A failed experiment
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (216) explores the troubled mayoralty (1895) of Merton Russell-Cotes during which he drew steady fire from his opponents. Appointed as Mayor, without election, Russell-Cotes fell foul of his Council once the term began. Tensions of various sorts caused much of the damage. These lay across the relationship between the Council and the Lord of the Manor, evident from encounters within the Council chamber. At a deeper level, anxiety about Bournemouth’s market positioning and audience, long-held, created additional stress within his administration.
Victorian Bournemouth (216): Merton-Cotes’s background
Biography
In common with many of Bournemouth’s immigrants, Merton Russell-Cotes came to take benefit of the resort for his health. A commercial traveller’s son, he had followed his father’s occupations but later came to manage a Glasgow hotel. He acquired the Bath Hotel during his arrival to Bournemouth. During the 1880s, he became an Improvement Commissioner. As such, he helped secure a direct railway route to the town from London, seen as positive for local trade. His championing a fever hospital for the town, however, brought him little credit. He renovated and augmented the hotel, attaching the word ‘Royal’ to its name, commemorating a visit made by Edward, then a young Prince of Wales. The hotel’s success proved beneficial for both Merton-Cotes and the town, one of its important attractions. Unlike other local businessmen, he avoided elected office. Nevertheless, for 1894/5, his community position brought him the mayoralty.
Important connection
Merton-Cotes claimed the status of Bournemouth’s largest ratepayer. As a man of some property, therefore, he would have attracted notice from the Meyricks, owners of most of the land on which the resort stood. He may also have transformed a business relationship into one of a more personal nature. This connection received media attention during his mayoralty. It seems plausible, therefore, that parties having some influence and interest at Bournemouth perceived this relationship as offering an opportunity to advance their agenda. Although the local powerbrokers had built an independent stance, which brought them close to conflict with other local proprietors, they understood that alienating the Meyricks offered few benefits and many problems. From their perspective, furthermore, the family would have wanted a stable and easy relationship with the town’s prominent men. His appointment as mayor, therefore, seemed to offer advantages to both sides, but problems arose from the outset.
Victorian Bournemouth (216): the problems
Undercliff Drive
Creating a paved drive at the base of the cliffs, running eastward, had long attracted interest in Bournemouth. Similar structures existed at other resorts: Scarborough and Llandudno. Some saw in it a means to continue the resort’s appeal to superior social types. Parading wealth by taking public journeys in their carriages offered an opportunity to display conspicuous consumption. Others subscribed to long-standing concerns about the condition of the cliffs, fearing erosion and damage to properties near the edge, for example, the Royal Bath Hotel. On several occasions, initiatives to build such a drive had failed to prosper because the Meyricks had shown little enthusiasm. Although they must have known that Cotes would have returned to the project, some Councillors provided angry opposition when he raised it at an early meeting. His procedural inexperience, perhaps seen as an advantage by some, became a weapon with which the seasoned members bludgeoned him.
Children’s ball
The Winter Gardens, an established white elephant, had come to life as a musical venue through direct involvement by the Council. It featured at every meeting, the members inflicting constant micro-management on the venue. As Mayor, Merton-Cotes sponsored an afternoon children’s ball, held in the Winter Gardens, to raise charity funds. The event’s length appears to have prevented staff from getting the venue ready for the evening’s musical entertainment, resulting in its cancellation. As compensation, the Mayor donated £10 from the ball’s takings (£47), noting that this amounted more to revenue expected from a musical evening. This apparent flagrant flouting of their collective authority provided an opportunity for some Councillors to mount a second attack on their Mayor. J. H. Moore, an Alderman and apparent self-appointed town tribune, a seasoned attack-dog, got to work. He whipped them up into a frenzy about the Mayor’s disregard for their administrative procedures.
South Road
Connecting the Bath Road with the beach, running beside the Royal Bath Hotel, this public thoroughfare dated at least to 1856. At a meeting held before Christmas 1894, the Mayor and attending Councillors heard a report concerning it given by M. J. Roker. Somebody had reduced its width from 30 feet to 7, incorporating much of it within the grounds of East Cliff Hall, a new building beside the hotel. A road had become a footpath. The enraged members used the event to attract public attention for the rest of his mayoralty. Suspicion fell on the Meyricks. The Council came close to taking them to court. Some of those present perhaps suspected Merton-Cotes’s involvement. He had built East Cliff Hall as his private residence. By the summer, matters intensified. Cotes admitted acting as the Meyricks’ agent against the public interest. He walked out of the Chamber, never to return.
Victorian Bournemouth (216): assessment
Independent mayor
If his sponsors thought that Merton-Cotes would toe their line, his actions will have surprised them. As perhaps expected, he resurrected the Undercliff Drive, but went much further. He talked about the town needing other drives, one, for example, running through the Pleasure Gardens. Restricting the amount of commercialisation allowed on the beach also attracted his interest. In the chamber, hackles rose. His attempt to chair the Marine Drive committee proved divisive. He exchanged procedural fisticuffs with J. H. Moore and his associates. His behaviour seemed unilateral if not independent. For example, the children’s ball held in the Winter Gardens struck some as Council property used for private purposes. He abandoned the chamber for some months, recuperating in Naples, before returning in part to face the South Road debacle, spun as another example of public assets used for private purposes. The asset of political inexperience had become a liability.
A different vision
Despite falling victim to procedural ignorance or even self-interest deployed from within the chamber, Merton-Cotes perhaps witnessed his mayoralty foundering on a much larger issue. Although claiming to work on behalf of the town’s commercial interests, he failed to convince. Ever since its launch as a venue for better people, Bournemouth had become hostage to the debate which opposed quality and quantity. Traders wanted more customers, but quality people comprised a minority of the population. Thus, increasing commercial success could only accompany a dilution in the social quality of the town’s visitors. Some pushed back, a gentle rear guard who wanted a return to halcyon days of basking amongst better people. The beach became a battleground. Some wanted ‘costermongers and entertainers’, some did not. The latter included Merton-Cotes, his hotel overlooking the beach. Carriage people parading along an Undercliff Drive would keep away the unwanted types.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (216) has provided an overall review of 1895, the year when Merton Russell-Cotes became the Mayor at bay. Appointed perhaps as an alternative to divisive political interests occupying the Council, his unilateral behaviour, descending at times into self-interest, proved fatal to his term. Furthermore, despite claiming otherwise, his reactionary stance on the social aspects of Bournemouth’s commercial development perhaps constituted a much larger obstacle than overriding procedures within the chamber. The experiment of appointing a mayor without public representation appeared to fail.
References
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