Change within continuity

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (195) provides a summary of the recent subjects and themes covered in the last quarter’s articles. The segment took commerce as its focus, approaching the subject from different angles. These included the entertainment, property, and retail markets, as well as the culture of doing business in the town. In addition, it covered human interest from two aspects: artisans; successful entrepreneurs. Change emerged as a common theme.

Victorian Bournemouth (195): key business categories

Theatre

During the 1880s, the entrepreneur Harry Nash established Bournemouth as a venue for professional theatrical productions. Before then, travelling entertainers had visited Bournemouth, but insufficient for recognition from such media as The Era. Hitherto, a well-based and active Temperance community championed the case against alcohol, encouraging a sense of morality which found theatre repugnant. Finding and financing a property suitable as a theatre had taken time, a false start made with the Winter Gardens. Harry Nash, who began in the advertising business, edged into entertainment production, acting as an agent for artistes. His leasing of the building which became the Theatre Royal encountered turbulence, but he continued to attract professional artistes to the town. His fare included popular musical comedy entertainments but also attracted top actors and production companies, bringing London shows. Although he died early, Nash managed to establish theatre as one of Bournemouth’s commercial segments.

Property

Early a haven for people occupying the upper reaches of society, despite widening its social net, the town continued to cater for its original customers. The construction of The Arcade, located in the town centre, though derided by some, achieved full occupancy before long. Analysis of its retail offerings suggests that it aimed to attract smart, wealthy, and fashionable people, not least women. Shops included a hairdresser (French), a confectioner (Swiss), a photographer, a milliner, and a lace-seller. It also provided the launching pad for what would become Bright’s department store. Yet, people from other social groups entered Bournemouth’s visitor stream. They had no need of mansions, but lodging-houses. Analysis of property sales during this period has found examples of how property to the west underwent the transition from accommodating single families to multiple, unrelated people. Thus, property owners could maximise their rental income by responding to changing visitors.

Victorian Bournemouth (195): business at work

Methods

During the late Victorian period, evidence exists to show how business experts began encouraging traders to employ staff dedicated to bookkeeping. The benefit of maintaining a regular, professional control of a business’s finance attracted followers. In Bournemouth, this appears evident by the increase over census reports of those giving their occupation as bookkeepers. Analysis of these people shows them embedded in two industries: hotels, butchers. In some cases, advertisers looked for barmaids who could keep accounts, but others wanted a person whose sole attention went on the books. This analysis also suggests that this profession provided a way whereby women could enter the economy without becoming domestic servants. In some cases, the female bookkeepers belonged to the business owner’s family, an adult daughter, for example. Even so, this would suggest that, within the family, female roles had become less traditional, and more open to tasks once restricted to men.

Practices

Much of Bournemouth’s commercial success and growth lay in construction and property development. Many labourers and skilled artisans came to the town attracted by its continuous building programme. Many financiers also existed prepared to facilitate the funding of development projects. Bankruptcies, however, became a regular feature of the commercial landscape, often those who had misjudged a property development. Searing articles published in the Bournemouth Guardian suggested that some financiers intended to maximise their profits by bankrupting their clients. Full value from this process occurred when they could claw back the property at below its commercial value. The articles thereby called into question the nature of business morality as practised by some. Monsters derided in their novels by Dickens and Trollope appear to have had their counterparts at Bournemouth during the late Victorian period. At least one, through his success, achieved prominence and recognition within the community.

Victorian Bournemouth (195): human interest

Artisans

Bournemouth’s earliest artisans, for the most part, made their living within the construction industry: bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, plasters, and decorators. As the century evolved, however, although men practising these trades remained in number, their offerings experienced fragmentation through specialisation. For example, pointers began to appear in the census, as did French polishers. New technology – gas and electricity – helped plumbers evolve their offering or created a new trade. In time, also, new occupations and their specialisations came to Bournemouth, drawn by opportunities provided by a growing retail segment. Cabinetmakers and upholsterers increased their numbers. Coach-building evolved specialisations in trim-work, painting, chassis construction. Although natives of Dorset and Hampshire continued to bring their skills to Bournemouth, the increasing specialisation within trades attracted men from further afield. Many artisans settled and established families, no longer lodgers. Thus, skilled work refreshed the population and laid the basis for social stability.

Entrepreneurs

The Baron of Beef society, built around annual banquets, brought together many businessmen who nourished and grew Bournemouth’s commerce. They showcased their success to each other and, through the press report, to the town’s respectable society. Many members of this group had acquired through their business success enough financial and social capital to fund wider careers amongst the community. Such men became ‘big dogs‘ in the culture. Obituaries described them as a ‘well-known public person’, ‘a prominent professional person in town’, ‘one of the town’s most useful citizens’. They achieved this renown and increased their social capital by participating in civics, as well as religious, and social groups. The battle on the Improvement Commission to win a borough charter for Bournemouth pitched such men against representatives of the gentry. They provided the town’s mayors. Outside politics, they acted as Union Guardians, or preachers and trainers in groups based on worship.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (195) has revisited the recent quarter’s articles to highlight their main themes. Some found examples of how Bournemouth society and economy, now fifty years old, had modified and developed. It had developed a dual marketing emphasis, maintaining attention on the gentry, but widening it towards respectable people and those who aspired thus. Business acquired greater discipline through employing bookkeepers, but, in some sectors, employed tactics of flexible morality. In this period, many men, of humble origin, successful in business widened their social footprint within the community. The town acquired a more stable social base as skilled artisans chose to settle and raise families. In Bournemouth’s continuous growth change occurred.

References

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