Skegness, Wesleyan Chapel 1891 (ref. 29021) | The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Algitha Road was officially opened on 13 July 1882, the fourth of that denomination in Skegness. The three earlier chapels were all in the High Street, the first opening in 1837. As the picture shows, there were few other buildings near this chapel in 1891. The ornate iron gates and railings on the road frontage were lopped off early in the Second World War to melt down for armaments. In the small hours of Sunday 16 February 1941, the church was seriously damaged in an air-raid; services had to be held in the Sunday School for some time afterwards. The pair of houses on the east side of the building were so badly wrecked in the bombing that they had to be demolished. The former Wesleyan Chapel is now the Skegness Methodist Church. |  Add your own Memory
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Skegness, South Parade 1899 (ref. 44346) | On the left is the Sandbeck House Hotel (demolished 1972) with Walter Smyth's wooden photo studio in the front garden. At least three flagstaffs are visible in an age when almost any celebration meant hoisting the flag for Queen and Empire. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Beach 1910 (ref. 62865) | A donkey-man with his metal licence badge prominently displayed poses for a picture with the mother and baby donkey. Will Marsh and his Merrie Men performed in the wooden theatre on the left, near the bathing machines, whilst the fair ground was also near the high water mark with a helter-skelter, roundabouts, a rifle range (right), a photo studio, and lots of other booths where the visitors could spend their pennies. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Clock Tower 1910 (ref. 62848) | The small parking strip adjoining the Clock Tower contains two motor taxis, a pony trap, a landau and an open omnibus drawn by two horses happily munching away in their nosebags. The amusements are down on the beach, with the old museum ship on the right. Wooden shelters stand on either side of the road to the sea, which was at first named the Lumley Pullover and then Tower Pullover after the Clock Tower was erected; finally, it became Tower Esplanade. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Tower Esplanade c1955 (ref. S134120) | Landaus still stand for hire in this picture. The flat-roofed Foreshore Centre (left) contained a first-aid room as well as an information bureau, left luggage office and lost children's shelter. It had been built as a dance hall and café in 1911, and was demolished in 1971. Frederica Terrace, on the right, is now extended forward to the pavement with bars and amusement arcades, but at the time of the photograph it was mainly the Parade Hotel. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Boating Lake c1955 (ref. S134073) | So successful was the boating lake, which opened in 1924, that six years later it was doubled in size by an extension south of the big bridge. This picture shows the south extension, near the Axenstrasse; in the centre we can see the Rialto Bridge to the large island, which was replaced only a few summers ago. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Boating Lake c1955 (ref. S134070) | The boating lake, with its little wooden rowboats (made by Thickett's, the Grimsby boatbuilders) opened in 1924, the first major work in the great 1920s foreshore development plan transforming what until then had been nothing but sand and dunes. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Compass Gardens c1960 (ref. S134149) | In 1930, the so-called Marine Gardens, near the Clock Tower, were properly landscaped to become the Quadrangle Gardens; the name was eventually changed to Compass Gardens, as the giant ground compass with direction pointers was the main feature of the layout. Butlin's funfair and the model yacht pond can be seen in the background, with the old Embassy Centre, built in 1929, on the left. The horse-drawn landaus await passengers for a tour of the town. The large metal object in the centre, painted bright red with white bands, is a wartime mine salvaged from the sea and converted to a collecting box for some worthwhile charity, possibly the lifeboat station. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Donkey Rides c1960 (ref. S134110) | Here we see plenty of donkeys and riders. Note the two portable ramps with iron wheels, which were used to help passengers get in and out of the pleasure boats. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Waterway c1955 (ref. S134118) | Two packed motorboats pass the beach chalets north of the Pier. Later, the chalets were to be rebuilt to face inland, as well as towards the sea. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Donkey Rides on the Beach c1955 (ref. S134109) | 'And then the donkeys! Who can imagine a seaside resort without its herd of gaily caprisoned 'mokes'? Neddy's perennial face appears everywhere, surely nowhere better represented than at Skegness'. E A Jackson, 'Skegness and Neighbourhood : A Handbook for Visitors' (1883). | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Waterway c1960 (ref. S134134) | The boat is just starting out from the north end of the Waterway, with the Figure 8 Switchback, the tennis courts, and the 1930s concrete 'castle ruins' in the background. The motor boat ride still operates, providing a pleasant alternative journey through the seashore gardens from Tower Esplanade to the north end of the parade. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Lumley Avenue 1904 (ref. 51770) | Lumley Avenue, with its chestnut trees and wide verges and roadway, is typical of the streets comprising the original grid layout of the Earl of Scarbrough's 1870s town plan. The parish church stands in Powletts Circus at the far end. The house on the extreme left belonged to G J Crofts, who could look down the street and see customers entering his large drapery shop in Lumley Road; it later became the offices of the Skegness Standard. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Lumley Road 1899 (ref. 44192) | Behind the pony trap on the right we can glimpse Hiley's Restaurant (now the Nat West Bank), noted for its shilling dinners. On the left is the gable end of Hildreds Hotel - demolished in 1987 - and at the centre are what were then the newly-built underground lavatories with a domed ventilator surmounted by a street lamp. They were demolished this year. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Lumley Road 1899 (ref. 44354) | When the Lion Hotel opened in 1881, the stone lion was placed on the roof above the corner entrance. Across the road James Barlow, 'family grocer and provision merchant,' had the biggest food shop in the town; from the open doorway an appetising smell of ground coffee drifted into the street. Rowley's ironmongery shop was next door. The clock tower, built the year of this photograph, can be seen at the sea end of the main shopping street. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Sands and Pier c1955 (ref. S134119) | The pierhead, with the theatre which had replaced the old saloon, or pavilion, during the improvements of 1946, is photographed at low tide. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Lumley Road 1910 (ref. 62855) | When it had become unsafe in 1904, the stone lion on the roof of the Lion Hotel was brought down to stand on the pavement. At the same time, bow windows topped by a cupola replaced the former brickwork over the corner entrance. Traffic was hardly a problem in 1910, and pedestrians wandered all over the carriageway without any worries. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, Model Yacht Pond c1955 (ref. S134064) | Close to Butlin's (now Botton's) amusement park, the model yacht pond - opened 1930 - was a popular attraction for many years, with a kiosk nearby for hiring all kinds of vessels. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, from the Pier 1910 (ref. 62844) | We can see a deckchair hut, bathing machines, and a few wooden seats; in the left background is the end of the 1885 Switchback and the Aerial Flight. On the right is the Sea View Hotel and the Figure 8. | Add your own Memory
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Skegness, the Beach and the Pier c1960 (ref. S134150) | Children ride over the sands on their donkeys, with the pier in all its splendour in the background. Little more than twenty years later it had been washed away. | Add your own Memory
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