Dates

• Existence: 1793 - 1842

Biography

Andrew Ducrow was a British circus performer, who famously owned Astley's Amphitheatre. Andrew was born on 10 October 1793 in Southwark, Surrey. His father Peter Ducrow was a strongman performer from Belgium who moved to England the year andrew was born.

Andrew was trained in a wide range of circus performance arts from the age of three. By the time he was fifteen he had become chief equestrian and ropedancer at Astley’s, where his father worked. In 1813 Peter Ducrow acquired the Royal Circus and Andrew left Astley’s to go with him. However, the Royal Circus was unsuccessful, and Andrew returned to Astley’s to perform trick-riding. In 1814, Andrew became the head of the family upon his father’s death and started to tour around France with various circuses including Cirque Olympique and Franconi’s Circus. When he returned to England, he became the co-proprietor of Astley’s and achieved great success until his death on 27 January 1842. Astley’s was taken over by William Batt and the business by Joseph Hillier.

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