Cliff Bridge Terrace And Museum, Scarborough – Kenneth Rowntree

The seventeenth century was a great time for spas, and brought prosperity to Llandrindod, Epsom, Bath, Harrogate, Dulwich, Tunbridge Wells, and other curative centres. When, therefore, in the year 1620 or thereabouts, an intelligent woman named Mrs. Farrow(1) noticed that certain water in the neighbourhood had a property which imparted a russet colour to the pebbles, she did her fellow-citizens of Scarborough a good turn. ‘Several persons of quality’, we are told, ‘came from a great distance to drink it, preferring the waters of this spaw before all the others they had formerly frequented, even the Italian, French or German.’(2)

When, later, sea bathing came into favour, Scarborough was there again, offering beautiful sands. The southern cliff was the first to become fashionable, and was thus fortunate enough to be developed during the Regency,(3) of which period its terraces still provide pleasant examples. Between 1820 and 1840 the work was carried across the ravine to the promontory on the north, and to this era belongs the scene here depicted. Growth has continued ever since; signs of it, with which the artist’s integrity has forbidden him to tamper, may be discerned in the drawing.

The old terrace looks across, and takes its name from, the long, pedestrian bridge leading over the valley to South Cliff.(4) The Museum, twelve months younger than the bridge, was built for the Philosophical Society in 1828,(5) to the design of Richard Hey Sharp, of York.(6) ‘A rotunda of the Doric order with wings’, it was much used, after its opening in 1830, for lectures. Compact and distinctive, it seems the very place for the purpose, or for the display of a choice collection; but, in fact, it is crammed with the customary, if harmonious, assembly of stuffed birds, fossils, and the white-washed busts of local worthies. Little visited and slightly forlorn it retains, for any occasional visitor who may glance in its direction, the good manners of its age.(7)

As likely as not, it is the first of Sharp’s works,(8) for in the year of its construction he left Peter Atkinson,(9) to whom he had been apprentice and, later, partner, and set up on his own. Atkinson had been John Carr’s(10) assistant and, at his death, his professional heir. The little Museum thus embodies much local architectural tradition.

Recording Britain, Vol 2, Yorkshire, p 180-181.

Image: Kenneth Rowntree, A.R.W.S.

Text: Arnold Nottage Palmer

1. This is most likely Mrs Thomasin Farrer, wife of John Farrer (d. c1628), bailiff and founder of ‘Farrer’s Hospital’, which were actually two small tenements in Cook’s Row left as a charitable bequest in his will to house ‘poor widows’. These buildings were demolished in 1950. Thomasin is credited with discovering the spa waters sometime between 1620 (Palmer) and 1628, but the most common date I could find is 1626, which is now the date of Scarborough’s official designation as a spa town. A little later, around 1660, Dr Robert Wittie of Hull published his book, Scarborough Spa, in which he extolled the benefits of taking the waters. The first Spa House was built in 1700 and run by the brilliantly named Dickie Dickinson. A landslide reportedly destroyed this in 1737, but it was rebuilt and improved two years later. For more on Scarborough’s history as a seaside resort see the work of Sarah Harrison in the Yorkshire Journal.

2. The quotation is from Thomas Hinderwell’s The History and antiquities of Scarborough and the vicinity with views and plans (1798), but it is possible that Palmer took this from Notes & Queries, Series 11, Vol. 3 (February, 1911). In full it reads: “Mrs. Farrow, a sensible and intelligent lady, who lived at Scarborough about the year 1620, sometimes walked along the shore, and observing the stones over which the waters passed to have received a russet colour, and finding it to have an acid taste, different from the common springs, and to receive a purple tincture from galls, thought it –probably might have a medicinal property. Having, therefore, made an experiment herself, and persuaded others to do the same, it was found to be efficacious in some complaints, and became the usual physic of the inhabitants. It was afterwards in great reputation with the citizens of York, and the gentry of the county, and at length was so generally recommended, that several persons of quality came from a great distance to drink it ; preferring it before all the others they had formerly frequented, even the Italian, French and German spaws."

3. Officially, 1811-1820, following the Regency Act of 1811, but often a accorded a longer duration from 1795-1837.

4. The bridge was opened in 1827, connecting the southern part of the town to the St Nicholas Cliff area, and providing much improved access to the Spa. Palmer’s dates don’t quite tally here. By most accounts the museum opened in 1829/30 making it older than the bridge.

5. The society was founded the year prior, also in 1827, and brought together local naturalists and fossil collectors to study the heritage of the Yorkshire coast. The Rotunda Museum was built to house their findings and its design was influenced by William Smith (1769-1839), the ‘father of English geology’, who resided in the town during his later years. Smith is commonly credited with the creation of the first detailed geological map of any country, with his ‘A delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland.' (1815).

6. Richard Hey Sharp (1793-1853) was an english architect based in York. He was from a prestigious Yorkshire family, including the early abolitionist Granville Sharp and, on the maternal side, the essayist Richard Hey. His works included the Hull Assembly Rooms (now the Hull New Theatre) and Trinity House in Scarborough.

7. After undergoing a significant £4.4m refurbishment in 2006-08, the museum today is a popular tourist destination dedicated to the coastal heritage and Jurassic geology of Yorkshire, featuring an original fossil frieze designed by Smith’s nephew, John Phillips (1800-1874), also a geologist, who invented the term ‘Mesozoic’.

8. Palmer must mean ‘solo’ works here – but even then, it’s unclear, because Sharp does have works sans Atkinson prior to the date listed, such as Purey-Cust Chambers in York, from 1825.

9. Peter Atkinson (1780-1843) was an English architect whose work included the New Ouse Bridge over the River Ouse, completed in 1821.

10. John Carr (1723-1807) was an English architect responsible for numerous buildings, bridges and churches across Yorkshire, including Harewood House.