Under the Jennisons, the main priorities for Belle Vue were the zoological and botanical gardens; amusements were provided merely as a distraction. The Jennisons laid out formal gardens in various styles between 1836 and 1898, including mazes, grottoes, an Italian garden, "billiard-table lawns" and constructed Tropical Plant Houses. There were also exotic constructions like the Indian temple and grotto, designed by George Danson, Belle Vue's scenic artist. Built to resemble a ruined temple, it housed snakes and crocodiles as well as flowers. At the end of the 19th century, ""the resort relied almost entirely for its attraction on its delightful gardens"", but by 1931 the formalism had entirely disappeared. The gardens were also used to stage large political rallies for a wide spectrum of opinion, such as the "Great Liberal Demonstration" of 1924, at which Lloyd George addressed a crowd of 50,000, the first political meeting at which loudspeakers were used. The British Union of Fascists, popularly known as the Blackshirts, also held a meeting there, in September 1934. One contemporary commentator observed that "perhaps the Ku Klux Klan will be found in session there one day, for Belle Vue is nothing if not ". In contrast to this, the centenary celebrations of the Trades Union Congress in 1968 also took place at Belle Vue.