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Worthing Town and City MemoriesSelected extracts and photosReturn to Book | Search for another Book | View all photos for Worthing | Worthing homepage |
15 captions found: Showing captions 1 to 15 | |
 Broadwater, Church 1890 (ref. 22700) | The question of taste was fundamental to Victorian church building. Classic was denounced as vulgar and pagan. The only true style for Christian architecture was pure Gothic, preferably that of the 13th and 14th centuries. St George's, built in flint and stone to a design by George Trufitt, displays an original use of the Gothic style. At first there was only an apsidal chancel and nave and a singular bell turret. A new vestry and two new porches were added in 1875. By 1884, a transept had also been added. Between 1873 and 1879 a new Church was built to serve the parish of Heene. Funded by subscriptions as part of West Worthing New Town, the new modern spacious 19th century church of St Botolph's was built near the site of an earlier chapel which had, by the 17th century, fallen into disrepair. By 1778 most of the fabric had been removed, and only a fragment remains, just beyond the eastern end of the new church. St Andrew's, Clifton Road, was the last parish church to be built in pre-war Worthing. It was possibly also the most controversial, for it marked the beginning of Anglo-Catholicism in the town. One of the underlying factors in the Gothic revival within the Church of England had been the movement towards greater decency and ritual in church services. This began in the 1820s and 1830s among a small group of Oxford dons, and was initially a purely theological aspiration aimed at restoring a greater awareness of the historical church and its hierarchical ministry. By the 1860s there were Anglican churches in both London and the fashionable seaside resorts, where the use of lighted candles, ornate vestments and incense had been revived. |  Add your own Memory Add to your Album |
 Worthing, South Street 1899 (ref. 43956) | An 1821 Act of Parliament specified financial limits within which Worthing Town Commissioners could purchase land to erect a building to hold their meetings and provide and maintain a town clock. A Town Hall with a clock was built at a cost of £1,215 8s 10d on land at the northern end of South Street and opened without ceremony in 1835. Beneath the building were cells for accommodating prisoners and a space for housing the hand-operated fire engine and ladder that were gifts to the town. The Incorporation Ceremony of the Borough of Worthing was conducted from its steps on 3 September 1890. Although it remained the focal point of municipal administration for many years, it was finally replaced in 1933 by a Town Hall built further to the north in Chapel Road. The old Town Hall building was finally demolished in 1966 and its site covered by the entrance to the modern Guildbourne shopping precinct. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, St Andrew's Church 1890 (ref. 22702) | Although the Gothic style flint and Bath stone cruciform church was completed in 1886, it was not consecrated until 1888 due to strong and often bitter opposition from the rector of Broadwater and the vicars of Christchurch and Holy Trinity. Worthing's religious development had, during the 19th century, been profoundly influenced by the evangelical nature of worship at St Mary's Broadwater, and with the exception of Heene, all the churches in the town were strongly evangelical. Most Worthing churches smelt of polished floors and woodwork, rather than incense! St Andrew's still retains its High Church character and the congregation includes many non-parishioners who prefer the ritualistic style of worship. Meanwhile, the old Chapel of Ease, now St. Paul's, gradually returned from extreme evangelicalism to the middle ground before being closed a few years ago, due to the building fabric having become dangerous. Although some non-conformists were reluctant, all denominations gradually accepted the Gothic revival. The Baptist Chapel in Christchurch Road, built in brick and flint, reflected this style and was opened for divine worship on 18 March 1885. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, the Convalescent Home and the Beach Hotel 1919 (ref. 68986) | This hotel opened in c1839 as the King and Queen, offering accommodation for early-Victorian visitors to the town. By 1874 it had become the Brunswick Hotel. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, the Moorlands and Clear View Hotels c1965 (ref. W147122) | Unlike the Stanhoe Hotel, the Clear View was typical of the small to medium-sized hotels that had been built on the former open spaces and lawns of the Georgian resort. Its site had formerly been the lawn to Summer Lodge, which was offered by its owner Miles Stringer to Princess Amelia during her brief visit in 1798, so that she was able to sit in the fresh air when the state of the tide prevented her from being carried to the beach. Its name was very apt, for like all the hotels and boarding houses in Marine Parade, its upper rooms and balconies had an unimpeded view of the English Channel. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Stanhoe Hall Hotel 1899 (ref. 43957) | In 1899, G H Warnes converted York Terrace into Worthing's premier hotel, with a Palm Court sextet performing daily in the ballroom. As a pioneering motorist himself, Warnes recognised the tourist potential of the motor car, and in York Road opened what was claimed to be the first garage incorporated into an English hotel. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, East Parade 1919 (ref. 68987) | During the first two decades of the 19th century, the more affluent of Worthing's Georgian visitors often took over entire houses on a long lease, so that they could cater for themselves and also entertain. In many cases, they brought their own servants with them. Although Evans suggests in Worthing's first guide book, published in 1805, that 'there was accommodation suitable for every class of visitor', the town still lacked a first-class hotel to satisfy the needs of the increasing number of fashionable visitors. The Steyne Hotel, which opened on 1 July 1807, fulfilled this need as the town's first purpose built hotel. In 1867 there were only 54 lodging houses in Worthing. By 1891 this had increased to over 200. Visitors, when looking westwards from the pier in 1899, would have seen terrace after terrace of lodging houses, interspersed with the occasional Victorian hotel, stretching to beyond the Heene Parish boundary. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Warnes Hotel 1925 (ref. 78821) | By the end of the Victorian period the scale of amenities offered by larger boarding houses, such as the Eardley Boarding Establishment at Splash Point, often overlapped with those of newly erected Victorian hotels such as the Clear View which catered for the more affluent visitors. While the development of the railway network brought an ever-increasing number of day-trippers to the seaside, by the late-Victorian period the railway was also conveying an increasing number of middle-class families who stayed in the hotels of the more select resorts. Unlike Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings, Worthing never aspired to having an opulent purpose built Victorian hotel. Although plans were passed in 1893 for a 370-room Hotel Metropole and another pier at the western end of the town, the scheme failed. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Esplanade, East End 1890 (ref. 22710) | During the summer of 1894, Oscar Wilde and his family occupied this house overlooking the sea at the eastern end of the extended Esplanade. It was here that he wrote, in the space of only 3 weeks, his most popular play, 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and perhaps as a tribute to the town, named one of the central characters Jack Worthing. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Marine Parade 1890 (ref. 22680) | This tobacconist's shop (far left on above photograph) was originally Murray's English and Foreign Bazaar, which is first shown on Wallis' street map of Worthing dated 1826. By 1890 it had become a tobac- conist's shop run by a Mr Goldsmith. In Kelly's directory for 1960 it is still listed as a tobacconist, newsagent and confectioners. Other than the addition of a modern sunblind and signage, nothing had really changed for over 75 years. Little Terrace (centre on above photograph) was built as a terrace of fashionable lodging houses by a Brighton bricklayer named William Hall circa 1794. It was a typical Regency seaside terrace, built of brick, faced in stucco or painted plaster, with an ironwork balcony that had a curved tiled roof like a Chinese pagoda. When this picture was taken in 1890 it was still a lodging house, but by 1931 it had been converted into the Southdown Restaurant. By 1894 the two smaller lodging houses, inappropriately named Great Terrace (right on above photograph), had been constructed at the southern end of Bedford Row. These were also lodging houses in 1890, but had become the offices of the Southdown Motor Company by 1931. In 1965 the building was Macari's Ice Cream Parlour. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, the Beach 1890 (ref. 22678) | The characteristic mid-Victorian, family-orientated, open-air seaside culture, which offered a satisfaction of its own, and the town's secure, peaceful ambience is captured in this view of the beach. Middle-class holidaymakers enjoy the sea air, surrounded by their chil- dren, without any distractions or noise from the variety of entertainments found at other South coast resorts. Pebbles now cover the upper part of the formerly sandy beach, described by John Evans in the town's first guidebook, published in 1804, as being 'as smooth as a carpet and level as a lawn'. The ubiquitous deck chair is nowhere to be seen. Most are content to sit either on the pebbles or groynes in their best clothes, while hats and sunshades protect pale, delicate skins from the cur- rently unfashionable suntan. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, View from Denton Gardens c1965 (ref. W147136) | Recreational Facilities also with those who wish to experience invigorating walks by the sea during the sometimes less inviting off-season weather. The playground, which can be seen just beyond the raised promenade on the left, was constructed in Beach House grounds and opened in 1951 as Peter Pan's Playground. The entrance is just below the white notice-board by the mock fort. Among the original items of play equipment were the fort, a helter-skelter, slides and swings. Unsurprisingly, this playground was a great attraction for children. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Marine Gardens c1965 (ref. W147146) | The Corporation's policy of providing a sufficient number of public parks and recreation grounds for both residents and visitors was actively pursued during this period of expansion. In excess of fifteen additional areas for outdoor recreation were provided and by 1938 there were seven separate recreation grounds (amounting to fifty acres) and ten public parks recorded in the borough. Several of these combine formal gardens and walks with sports facilities. During the 1930s two additional bowling greens were laid out at separate locations within the borough, one at Marine Gardens in 1930 (see W147157) and one at Church House Grounds in 1937. Marine Gardens, a small park located in West Parade between Grand Avenue and Wallace Avenue, was laid out on two and a half acres of land in 1930 and contains ornamental gardens (see W147146), a pavilion, one putting green and one bowling green. Over the years it has maintained its popularity and is still well attended. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, Marine Parade c1955 (ref. W147043) | During the 1920s and 30s, Worthing continued to rapidly expand. By 1937 the town was being promoted as both a summer and winter resort, and hotels now occupied much of the sea front and the area behind it. The Beach Hotel had opened at 4 Marine Parade in 1915, expanding into the whole parade by 1936, when the original red-brick houses that had, in part, comprised The Prince Albert Convalescent Home were remodelled in cement Deco-style. Many of the Victorian boarding houses had been converted into hotels, and most of the modern hotels illustrated date from this period, albeit trading under different names. Although Worthing initially benefited from an increase in the number of holidaymakers after the Second World War, the town continued to lack any large hotels. By the early 1970s, Worthing, like most English seaside resorts, was having to compete with package holidays abroad. Many of the town's hotels tried to fill their rooms by becoming conference venues. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Worthing, the Broadway 1919 (ref. 68989) | The buildings on the corner of High Street and The Broadway were named Warwick Mansions. This commemorated the fact that in 1901, they were erected on the site of old Warwick House, which had been demolished a few years earlier. The trees and flint wall in the photograph marked the southern boundary of the Warwick estate. These were retained as a feature when part of the Brighton Road was widened on either side and renamed The Broadway. A Worthing Directory for 1919 records the three visible shops at ground level (on the left of photograph 68989) as Colin Moore, a perambulator depot (behind the balustrade), Ivens, Kelletts and Childs, chemists and F C Whittington, bootmaker. Although the buildings remain virtually unchanged today, the trees and wall were removed in 1928. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
