Old chestnuts and new
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (211) finds that during the 1890s the Council managed the infrastructure, shelled old chestnuts, and protected borders.
Victorian Bournemouth (211): infrastructure
Ancient duties
The Council’s predecessor, the Improvement Commission, had come into being, in large part, because early development of the resort had prioritised profit and minimised public interest. Several physicians had expressed strong concern that opportunistic development of the built environment had resulted in a problematic layout. In particular, drainage systems had not evolved into an overall structure to serve the entire (and future) community. The physicians feared cholera. Businessmen also feared this, because an outbreak could damage the tourist trade, if not extinguish it. Without tourism, the town had little commercial purpose. During the 1890s, therefore, these ‘ancient duties’ continued to have a regular place on the Council’s agenda. The Buildings Committee reported at every Council meeting, the press carrying verbatim the rulings made. These demonstrate the due care and attention paid by the Committee, for many items consisted of re-applications after initial refusals. Constant attention to drainage also occurred.
Roads and lighting
The subject of roads devolved into several sub-sections. Thus, creation and maintenance covered making up unmetalled roads, while widening others. The latter occurred often and could take long. For example, widening Holdenhurst Road absorbed much time, since agreements needed negotiating permission for each property adjoining. Making up roads also required negotiation, this time concerning cost allocation between property owners and the Council. Care and maintenance formed another regular issue. Opinions varied over the use of sea water to clean roads, since, while it cost little, its saline qualities corroded the surface. On one occasion, the Horse Committee considered buying lighter work horses to avoid damaging the roads. The pace of technological development hindered the Council’s care of lighting the town. It had taken time to create a network whereby gas could power urban illumination. Commercialisation of electrical power required a repeat of this process, experiments and tests happening this decade.
Victorian Bournemouth (211): old chestnuts
Entertainment venues
The subject of suitable entertainment venues received constant attention in the Council. A successful theatre operated, but this belonged to a private company. The Pier had long offered municipal commercial opportunities, Councillors refusing outsiders permission to filch share of visitors’ revenue. Attention fell also on a venue where visitors could enjoy musical entertainment. This would also corral the Town Band and prevent it from taking outside bookings. Opinions about a venue varied, however. At first, a ‘central rendezvous’ featured in discussion, but then defaulted to resurrecting the Winter Gardens, long a white elephant. After the Council took responsibility for it, its management absorbed hours of time as well as much expenditure. Yet, whilst struggling to keep this venture afloat, some Councillors sought to provide another venue, a Pavilion. Its location, somewhere on the Pier or else not on the Pier at all, became another part of this old chestnut.
Undercliff Drive
Boscombe had evolved from a rival for Bournemouth’s tourist revenue to becoming part of its offering. Interesting real estate opportunities emerged as developers considered the area between the piers jutting out into the sea. At the very least, this area should contain a connecting road, some thought. Others saw grander possibilities in the development of property facing the sea front. The Meyrick family, proprietors of this land, had long resisted schemes involving it. Concern existed about the extent to which commercial development might damage the cliffs, already known for their erosion. This chestnut had occupied civic governance for decades. Schemes and agreements had come and gone. Examples of other seaside towns freshened thinking, for example Scarborough’s Marine Drive. During the 1890s, the matter intensified, perhaps stimulated by a need to get agreement while the Meyricks’ old paterfamilias still lived. Many Council meetings addressed this subject without achieving successful closure.
Victorian Bournemouth (211): imperialism
Geographic conquests
During the 1870s, Bournemouth’s Improvement Commission absorbed Springbourne and parts of Boscombe much against the wishes of some inhabitants. It had introduced onto the Commission unwanted new elected representatives. Men such as Enoch White, his hands dirty every day from his successful nursery business, would sit beside such reactionary pseudo-gentry as the Reverend Pretyman. When further conquests came into consideration, the addition of Winton, Pokesdown, and even the nascent Southbourne, they invoked memories of Springbourne’s representatives. Indeed, the area had long demanded additional representation to match its ratepaying population. Acquiescence to this as well as adding representatives from similar societies at Winton and Pokesdown could destabilise the existing Council Chamber’s social balance. Opposition during the early 1890s managed to shunt the two areas into the civic format of Urban District Councils. For a few years, they practised self-government, but appetite for empire absorbed them into the new county borough.
Other empires
The Improvement Commission had long had a troubled relationship with the Bournemouth Gas & Water Company. This entity, based afar in London, had delivered shabby service to the town, despite constant complaints from ratepayers and Commissioners. This stimulated the strategy whereby the town, in the structure of the Commission, soon to become a Council, would acquire the company’s business and buildings in Bournemouth. Much favour for this solution existed, but, after a public meeting caused a poll of ratepayers, the election went against them. Thomas Hankinson, a firm supporter of this strategy, long regretted this failure. The growing salience of electricity as a power source kindled a similar interest. Soon, proposals emerged from external companies keen to establish a tramway connecting Christchurch and Poole with Bournemouth. Fearing a repeat of the trench-war fought with the Gas company, the Council decided early to wrest control of the tramways from external control.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (211) has illustrated the wide range of issues which required Councillors in the 1890s to devote attention and time to their management. They continued old agendas (drainage, planning, roads, and lighting), but also opened new ones. Debate and anxiety about entertainment venues never ceased, while issues of external safety loomed larger. Questions about the nature of civic relationships with the populous suburbs and about the dangers of external control of the tramways exercised the Councillors’ attention to a considerable extent.
References
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