A significant achievement
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (209) discusses how the the resort’s scale and society underwent considerable increase and change during the 1890s. This pattern appears when looking at the town’s history from different aspects. When the old Queen passed away, the town seemed quite different to a decade before. It had reached a new level of civic maturity. These aspects of change comprise the main agenda for articles published relating to this period.
Victorian Bournemouth (209): broad brush
Borough Charter to County Borough
When the old Improvement Commission became superseded in 1891, it had managed civic affairs for 35 years. The new borough, however, only lasted a decade before a transition into a county borough. At this time, also, the town’s footprint expanded to include Winton, Moordown, Pokesdown, and Southbourne. Absorption of the new areas doubled the electorate, the number of councillors rising from 18 to 33. Meanwhile, the community appeared to have undergone considerable enrichment. The press devoted much ink to the activities undertaken by an apparent inexhaustible number of clubs, groups, associations, and societies, each devoted to a specific area of interest. Thus, alongside the constant presence of visitors, the town’s residents propagated a complex tapestry of cultural roots and branches. Perhaps, therefore, the resort underwent as much fundamental change in the 1890s as it had experienced since its foundation.
Significant challenges
Enormous projects for the infrastructure came into consideration: electrification, a tramway system, the evergreen Undercliff development, roles for the Pier and the Winter Gardens. To address these, the council also had to find its way through numerous restrictive forces. These began with sometimes severe differences inside the chamber. Outside, the noise included local land proprietors, the Local Government Board, Parliament, Hampshire County Council, aggressive corporate suppliers, competing views of the resort’s best market, industrial relations. Entry into the municipal bond market may have seemed a smooth and cheap solution to funding large projects, but successful exploitation required maintaining a positive reputation for the town amongst another audience: the world of professional finance. The town’s economy also evolved. Its old cornerstones of construction and tourism continued, but several joint stock companies emerged. Furthermore, in the background, the old task of managing the drainage persisted, complicated by absorbing new suburbs.
Victorian Bournemouth (209): government and business
Civics
The first generation of civic leaders had almost gone by now. In their place arose the succession, men whose mandate consisted not so much of pioneering, but administration. A greater level of public control now applied through the need for regular elections. Often, however, the former process of a self-perpetuating oligarchy continued. Many retiring councillors faced no opposition when standing again. Indeed, the derided practice of pitchforking even applied to the choice of 1895’s mayor. Merton Cotes, unelected by popular vote, accepted the job, but his independence caused difficulty. A safer option lay in a mayor serving further terms, a practice that became common in the next decade. A reduced deference to the local land proprietors marked a change from the past but quickened success in some projects. The anticipated absorption of new, eastern territories would have initiated a change of perspective, also, injecting new demands into the civic agenda.
Commerce
The trade directories trace the constant growth of Bournemouth’s commercial activity. By the end of the century, they listed ten times the number of enterprises found in 1871. Significant increases had occurred during the last decade. The largest number of enterprises then remained lodgings and apartments, over twice the size of the next sector: clothing and haberdashery. Construction still had an important place in the economy, amongst those ranking third by enterprise numbers. It rubbed shoulders with healthcare, professional firms, and grocery. These sectors grew at a stable level, but large increases in other areas reflect growth in consumer activities. Appetites for artistic endeavours supported a spurt in suppliers: piano and music; painting, art, and photography. Tutors found a growing interest. Greater interest in diet appears to lie within the growth in fruit and vegetable suppliers. A sudden increase in laundries suggests greater personal care (as does more chimney sweeps).
Victorian Bournemouth (209): people
Civilians
The population continued to grow, perhaps pushing over 60,000 by the period’s end. Immigrants still found opportunities, but organic growth sustained the population while nourishing a sense of identity for town and suburb. A steady rise in the numbers qualified to vote in the municipal elections, now including women, indicates a growing level of wealth. In turn this grew the number and power of those in the middling group, or those considered respectable. This appetite may have explained in part the town’s first strike, caused by carpenters and joiners wanting greater remuneration. Now, too, the suburbs reached for civic power. Enoch White, a nurseryman who became an Improvement Commissioner after the absorption of his ward Springbourne cut a pathway to power. The three great mayors Hoare, Lawson, and Parsons, however, showed how this suburb qualified for the regalia by the end of the period. Bournemouth society continued to change.
Community
Perhaps hundreds of groups persisted through a process of waxing and waning, creating an interlocked network comprising and sustaining the resort’s society. They form a loose array, sketching a version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For safety and protection, friendly societies and slate clubs clustered, palatable alternatives to the workhouse, based on self-help and the discipline of saving. The insistent drum of groups associated with different religious options and Temperance provided another version of help. Further up, other types of groups enabled people to establish their place in society, for example through competitions. Sporting clubs thrived on physical competition, but other formats existed. People could compete at growing chrysanthemums, breeding cage birds, painting, and chess. Routes to self-actualisation, the hierarchy’s apex, also existed. Amateur dramatics and different aspects of ‘mutual improvement’ afforded this. An appetite for lectures persisted, not least amongst those who subscribed to Oxford University’ Extension courses.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (209) introduces the series covering the final decade of the resort’s early history. It touches on the fundamental changes that occurred in the civic, commercial, and community zones. The inhabitants had reached a new level of civic and social maturity.
References
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