Henry Redmore

(British, 1820-1887)

A panorama of Scarborough's South Bay looking across to Castle Cliff

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
with Richard Green
Private collection, UK

Even if this impressive panorama had not been dated, the inclusion of Scarborough's Grand Hotel, in the top left of the composition, would have provided ample evidence of the painting's high Victorian origins. The entire South Bay at Scarborough was and still is dominated by the colossal Grand Hotel opened in 1867. Eccentrically designed in the form of a huge 'V', it is said that this was done to honour and impress Queen Victoria and, whether this is true or not, it is undeniably an architectural statement of some magnificence. Containing 365 rooms, the building also sports 52 chimneys, 12 floors and four turrets, the ensemble representing the days, weeks, months and seasons of the year. Opened to huge acclaim, it is the town's most instantly recognisable landmark after the ruined castle on its headland and must have guided many a mariner safely into port over the years.

Although the Romans built a signal station on that headland, the first settlement was Viking in origin although that was soon destroyed. By the thirteenth century however a thriving town had evolved which, following the 'discovery' of the healing properties of some albeit sour-tasting natural springs in 1620, paved the way for Scarborough's real prosperity. After the town's Doctor Wittie published a book advocating the virtues of sea bathing in 1660, people began flocking there and, by the mid-eighteenth century, Britain's first true seaside resort was hosting countless thousands of visitors each year. The arrival of the railway in the early Victorian era merely accelerated the process and this painting provides an attractive snap-shot of the expanding town filled with boarding houses as it appeared in the mid-nineteenth century, juxtaposed between the imposing new hotel and the traditional though still busy fishing community below the castle.