Penny Illustrated 1890 – BRITISH HOLIDAY RESORTS. No. I. SOUTHPORT – LANCASHIRE’S SEASIDE PARADISE.

This article from the Penny Illustrated Paper in July 1890 provides a vivid snapshot of Southport as a thriving seaside resort, celebrated for its health benefits, attractions, and cultural life. Written just two years after the formation of the modern Southport Football Club in 1888, it captures the town during a transformative period when both its sporting and social identities were taking shape.

Southport is Sheltered

from the cruel east wind, which Charles Kingsley by some eccentricity of taste was led to glorify in verses “worthy of a better cause.” The position of the town is near the mouths of the Ribble and the Mersey; within 18 miles from Liverpool, 37 ½ from Manchester, and 220 from London. Within a radius of 40 miles is a population of 4,000,000. The tide from the Irish Sea washes

Its Literally Golden Sands,

which stretch at low water for nearly three quarters of a mile across. Profane persons suggest that, as the tides are not always high and robust, cheap trips should be run to the water’s edge; but really this

Extensive Foreshore

is the most beneficial characteristic of the place, because there is a welcome amount of ozone produced by the tide as it recedes over the great expanse of beautifully crimped and solid sand, the latter unmingled with shingle. The sands also warm the Atlantic breezes. A continuous

Chain of Mountains

and high hills—in North Wales, Cheshire, Cumberland, and the Lake District—protect the town from piercing blasts. Add to this that the sewage has been perfected at a cost of nearly a quarter of a million of money, and includes nineteen miles of new works, and that within seventeen years a total of half a million has been spent on public improvements, and it will be obvious that natural advantages and local effort combine to produce the maximum of helps to health. The “local effort” has also had an effect upon the rates which householders do not always appreciate. Dr. H. H. Vernon, the medical officer, reports that during June there occurred a local death-rate of 10·82, as compared with 13·54 for the corresponding month of last year. There were no deaths from zymotic diseases. From the observations made at the Hesketh Park Observatory on the authority of Dr. Joule, F.R.S., it has been ascertained that Southport is so

Favoured by Its Climatic Conditions

as to place it first on the list of the healthy places of the country. Southport is noted for its handsome buildings, refinement, beautiful gardens, balmy air—and its shrimps, which supply the Manchester and Liverpool markets. There exists a legend that the beach was used for bathing in the days of Queen Elizabeth. As a matter of fact, the town is two years short of a century old. In 1791 there was no population. To-day it reaches

40,000 Souls,

and, including Birkdale, a total of 55,000. The inhabitants of neighbouring villages having been in the habit of coming to bathe on the sands, one William Sutton, an innkeeper at Churchtown (now a suburb of Southport, and in which the parish church is situate), conceived the idea of turning an honest penny by building an inn for their accommodation during the summer months. This he did out of some wreckage, and was duly laughed at for his pains.His, however, was the first house in what is now the flourishing town of Southport, with its ratable value of £235,000, but then a wilderness of sandhills. His house was named “The Folly.” Willie, who was thus

The Founder of Southport,

was the best fiddler in the countryside; and one night (so the story runs) his guests, in a convivial moment, over a bottle of port, renamed his house “South Port.” This hostelry among the sandhills soon became the putting-up place of excursion parties; residents were attracted by the beautiful situation and salubrious air, and those building operations commenced…which to-day include in the borough an area of nearly eight thousand acres. Like many founders of prosperous undertakings,

William Sutton

did not reap the benefit of his enterprise, but died at Churchtown at the ripe age of eighty-eight and in poor circumstances. The result of this modern birth of Southport is that most of the streets are laid out at right angles, the houses are built with

Attractive Gardens, and Boulevards

stretch in every direction. The authorities did not spare the ratepayers’ money in beautifying the town with picturesque gardens; so that all the attractions of the country are added to those of the seaside. There is no lack of seats in shady places, where the visitor may rest and enjoy the fragrance of the flowers and the life-giving air, as well as the music of the various bands which play all day long, the principal one, under the leadership of Herr de Mersey, being supported by the town. Indeed, such is the

Wealth of Foliage and Flower

that the streets present the appearance of a nobleman’s private grounds. The buildings, whether ecclesiastical, municipal, or for private enterprise, hotels, banks, &c., are mostly distinguished by architectural principles to which Mr. Ruskin could scarcely take objection. Lord Street, stretching from the Hesketh Park to Birkdale, is among the streets of the world. It is of noble width, extends in a straight line for about two miles (a tramway running the entire distance), and is lined with handsome shops, beautiful residences, and, in the front of which are private and public gardens intermixed, stately places of worship, the public buildings, and handsome hotels.

Southport was incorporated in 1867, the first mayor being Dr. Peter Wood, J.P. The present holder of the office is

Mr. B. Wilkinson, J.P.

Mr. Walter Smith held office for four years. There are ten aldermen and thirty councillors, who sit and debate after the manner of municipal rulers, to the delight or disgust—as the case may be—of the public who look down from a gallery in the Council Chamber. The inhabitants are righteously indignant at the supineness of the “city fathers” in not giving publicity to the charms of their town, over which they do their best to cast a veil of modest privacy. As the shopkeepers and lodging-house keepers naturally desire customers to assist in paying their rents and rates, they do not appreciate the placarding of picture posters of less-favoured watering-places on the walls of their own town.A Ratepayers’ Association, under the spirited secretaryship of Mr. W. F. Scarlett, undertook to make up for this glaring omission, but this year funds are not forthcoming, and the Town Council also decline to fulfil an imperative duty—the obligation to those of their own household. The public buildings—enlarged at a cost of £12,000—include the Townhall, the Cambridge Hall, built for public meetings at an expense of £30,000, a post-office, well managed and most convenient, and a

Free Library and Art Gallery,

presented to the town at a cost of £8000 by the late Mr. William Atkinson, D.L., J.P. The library in its different departments is a model of arrangement and completeness, and is only surpassed, and that in size, by the libraries of larger communities. It is a pleasure to use this valuable institution, and to consult Mr. T. Newman, the librarian, and his courteous assistants. There are also spacious science and art schools; and, of course, a police-station and court.

Mr. Kershaw,

the honoured superintendent, on high days, holidays, and State occasions mounts a fiery charger and heads processions with great dignity. In front of this splendid block of public buildings are magnificent ornamental grounds, including a grateful fountain.

The Hesketh Park,

presented by a gentleman of that name, is, in its thirty acres, a marvel of artificial landscape, including water and subtropical and carpet gardens. The market was built at an expense of £23,000, and externally presents the appearance of a Continental theatre. The Victoria Baths cost upwards of £40,000. There are three railway stations, one the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, which, of course, conducts the principal traffic, and that in a most spirited manner.

The Winter Gardens

cost £100,000, and are arranged as conservatory, aquarium (eulogised by the late Frank Buckland), splendid promenade hall, theatre (visited by all that is best in professional talent), open grounds for amusements, and a commodious permanent circus. So fine a combination is probably unsurpassed in the kingdom. Other permanent attractions are the Kew Gardens, the Botanic Gardens, and the Becconsall Hotel, situated in different directions, and full of attractions to visitors who go out in large parties. As is to be expected, the numerous invalids who seek and find health are provided for by numerous doctors and chemists. There is also a large and pleasant cemetery, to which an addition of several acres is to be made. Everybody goes to

Church and Chapel,

as the custom of gentility is, and for their devotion many denominations offer facilities, including the Establishment, Strict Baptists, Swedenborgians, Plymouth Brethren, Salvation Army, Gospel Hall, Catholic Apostolic, Society of Friends, Free Gospellers, Catholics, Methodists, Independents, &c.

The Church Parade

on Sundays, prayer and hymn-book in hand, is an edifying exhibition of fashion and piety, in unequal proportions. A variety of benevolent institutions are supported. The Convalescent Home, mainly built by the Governors of the Cotton Districts’ Famine Fund, at a cost of £47,000, accommodates 350 patients from all parts of Lancashire.

The Local Press

consists of the Visiter, a Conservative organ, the leading local paper, established fifty years ago, very particular about spelling its title with an e, and ably edited by Mr. W. Scott. An opposition paper, the Guardian, fulminates against the Government and all its works, through the ardent pen of Mr. J. E. Blakeney. A gossipy sheet is also issued by Messrs. Connel and Morris. Politically, the town is pretty equally divided in its political sympathies. Its first member was Dr. G. A. Pilkington, J.P., C.C.; its second and present very able representative,

The Hon. G. N. Curzon, M.P.

So far we have dealt with the town only, and the sands. The pier was opened in 1860, its length being 1200 yards. An extension was made in 1864 of 265 yards, thus making it one of the longest structures of the kind in the kingdom. A tram runs down a distance of 1200 yards. From the end of the pier frequent excursions are made to Douglas, Blackpool, Barrow, Llandudno, and other places. The foreshore on the left of the pier was purchased by the town at a cost of £14,000, and converted into

A Marine Park,

with ornamental walks and flower-plots, and a salt-water lake of sixteen acres, on which fifty boats daily ply for hire. There are on another part of the shore the usual features of the seaside—booths, shows, swings, minstrels, &c. At the right of the pier another lake for model steam, and other yachts will shortly be constructed at an expense of £25,000. It will thus be seen that the sands are provided with

A Wealth of Attraction

not found elsewhere. On the Promenade is an obelisk, of which Southport is proud, notwithstanding its pathetic interest. It is a monument to the twenty-seven gallant life-boat men who perished in December 1886 in a brilliant attempt to rescue the crew of the German vessel Mexico. Practical sympathy was expressed by the country at large to an extent which provided for the immediate relatives of the deceased heroes, and also two new life-boats on the most approved principles. Sir James Poole, the Jubilee Mayor of that great shipping centre Liverpool, headed the subscription-list with two guineas, which elicited elsewhere a generous outburst, the Daily Telegraph commencing a list of its own with one hundred guineas. We have deferred to the last any mention of the Promenade, which, twice extended, now constitutes an unsurpassed

Esplanade and Carriage Drive, Three Miles in Length,

firm, dry, broad, and uninterrupted.This is indeed, at all times a health resort of which Southport is justly proud. There is ample provision for sports and athletics, a favourite game being bowls; and for cyclists, the three-mile promenade and numerous straight and asphalted roads offer great attraction.It only remains to be said that excursions can be made to many places of historic interest and noblemen’s seats, and that the visitor to Southport will find a combination of means of health and pleasure such as, probably, no other watering-place excels.