Here is the seventh "position paper" for the Harbour Research project. Corrections and additions are welcomed. The purpose of the document is to seek people who will undertake serious research on aspects of the history of the harbour.
John Rushton - 11th January 2012
The First Seaside Resort expands into Foreshore Road .
(These are tentative notes based on a quick appraisal of limited sources, and omitting important subjects)
Scarborough was the first seaside resort. The genteel visitors from c1625 onwards crossed the sands from the town to drink water at the spa. By 1675 they were also bathing in the sea. They sported on the sands, sought gem-stones and sea weeds, and might enjoy a boat ride, a fishing or bird shooting expedition, a promenade, even a horse race. Accomodation was in the old town. A few even found lodgings near the harbour, where a “long room”was built to offer gambling, dancing and other diversions. The upper town attracted new long rooms and the newer residences in the early 18th century. The fashionable resort soon separated from the working harbour and the old town. St Nicholas Cliff became something of a promenade.
Easier access ways from upper town to the spa were made in the late 18th century by Bland’s Cliff and King street steps. Facilities at the spa saw well recorded changes. Schofield in1788 mentioned “specialised shops” for resort visitors. Among them were shops offering beach stones and shells. By 1825, Alexander Crawford on the cliff, William Cracknell and John Carter’s shops in Long Room street and Peter Bowen in Huntriss Row offered shells, pebbles, even organic remains and fossils. The harbour and the resort remained separate, although John Cole c1813 could still engage lodgings near the beach.
Changes came about 1826 when the Cliff Bridge Company made the Spa house into a centre of musical performances, set amidst cliff walks. The construction of a museum near the valley in 1828 gave some visitors another low lying though serious destination. There began a modest development of visitor attractions near the seafront. Pebble and fossil stalls were kept by Robert Dove and his son George, by Mrs Thompson and others near to the bridge (Meadley 56). The railway which opened in 1845 brought a wave of changes. The cliff beyond the spa gained Lawsons archery grounds and a shooting gallery (SG 20.7.1848). The numbers reaching the beach were far greater in the railway age. Yet, while ship building and the harbour still thrived, the division between the harbour front and the undeveloped part of the foreshore was stark. Not until the late seventies was the Foreshore Road made up, and new large scale entertainment centres were established there. These notes are a tentative step towards that history, admittedly quite inadequate and in need of much improvement. Perhaps you can improve them.
Bathing Machines
The sea water bathing movement favoured early morning immersion before the waters could warm up. Floyer’s essay to prove cold bathing safe and usefull ran to five editions in c1702. Settrington’s engraving of the Scarborough sea front in 1725 has women bathing near the spa with one bathing machine and men swimming from a boat. Peter Shaw, a regular Scarborough visitor, and a resident from 1733, wrote detailed advice on sea bathing. Viator put it in verse:
“The elegant may blister and purge and bleed and plague with pill and lotion, but jump into the sea, you’ll need, I’m sure no other lotion”
By 1733 it was “the custom for not only gentlemen but ladies also to bathe in the sea”; the gents jumped in naked from boats. “The ladies have gowns and guides, and two little houses on shore to return to for dressing”. It was claimed in 1734 that “no spaw in england can add salt to the cold bath but Scarborough”. That year the Duchess of Manchester went into the sea every day during her stay.
There were 26 large bathing machines, drawn out onto the sands daily by 1787. Three proprietors, two of them women, kept these horse-drawn boxrooms and charged a shiling a time for their use, plus the tip (Prescott 443). In a later day and age, Herbert Rawling had large machines, fifty of them on the south side, in some of which six men or five women could share the facility. They had cost £25 each to build using Hackness wood.
The arrival of holiday visitors by rail during and after 1845 altered the use of the beaches. The corporation had a “bathing machines and hackney carriages committee” by 1846 to deal with nuisances on the south sands. They decreed in 1848 that cobles were not to appear south of Terry’s raff yard, and gentlemen were not to bathe south of the Millbeck, due to recent indecencies (SG 8. 6.1848). Beach Rules for 1852 forbade boats going within fifty yards of a bathing machine. Men’s drawers or women's gowns had to be worn from 7am to 9pm by all, except boys under twelve. The cost of such things made bathing impossible for many and this made paddling the poor man's substitute. Soon pleasure boats had to keep a hundred yards from the bathing beaches.
The Bathing byelaws of c1861 included a ban on naked bathing. No bathing at all was allowed from within 260 yards of west pier as far as the spa, except from a machine. Areas were set aside for men’s and women’s machines. The men’s machines were opposite the Grand Hotel, the females opposite the Aquarium in 1889. Later bye-laws required bathers to stay 25 yards from a bather of the opposite sex. No “female person" was to go within 25 yards of a male machine. Machines were to be pulled in to a depth of water and into a position to make indecent exposure impossible. All males over 12 were to wear suitable drawers, all females gowns. Boats were to stay 100 yards distant from bathers Bathing machines cost 6d a half hour with loan of two clean towels, and bathing drawers or a gown.
Things would change. WPG of Salford said that “the question of mixed bathing must be approached with a clean mind and a heart clear of all the stupid mock modesty of present day prudery”. Some bathing tents were erected beyond the spa and on the north sands. By 1908, Scarborough along with Blackpool and Margate, had “special facilities” for mixed bathing. The newest bathing costumes had frills on the shoulders and white stripes (YWP July 1898). The Edwardians still avoided the sun under parasols, straw hats and newspapers. After the First World War, the bright young things bathed in the suns rays. The deck chair replaced the sun shelters. Swimming costumes revealed rather than concealed. Open air sports became possible. By 1935 George Horrocks the Corproration entertainments manager ran 21 tennis courts, 3 putting greens, 2 boating lakes, archery butts, miniature speed boats and a water chute.
Cliff Bridge Company - 1826
The Clliff Bridge Company was formed in 1826, the brainchild of Robert Cattle of York. The bridge would link St Nicholas Cliff to the Spa. It was opened on 19th July 1827. Four arches sustained by stone pillars carried the iron bridge over the mill beck, 414 feet across, 13 and a half foot broad and 75 feet high. The cost was £9,000. (Theakstone’s Handbook for Strangers c1862)
The Rotunda Museum - 1827
Scarborough Philosophical Society was formed in 1827 to promote science and specifically to investigate local natural history, with a building to house a museum and library. Patrons included the Duke of Rutland, the Earl of Mulgrave and Sir J.V.B Johnston. The foundation stone was laid in 1828 and the rotunda was completed in 1828 below St. Nicholas Cliff terrace, at a cost of £1271. Thomas Duesbery had offered the Hinderwell collections of science and geology. William Smith, the pioneer of Geology, had lately explored the country’s rock strata and checked the record with fossils. He suggested the form of the Roman Doric Rotunda, 52 ft high, to display the stratification of the rocks. The collection included rocks, birds, insects, coins, medals, and the Gristhorpe Burial. A small marine aquarium was added to the museum in 1862.
The Indoor Swimming Baths (later Coney Island) - 1858
The Scarborough Public Baths Company was formed in 1858 and built the swimming baths in the next year, below Bland’s Cliff. The building was designed by Josiah Fairbanks, along with a terrace of six houses, on the site of a burnt out timber yard. The structure was built in red and white brick, with Moorish arches, a dome topped water tower, a glass roof and a minaretted chimney shaft.
Big letters on the seaside proclaimed “Sea Water Baths” (MM, 28.5.1859) The supply of 100,000 gallons of water, pumped from the sea, was governed by the tides. The water pipes ran a quarter of a mile into the sea (B348). The baths were open daily Monday-Saturday, 6am to 9pm for 6d with tepid water and a swimming master attending. There were dressing rooms for fifty bathers and a ladies flounce bar. Warm, shower and Turkish baths were also available (Bryan Berryman 27.2.1971 Mercury).
The baths were sold in 1903-4 to E. Gambart Baines for £4250. He installed waxworks but the baths continued in summer use. The front was converted to small shops. Herbert A. Whitaker bought the baths in 1920, and converted them into an entertainment centre. Over the years this featured various shows, including the “wall of death”, and an “Indian village” 1936-37, with twelve Indians, “ten jolly indian monkeys”, a girl changing into a Goddess, and Indian palmists. You could have a scream at the “hall of laughter”. The damaged tower was removed in 1945. James Corrigan bought the old Marine Baths at the bottom of Bland’s Cliff, in the Foreshore Road, 1947 and converted them into an amusement arcade, known as “Coney Island” (Binns' History 382). The Moorish design was retained. He sought to extend the holiday season in 1978 by keeping Coney Island open until Christmas, using gas heating. (LF. 26.9.1978).
St. Thomas’s Hospital - 1861
The Royal National Sea Bathing Infirmary and Convalescent Home was moved from Quay Road to Foreshore Road in 1860-61. It could accomodate 78. This replaced a boat building yard and on some accounts a sail loft and shipping stores burnt down in 1850. (Buckley 98) (SF 9) The architect was W. B. Stewart. This later became known as St Thomas’s Hospital.
The Grand Hotel Restaurant - 1871
Augustus Fricour opened refreshment rooms on the foreshore below the gigantic Grand Hotel in 1871, especially for excursionists. The principal room was one hundred feet long with an eighty foot food counter. There was a select room and a room for use by employers of labour. A plate of cold meat was sixpence, mustard a penny,and port fourpence a glass. (Grand Refreshment Rooms Tariff 1871) (Prescot 9A) A front of house man gave dignity to the occasion.
The Grand restaurant was sited below the Grand but independant of it. After the First World War it was described as “cheap and cheerful”. It could seat 2000 and aimed to provide whatever trippers could afford. A skating rink was available all day in 1934. The Restaurant and the Grand skating rink of Bertie Whitaker were damaged by fire in March 1942, when being used by the army. They were bought by the borough in 1949 and later demolished to allow widening of the Foreshore road. However it is said that Quarton’s Grand Restaurant had “the dansant” in 1950.
The Foreshore Road - 1874-9
The harbour was separated from Ramsdale Valley by a stretch of sand known as the Foreshore. This had been encroached upon before the 19th century at the bottom of Blands Cliff and west of West Sandgate by ship building structures. Proposals for a Foreshore Road were voiced in 1866 and 1871. The siting of the Grand Cafe above the west end of the south sands and of the Aquarium at the sea end of the valley tended to pull the excursionist’s seafront westward. The Aquarium company built part of the road in 1874. The remainder was constructed for the corporation during 1878-79.
This half a mile of asphalted carriage drive, with seats and a light iron rail against the sea, became a free promenade, which later lost its identity in a continuous resort front.
By 1933 the Foreshore Road held Galaland amusements, Catlin’s entertainments, Lawrence Wright's fun palace, the Hall of Laughter, the Grand Skating Rink, Photomaton Ltd., Olympia shops, ballroom and cafe, the Futurist soda fountain, super cinema, and cafe, the Arcadia theatre and cafe, the Kingscliffe Holiday Camp, the waxworks exhibition at Bath Buildings, the lavatories, the Corporation's entertainment office, the Grand, Evelyn's, White Cafe and Princess Hall restaurants (1933 Dir). Among them, two years later, you could find a ladies' band, a clairvoyant, circus, skeeball, speedway, children's corner, miniature railway, shooting galleries, swimming bath, sand modellers, a performing bear and one man bands.
The Aquarium (later the People’s Palace,later Galaland ) - 1877
The Aquarium was built in 1877 by Eugenius Birch. The Corporation leased the ground to the Marine Aquarium Company Ltd, which had been formed under The Scarborough Marine Aquarium Act of Parliament in 1875. (Baker 492) The structure was a mass of brick piers with horseshoe arches, which supported a road. The two and a quarter acre Aquarium was backed by a park of walks, seats, fishpond and aviaries, replacing a horse and carriage shed and the stagnant mill beck pond. It was hampered by an inconspicuous entrance, apparently designed to bury the excursionists out of sight. It opened on May 19th 1877, having cost around £120,000.
The architecture internally was elaborate. It drew upon imperial models, the Burning Ghaut and the Vishnu Pud. The staircase was that of the Temple at Bindrabund and some woodwork imitated that at the Akbar palace at Agra. A jardinierre was modelled on the palace at Goburdhun. (Adshead 38) Here were a dining room, reading room, central hall, grottoes, courts, corridors, a seal pond and 26 tanks of water, one 26 foot square and holding 75,000 gallons, a swimming bath 75 by 25 feet and a large refreshment room. Hot water pipes circulated, and the building claimed to be able to hold 10,000 people. Devil fish and a five foot sturgeon were put into a tank in 1877. The Aquarium company were insolvent in 1881.
The Aquarium was bought by partners E. Starkey and Billy Morgan for £4400 or £5.150 with fittings in 1886. Billiy Morgan was the enterprising pioneer who conceived the “ten hour programme“ on a single ticket. He converted the Scarborough Aquarium into a “People’s Palace” arguing that people would rather see a live show than an uncooked lobster. He livened things up. Some of the fish tanks were converted into shops in 1887. Gas lighting with 1,600 jets made a spectacle of the lurid internal decors familiar in an imperial age. Clowns, comics, jugglers, bands, orchestras, “turns” of all kinds offered an all day indoor show, amidst bars and cafes. A human gasometer blew flames from his mouth. Cross channel swimmer Captain Webb swam for 74 hours in 1880 in the great tank. There was a flowing model of the Niagara Falls. a panorama of New York, a monkey house, alligator ponds, shooting galleries, a theatre, and ”what the butler saw “machines. Visitors could stay from 10 am to 11pm for sixpence. A new summer swimming pool opened in 1893.
This was Scarborough’s umbrella, a wet weather entertainment centre. One programme offered “Unthan the armless wonder” who could play the violin and fire a gun with his feet, along with Flo Everette and her canines, a live performing donkey, Zazma the acrobat and the new fashion for dancing in the ballroom. A theatre was opened in 1907 and in 1909 the open courtyard adjoining the refreshment rooms was glass covered to make a skating rink. That craze only lasted two years. Twenty cages for a zoo were installed in 1913. Liquidation fllowed that year and it closed in 1914.
The place was bought by Scarborough Council in 1923 for £15,200 or £22,500 and re-opened as Galaland, a fun fair, in 1925, but it lost its liquor licence. The site was leased to the Bridge Brothers in 1926. The 1935 daily programme still had Evelyn Hardy’s ladies band, a kicking mule, a clairvoyant, skeeball, speedway, a maze, a childrens corner and the “underground honeymoon”. Adshead in 1938 saw the swimming bath, circus, concert party hall, shooting galleries and miniature switchback railway. The woodwork was decaying. There was talk of a £250,000 development scheme for the Aquarium Top in 1961. This continued until 1966 when Galaland closed. The buildings were demolished in 1969, the roadway rebuilt and car parking provided for 175 cars underground in 1970. (”Parking on the Aquarium Top” in Municipal and Public Service Journal 7.11.1969 V. Forshaw)
Central Tramway Company (Scarborough ) Ltd. - 1881
This Company was registred 20.1.1881 to build a steam-operated cliff tramway from the Foreshore Road to St Nicholas Gardens, near the Grand Hotel. George Wood of Hull was the builder. The tramway opened on August 1st 1881.The track was 255 feet long with two 4ft 8in chaired routeways. It was electrified in 1920.
Stalls on the Sands
Stalls with all kinds of foodstuffs spread along the visitor sands in Victorian times. There were girls with apple baskets and Mr Bland with a hand cart crying “fish, fresh cockerells”. Mrs Hicks in a high soprano sang “any fish today”. An Italian hokey pokey man shouted “hoky pooky a penny a lump, thats the stuff that makes you jump”. Thomas Doonan, the town crier, in top hat with gold bands, frock coat with silver buttons and carrying a bell called the arrival and departure of the vessel "General Havelock". William Boyes's father in 1869 kept a coffee stall with donkeys on the sands. The Sandside Coffee House opened near the West Pier on 23.7.1883 (SG 26.7.1883)
The Pierrots - 1890’s
Minstrels came to Scarborough North Pier and to South Cliff in the eighties and nineties, performing in the open air. They replaced earlier “nigger minstrels” and other groups at most resorts (Chapman 1988). A canvas covered stage faced an open air audience seated or standing. William Henry Fox came in 1894 to appear at the People’s Palace, the next year paying 6s a week rent per man on the sands for a two man minstrel show, as Catlin and Carson. A few years later his rent would rise to over £600. He had the first troupe of pierrots on the sands in 1896 at age 25. He later changed his name to Will Catlin. Tom Carrick formed his own troupe in the nineties. Catlin's site was below the spa wall. Carrick's was opposite St Nicholas Gardens. Elsewhere were marionettes, a dancing skeleton, Mr. Winn's talking dolls,and the Punch and Judy opposite Blands Cliff.
Catlin’s pierrots had black pom poms while Carrick's were red, worn on clown hats above white foppy suits. Three performances were given daily, five on Bank Holidays. Quintin Gibson. once a St Mary’s church choir boy, led troupes at the north pier. They drove around town on waggonettes to advertise. They sold song sheets and photographs. Harmonium, banjo and later pianos were used. Other pierrot troupes appearing in Scarborough included Tom Carr, Josh Squash and Major, Captain Franks, Smiler Brown and John James Martin. In 1904 £340 was offered for two pleasure stands as against £180 in 1903. Willi Catlin bought sole rights to perform on the sands in 1906. Carrick moved to the roof of the Grand Restaurant. The Council raised the rents in 1908 so the pierrots moved indoors
The Exhbiition (later Olympia, later New Empire,later New Olympia - 1895)
This was a century of exhibitions. After the marine exhibition at Norwich in 1881 John W. Woodall, chairman of the North East Coast Sea Fisheries Committee, had Caleb Petch design a Classical exhibition building for Scarborough. The site had housed the raff yard of Terry and Jennings, makers of masts, spars and blocks. A vast pile of a wooden building was erected in 1894-5. Beneath the front balcony was a row of shops. (Scarborough Magazine, Sept 1894). The inside floor area of 10,000 square feet could seat 6600, with galleries for 2000 more. A stage with proscenium arch formed a concert or theatre room, and a smaller theatre used for living pictures was on the second floor rear. (Scarborough Illustrated 1896) (Excursion to Scarborough 1898 p27) (Scarb. Mag. Sept 1894)
The Fisheries and Marine Exhibition opened on May 31, 1895, showing various breeds of fresh water fish, marine birds, and “living pictures”, while a ladies naval orchestra gave three vocal concerts daily. Other displays replaced it the next year. There were exhibitions of sports and industry in 1896. The Art and Home Comforts Exhibition was housed here in 1897. This included a “baby incubator” only to be viewed by ladies. The next year, the impresario William Morgan converted the building for use with entertainments, variety and living pictures. 1898 brought such joys as the “one eyed musical coon”, flying trapese artistes and the Turkish harem. “Examinations of the head" were offered in 1900. The building was eventually illuminated by electricity.
The corporation bought and refitted the Olympia in 1898. It re-opened in 1898 as the “New Empire”, a title kept till 1902. Olympia became the place that responded to the “crazes” and consequently had its ups and downs as they came and faded. The Aquarium Company leased the Exhibition Building in 1903 to Charles, Imra and Albert E. Kiralfy, of Earl's Court, London, for an annual rent of £325. They already held Arcadia. They called the building Olympia. That year there was entertainment by the Blue Hungarian Band, a Hall of Laughter, an Electric Theatre, a Lilliputian Auto Theatre, and side shows. (Sc. Mag Dec 1893). The “New Olympia” under the famous Kiralfi Brothers continued till 1908.
Olympia was leased to A. H. Whittaker’s Company for £750 a year in December 1908. Part was converted to a roller skating rink, a current craze, in 1909 but after two years reverted to films. There were three other rinks in town. It was described in 1910 as the Olympia Picture Theatre and Electric Theatre. A Mr Newbald was lessee in 1913 showing films but in 1913 it went to Will Catlin at £1000 a year. It was described in 1914 as a refurnished picture palace and a cafe with a view, which could accomodate two to three thousand.
A German shell hit the building on December 16th 1914. The military had use of the building from that year, with some deterioration. Plaxtons made munitions boxes there. The next enthusiasm was for dancing. The ballroom had dance tutors Mr & Mrs Follitt in 1919. The ballroom sometimes held 600 in 1922. An Olympia glide was created by the Follitts. Roller skating came again in 1930. Adshead in 1938 called the Olympia a dance hall or ballroom with tea rooms, in a rather flimsy building. He wanted Olympia made into a swimming pool. It was known as the Jazzer in the 1940s, when admission was 3d (MJ Nov 1995). A new floor was fitted c 1946-7.
The Olympia welcomed the big name dance bands in the post war years: James Parnell in 1952, Stanley Black in 1953. Young people thronged the dance hall, and many marriages followed. By the sixties it was said to be “going down hill”. The Scarborough Corporation had their Entertainment Department here by 1962. Don Robinson ran wresting in 1967 and the Focus on Leisure Exhibition was here the next year. The Council sought to sell the property in 1968. The building was destroyed by fire on 29th July 1975. It was Insured adequately and the payout provided a new Olympia built in 1980 with a steel skeleton. (MJ. 21.7.1993) Artesian wells were found under the site. Tons of concrete had to be poured into them. Bryan Jackman was the architect from Redcar Amusement Parks. A public house licence was granted for part of the building. There were complaints about the number of slot machines when the new building opened in 1982. A mock Mediaeval village was erected on the second floor with supposed 13th century shops for Gordon Cordona, besides the amusements, cafe and pub.
The “Transportation Ship” - 1900
The mock Transportation ship ”Success” was moored at the Lighthouse Pier for the Summer of 1900. This recalled the movement of convicts to Australia in the ship “Scarborough”.
Arcadia - 1903
Will Catlin the proprietor of a troupe of pierrots bought land at Bland’s Cliff to build the wooden Arcadia which opened in 1903. This followed disagreement about charges for sand sites with the Corporation Entertainments Committee. Old mooring posts were found during excavations. The Pierrot Theatre could accomodate up to 2500. (SG 6..5.1909) The moveable roof made it “the only building in England convertable in moments into an open air theatre“. The pierrot shows became concert parties. On “promenade“ nights, the entertainment cost 3d. Next door the Arcadian Restaurant was built on the site of the Sheffield Arms, “one of the largest public bars outside London”. There was a public convenience and a cab stand on the Foreshore Road in front. Catlin paid £550 to have them removed. Roof gardens extended over the cafe and the Palladium next door. Behind was the Kingscliffe holiday camp.
The Whale Exhibition - 1903
This was advertised on the “Arethusa” at the Lighthouse Pier in 1903, 71 foot, 75 ton but “no smell” (Prescott 5. 499). (In 1954 “Jonah the Whale, 69 tons, 66 feet, was displayed in June at Northway car park on a long lorry.)
Rawling’s Rock Manufacturers
Rawling and Co on the Foreshore Road were described as the oldest rock manufacturers when they sold out to John Moody in 1976. (Prescott 1366 ) Mr. Wilson Warby made their rock for forty years, with a gap for 1940-45. Peter Rawling succeeded his father John Simson Rawling. The grandfather took on the business in 1911. Rawlings made 45 tons of rock a year, much of it lettered through.
Palladium Picturehouse - 1912
Mr. Catlin built the Palladium next to the Arcadia in 1912. This opened 1st July 1912. It may have become part of the new Arcadia on 14th May 1921, when it was given a stage for pierrots and concert parties.
The Grand Picture House - 1914
This opened on 11th April 1914 showing the film “Antony and Cleopatra”, with tickets at 2d, 4d, 6d and a shilling. Herbert Whitaker was the proprietor in 1920. The licence was transferred to new owner Herbert Needham. It re-opened in 1922 as the Grand Pavilion, showing Douglas Fairbanks in “The Three Musketeers”. It had gone by 1959. (Prescott 313)
The Kingscliffe Holiday Camp - 1914
Mr. Catlin established the Holiday Camp in 1914, with dining room, concert hall and sleeping for 1000. It was run by Catlin’s (Scarborough) Entertainments Ltd., claiming 600 acres available to campers in 1923.
The Futurist - 1921
The Futurist Super Cinema was built on the old Arcadia site in 1921. The site of the Sheffield pub was also part of tne ground used. Earlier mooring posts were found when the site was excavated.The Futurist opened with seating for 3000. The great cinema organ cost over £5,000 and the entire scheme £80,000 An American Ice Cream and Soda Fountain occupied a saloon. The building was heightened in 1950. The Futurist converted to live shows in 1958. From that year it was a second home to the BBC Black and White Minstrels, a song and dance show, which was popularised by television. The Beatles performed there in 1963 and 1964. Robert Luff bought the Futurist from Will Catlin in 1966. It was given new floors and the architected front was face-lifted to a smooth facade (SM 10.5.1969). The 1982 season saw Marti Caine, singer Val Doonigan, and puppeteer Rod Hill with Emu. Futurist productions in 1992 included Michael Barrymore, hypnotist Adam Knight, Ken Dodd, The Hockridge Family in concert, the Three Degrees, and Val Doonigan ( (MJ 20.6.1995).
St Nicholas's Lift - 1929
This was built in 1929 and sold to the corporation in 1945.
Alonzi’s Ice Cream Manufactory
Giulian Alonzi came to England in 1890 from Picinisco near Cassino. The family were initially street traders. Their ice cream manufactory was at Sydney Street in 1958.
Valente & Co
Valente appeared in the block, second east of Hospital. A photograph shows Mr. Valente and assistants in the 1900s. They also had a shop at Filey.
De Placido’s
This firm are said to have had an ice cream factory at 3 Vincent St till the 1960’s.
Speedboats
In the thirties a "Plank on wheels", charge, 1d. gave access to small boats when the tide was out. There was a speedboat “Miss Vic” and a “sea car" that could go on land (WL 36). There were rides on the motor boat “Good Cheer”. By 1938 there were “miniature speedboats" and demonstrations of surf-riding behind a speedboat (Town Guide 1938). Gordon Fishburn later started one power boat or speedboat, the other in use was "High Velocity" (SEN 30.5.1981).
The Waxworks
Gambart Baines howed Waxworks from 1929 to 1946, then at Galaland till 1952. His shows held over sixty mddels, some of them mechanical, featuring such celebrities as Amy Johnson the flyer and “the acid bath murderer”. Alfred Dale had the waxworks at 10 Foreshore Road in 1933.
Pacitto’s - 1934
Pacitto’s have offered ice cream, drinks, coffee at 24 Foreshore Road. In Scarborough since 1934. (Down Your Way 1987)
Jaconelli’s - 1937
Mr. Jaconelli was an ice cream manufacturer at Scarborough from 1937. The ice cream parlours were at 1 Futurist buildings, Foreshore Road, and 27 Foreshore Road, as well as in Newborough. (Down Memory Lane 1987). By 1962 Jaconelli had 1, 4, 9, 22 and 27 Foreshore Road. In 1967 he was to convert 33 Foreshore Road into an amusement arcade. (For the history of the family, see SEN 4.11.1965.)
The Hispaniola - 1950
As sailing ships became out-dated, the few survivors became objects of tourist interest. The last British registered square rig sailing ship arrived at Scarborough in 1950. The “Hispaniola” had featured in a popular Walt Disney film “Treasure Island”. The Corporation bought the vessel to serve as a floating aquarium at the inner harbour. The tug, brought from Appledore in Devon, used sails. By the end of the first season, 220,000 people had gone aboard. After four seasons, the vessel left the town for use in the film "Moby Dick". This was not the same vessel as the one of the same name later used at the Mere. (SEN 17.1. 1950). Jim Halliday wrote “I can remember the full-size Hispaniola moored alongside the central pier - inside was used as an aquarium”.
The Jungle Exhibition - 1955
This was staged at No 1 Bethel Place on the foreshore in 1955 by Adrian Darley. There was some concern at the wild animals included. A fifteen foot long python escaped but was eventually found in the rear of the Sandside ice house. (Prescott 531)
Evelyn’s Soda Fountain
Evelyns on the foreshore advertised “the Boston Belles the greatest show in town” 10.30am to 3pm and and 7pm in 1930 (1.8.1930). H. A. Whittaker was proprietor of the refreshment rooms in 1939. Photographs show “Eveyn’s Grand Restaurant”. Evelyns and the Grand Rink were sold to the Council in 1949 and partly demolished. The Council let Evelyn’s to Cyril Quarton in 1949 and it ran till 1955 as a cafe and ice cream parlour. A model railway was installed over Evelyn’s that year popularised as “Sammy the shunter”. It was Quarton’s cafe through the sixties and seventies. In 1963, the first floor of Evelyn's was used for mini bowls, and the H. E. Elliott railway, the ground floor for bingo and slot machines (LF 154.3.1963). It passed to Henry Marshall in 1979 when there was a model railway exhibit and ten pin bowling. A windmill sign was illuminated at the front. (MJ 29.7.1975)
The Windmilll
The Windmill, apparently partly destroyed by fire, was demolished by the Hull firm Sam Allo (SEN 29.1.1980). It stood south of the cliff lift by 1974 on the site of the Grand Restaurant.( MJ 27.2.1999)
