Scarborough is a traditional, and one of the first seaside towns on the north-east coast of England. The town centre perches high on the limestone cliffs and paths and roads and even a tram lead down to the seafront, the beaches and the wild and freezing cold North Sea.
I'm going to do this in 2 parts because I want to tell a lot of stories to accompany the photographs. I hope you find it interesting and I don't want anyone to get bored!
A view from the top of St. Nicholas' Cliff overlooking the South Bay and harbour
With family in the town, at least once a year, we would hitch our tiny caravan onto the car and head off the 70 miles from home to the coast. Easter, Whitsun and summer, and the occasional weekend would be spent parked on a site atop the North Bay looking out across the sea towards Denmark, a small matter of 500miles away.
So many fond childhood memories were created there and whenever I'm back in the UK, it's a place I still gravitate to, to simply take in the bracing sea air and stare out into the vast expanse of ocean.
It calms me and I never fail to find peace within myself when sitting at the end of the harbour, whatever time of year it may be.
Scarborough became popular as a holiday destination in Victorian times when a natural spring was discovered which it was claimed had therapeutic properties. A spa. And much like other Spa towns in the UK, such as Bath or Harrogate, people flocked there to take in the spring water and in Scarborough's case, to also take a health-boosting dip in the icy cold waters.
The first pic is the Grand Hotel, a mammoth building which both sites atop St.Nicholas cliff and halfway down and covers a total of 12 storeys. A testament to Victorian engineering and ingenuity, construction began in 1863 and wasn't completed until 1867. At the time it was the largest brick built building in Europe. it cost £100,000.
I'm not a great fan of Victorian or Baroque architecture, I find it fussy and a little pretentious, but I certainly appreciate it from an engineering perspective and the love and care that went into its detailed and intricate design.
It's a 'calendar' building. With 12 storeys, 4 towers, 52 chimneys and originally 365 bedrooms. The hotel is built in the shape of a 'V' for Victoria as you can see from the Steemit World Map. Perhaps next week, we will see another 'calendar' building, very popular around this time, in my hometown of Pontefract.
The awful blue 70s' style signage in the image below absolute ruins the grandiose entrance.
The town hall was originally built in 1844 in a Jacobean style as the home of John Woodall, a member of a prosperous and influential Scarborough family. It was sold to Scarborough Corporation in 1898 and has been used since as civic offices. The original gardens are now St Nicholas Gardens, a formal garden laid down the cliff face with paths that meander down to the sea-front. Notice the statue of Queen Victoria
As well as walking down the steep garden paths, you can take a tramway, (actually a funicular railway if you want to be posh!) down to the Sea Front. originally there were five tramways, three at the South Bay and 2 at the North Bay but just 2 still exist. This is the central tramway, built in 1880 and opened in 1881, it runs at the side of the Grand Hotel and next to a steep stairway which follows its route to the seafront. When I was a kid, I remember it being 4p (£0.04, $0.06) but nowadays, you get stung for 80p ($1.20), though as I get older, money well spent as that stairway is a bugger!
This view is taken from the Spa bridge of the other side of the South Bay, built to cross the valley from St Nicholas Cliff to the Spa, the bridge took just one year to build and opened in July 1827. It's 75 feet up from the valley below, 414 feet long and 13.5 feet wide and when it opened, was hugely popular due to it's stunning views.
Looking behind from the bridge, we see the Rotunda Museum, which houses a collection of fossils and the skeleton of a Bronze Age man amongst other items of geological coastal interest.
Beyond that is the road out to York which runs up through the Valley Gardens.
OK, enough for today. Lots more to come and perhaps a few more childhood tales.
(All pictures are mine, feel free to use)
