Many locals are unaware of the fact that on the promenade in front of the Royal Victoria Hotel, Marina, St Leonards on Sea, there was a row of shops for many years.
Previously there was a library and a bathhouse, both built in Greek style. At some point the baths took over, and the land between them was filled with buildings, as shown below in an early illustration. I don’t have the patience to work out the exact details…
The Ordnance Survey map that was surveyed in 1872 and published in 1875 shows the layout at the time and credits the whole as the Royal Baths. The extract below is taken from the map of central St Leonards on the National Library of Scotland website, which is well worth exploring.
The Hastings Observer, 6 October 1888, reported on a planning application:
Conversion of the Royal Baths, Marina, into lock-up shops, with areas under pavement, for Dr F. Goodwin, but as regards the areas under the pavement, on the usual conditions, and on the distinct understanding that the Authority undertake no responsibility in the event of the cellars being flooded.
This corresponds to DH/C/6/1/3665, permitted on the 14 September 1888, catalogued at The Keep, Falmer, as alterations to the Royal Baths. In the absence of a raised promenade, basement areas in the Marina were occasionally flooded when very high tides coincided with storms. Lock-up shops meant an absence of housing above, and also meant that police constables had to regularly try the door handles each night to check for break-ins.
It took me some time to identify Dr F. Goodwin. I guessed he might be a Frederick, and sure enough I found, in the Hastings Observer, 13 February 1897, his death notice:
On the 5th inst., at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frederick Goodwin, LL.D., younger son of the late William Henry Goodwin, Solicitor, Hastings, aged 34 years.
His probate entry stated that he was a solicitor and doctor of laws. His English estate of £2050 went to Madeleine Blanche Helene Goodwin, widow. When their daughter Margery was baptised at Holy Trinity, Hastings, in 1889, the couple were of Poynings, Hastings. They had married in 1888 at St Mary Magdalen when he was 25, of White Rock House, St Mary Magdalen. She was 19, of 8 Albany Road, daughter of Leslie Wontner, civil engineer.
Scattered references in the newspaper suggest that Frederick was a shrewd property operator. His father William Henry Goodwin, also a solicitor, who died in 1887 at White Rock House, had a considerable property portfolio. I have written about an 1898 sale of much of William’s property in An 1898 auction of houses and shops on Marina, St Leonards on Sea.
Frederick’s widow remarried. The Hastings and St Leonards News, 28 February 1901:
Jan. 16, at the British Consulate, Lourinco Marquez, Delagoa Bay, John Orkney, of Dunedin, New Zealand, to Madeleine Blanche Helene, widow of the late Fred. Goodwin, LL.D., of Poynings, Hastings.
This was in Mozambique – I wonder how she came to be there. She died in 1903 in the Transvaal leaving a local will but no English will, implying that she did not inherit Frederick’s real estate.
Pike’s directory, 1901, in its street listing for the Royal Victoria Buildings gives an idea of the businesses in the terrace:
2, 3 Hollands and Gould, Misses, art needlework depot
4 Fennell, M.F. fruiterer
5 Emmons, C. pharmactl. Chemist
6 Royal Victoria Studio
7 Royal Victoria Creamery, Rusconi, A.
8 Marina Cigar Stores
On the 20 April 1912 the Hastings Observer reported on another planning application:
Alterations at 1, Royal Victoria-buildings; the trustees of the Goodwin Estate, owners; Mr Hy. Ward, architect.
This was DH/C/6/1/8155. What is interesting about it is that after many years Frederick’s estate was still in existence.
A further mention of what was presumably the same estate was in the Hastings Observer, 14 September 1918, which mentioned six additional properties. Note the first sentence — after over twenty years !
By Order of Trustees to close Estate
ST LEONARD-ON-SEA
DAWSON & HARDEN (E.H. HARDEN, F.A.I.) will SELL BY AUCTION (unless previously disposed of) at the CASTLE HOTEL, HASTINGS, on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, at 4 p.m., in convenient Lots.
FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD SHOPS AND RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES, viz.: — Nos. 1 to 9, ROYAL VICTORIA BUILDINGS, a block of 9 lock-up Shops situate on the Parade adjacent to the St Leonards Pier, and opposite the Royal Victoria Hotel. 34 and 35 MARINA, known as “Craig-y-don” Private Hotel, let on 21 years’ lease from 1909. 56, MARINA, with vacant possession at Ladyday, 1919. 112 and 125, MARINA, small Residences with vacant possession. 8, ANGLESEA TERRACE, overlooking the Gensing Gardens, let in residential flats.
Auction Offices: Dawson and Harden, 48, Marina, St Leonards.
The 28 September edition adds that the annual rental for the nine shops was £432. I could not find a mention of who purchased the properties, and it is possible that it was not sold.
The Hastings Observer, 28 May 1921, had an advert offering to sell the freehold. The rentals had gone up to £510 annually.
Perhaps the purchaser was a Mr Pledge, as DH/B/83/131, at The Keep, dated 2 November 1929, concerns the purchase for £6000 by the Council of the personal representatives of W.E. Pledge of ‘1-9 Royal Victoria Buildings (formerly The Royal Victoria Baths, reading rooms, library and stationer’s shop) St Leonards.’
I have not gone into fine detail about what then happened, but the Hastings Observer, 3 November 1945, has a short article and a drawing, under the heading ‘St Leonards Improvement Suggestion.’
The architect C.F. Callow offered a possible design for a rebuild, and credited the architecture to Decimus Burton. He described it as originally two Greek Doric pavilions with the baths in between. In fact in the 1850s one end contained a library run by Southey (and later Dorman). He said that they were in deplorable condition due to neglect. C.F. was Charles Fry Callow, who died in 1968 at 11 The Green, St Leonards at the age of 85.
A ‘resident’ wrote in about them in the 10 November edition, deploring any possible demolition, and remarking that Decimus Burton deliberately built them low to avoid spoiling the view from the hotel, and stating that they were originally baths, bank and reading room. In later mentions it was described as an eyesore which concerned the directors of the Royal Victoria Hotel.
It was decided in the end to demolish the terrace. The Hastings Observer, 26 January 1946, has a grainy printed photo of the demolition work going on.
The Hastings Observer, 9 March 1946, reported on a recommendation in the Council’s deliberations that the site be occupied by 17 bathing chalets, using the foundations and spending £850. As ‘bathing huts’, these can be seen on the 1954 Ordnance Survey map.
I have not researched what happened to these chalets, other than to note that in the Hastings Observer, 13 July 1946, there was some discussion about them in the Council. Originally, it seems, the Royal Victoria Hotel had been promised the entire space. As the Council had changed their mind, they felt morally obliged to allow the hotel to rent four of the chalets, at 20 guineas annually each, which was the price for the others as well. There was a story, said Cllr Skryme, that those four were to be used as a bar. There was a waiting list of 80 or 90 applicants. At some point they were swept away…