A Visit to Dartmouth Regatta in 1909

It’s a bright sunny day in August 1909. A young Londoner, Reginald J H Hunt, is visiting Dartmouth Regatta to take some photographs. He chooses his views carefully, showing people enjoying the holiday. Using his pictures, we can imagine we too are visiting Dartmouth, 110 years ago.

While the wealthy come to Regatta in their yachts, most visitors take the railway to Kingswear and cross the river; in 1909, there is a smart new ferryboat, the Mew. Coming up the “tunnel” from the pontoon, we first reach York House, which looks Tudor, but opened in 1893. As in 2019, there’s a newsagent on the ground floor, where we buy a Regatta programme and a newspaper, to find out what’s on offer.

In 1909, the Regatta is in its seventy-fifth year. Over three days, there are sailing, rowing and motor launch races, as well as swimming and other aquatic sports in the Boat Float. Then there’s the fair; firework displays at 3pm and 8pm, on two days; and a “Grand Al Fresco Ball” on the New Ground every evening with “Magnificent Illuminations” in the Gardens. But, like Reginald, we’re beginning our visit by looking round the shops – some of Dartmouth’s best establishments are on Spithead, the Quay, Fairfax Place, and Duke Street.

Along Spithead, the imposing premises occupied in 2019 by Jack Wills will not be built until 1911. In an older building is Charles Odam, skilled “Tailor and Costumier”, providing made-to-measure “ladies’ costumes, habits and jackets”. We’ve no time for a fitting, but we are tempted by William Whiteway’s drapery next door (in 2019, Mistral), whose “special summer display” shows “an endless variety of new millinery” and “the latest novelties in neck wear”.

The old building on the corner of Spithead is known in 1909 as “Wise’s Corner”, as it’s occupied by Ernest Wise, hairdresser and toy seller (in 2019, Dartmouth Trading). Children love the toys in the window. Down Fairfax Place is the King’s Arms Hotel, extending from Lower Street to the Embankment (as does its 2019 successor, Riverside Fashions). In 1909 it has recently been extensively upgraded by the owners, Plymouth Breweries Ltd, to offer “a high-class hotel with spacious bedrooms and sitting rooms, a smoke room and billiard room”.

The King’s Arms, like other establishments, has applied for a licence extension for Regatta from 11pm to midnight. Although strongly opposed by Dartmouth’s non-conformist churches and temperance societies, citing the risk of antisocial behaviour, the magistrates have agreed, the Mayor commenting that the Regatta is “the one great holiday of the year”.

Retracing our steps towards the Quay, we see on our right the distinctive frontage of Cranford & Sons, printers, stationers and booksellers (in 2019, Kendrick’s restaurant). In 1909 the Cranfords, who own the Dartmouth Chronicle, have owned these premises for well over a century. Next door on the right is the ice cream parlour of Guiseppe and Celesta Belli, from Italy; Guiseppe originally came to Dartmouth to fit the marble floor in the Naval College chapel. He’s doing good business in the sunshine.

Ahead are the arches at the entrance to the Royal Avenue Gardens, illuminated at night by gas lamps of orange, blue, green and white. This year the Regatta Illuminations combine gas, electric and candle light. Electricity powers a star on the bandstand and displays on garden features, while seven hundred candles are arranged in chains of “fairy lamps” over the flowerbeds. We head in the direction of the merry-go-round, past a group of smartly dressed ladies enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

At no 5 on our left approaching the Quay are the “Borough Supply Stores” of Jasper Bartlett & Co, “established 1840 and always conducted on principles of strict commercial integrity”. Along with tea, coffee and “finest English Provisions”, Bartlett supplies wines, spirits and his own pale ale, manufactured at Warfleet Brewery. Dartmouth friends tell us in hushed tones that Mr Bartlett’s wife Olive recently died in tragic circumstances – severely depressed, she took her own life by drinking insecticide. Mrs Bartlett was well-known – she was active in the District Nursing Association and the Cottage Hospital, and the loss is deeply felt. (In 2019, Boots occupies no 5 and no 6 next door).

With almost no vehicles there’s plenty of room on the Quay, though it’s busy with people, including “bluejackets”, probably from the Royal Naval College – the new building opened only four years ago, in 1905. At no 7 is the office of Edwin Lovell & Sons, auctioneers and valuers (in 2019, Just Fancy). Their advertisement in the newspaper shows several significant properties in Dartmouth and Kingswear, available to buy or rent.

Nos 8 and 9 the Quay are both owned by the Dawe family. Upstairs at no 9 is the well-known Criterion Restaurant, which Mr C H Dawe has taken over from his father James. The family also makes soda water and other fizzy drinks, including an award-winning dry ginger ale, at their factory in Clarence Street. They’re advertising a new filtration system, enabling them to “easily compete with London firms”.

Although tea in the Criterion is tempting, we are distracted by George Gay’s drapery shop on the ground floor (Henry Lloyd in 2019). They too have a sale, “a bona-fide effort to dispose of surplus season stock, and not an attempt to foist off a lot of inferior goods under the pretence of cheapness”. Maybe we can pick up a real bargain. Next door at no 10 is a “furnishing ironmonger, cutler and yacht outfitter”, owned and run by the Tolman family.

Next are the Quay’s two longest running establishments, in some of the oldest surviving properties in the town. At no 12, G B Cundell & Co, a grocery store (Fatface in 2019) has been going for nearly a century, while the Royal Castle Hotel, the major landmark on the Quay, has entertained visitors for nearly twice as long. A horse-drawn delivery wagon is parked outside Cundell’s – the only vehicle in sight.

At no 13 on the corner (Joules in 2019) is William Braithwaite, ophthalmic optician and photographic specialist, offering sight testing “on scientific principles and no guess-work”, and “artificial eyes fitted to any degree of colour, size or contour”.

Ahead, the four-storey building dominates the older buildings around it. Parade House is fairly new, replacing the old Assembly Room thirty years ago. In 1909 the ground floor houses the Naval Bank, a chemist, and other shops. It will in turn be replaced in seventy years’ time by a building more in keeping with its surroundings (ex-National Westminster Bank, empty in 2019).

Our final view is of Dartmouth’s Butterwalk, with its gables, pillars and carved wooden features, iconic in 1909 as in 2019. The buildings visited by Charles II in 1671 are in 1909 occupied by several businesses: Joseph Scammell, tobacconist and hair dresser; Henry Westacott, greengrocer; Thomas and Walter Fleet, fish-merchants; and Alfred Easton, ironmonger & plumber at the Royal Naval College. Something’s caught people’s attention, but there’s lots more to see at Regatta, and we don’t want to miss the afternoon firework display!

© Text Gail Ham and Jan Cowling

With many thanks to Dartmouth Museum for the use of the photographs. Jan Cowling has extensive research on Dartmouth’s old shops. If you’re interested in history, why not join us? There’s more information on our website http://www.dartmouth-history.org.uk or have a look at our many publications (available in the Community Bookshop, the Museum, or directly from the DHRG). New members are always welcome, and membership is free.

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