Another Wonderland".

The huge, brilliantly colored panels show Alice and her Wonderland companions being escorted around Manhattan by Champanier’s creation, Fabzio the Toymaker. He opens a book of Wonderland and invites the characters on a tour of New York. By subway, boat, plane, and foot, they visit shipping yards, Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty, and other famous city landmarks. My favorite is one showing everyone in a plane flying over the East River, above the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, a great panorama of the majesty of our city. If we’d be amazed to find ourselves in Wonderland, what fun to imagine Alyss/Alice and her companions being dazzled by New York!