View from the Pier to the town Ref: VS2268

View from the Pier to the town

This photo, from a glass magic lantern slide, dates to around 1885 and shows the entrance to the Victorian Pier in the foreground with eight horses and carts waiting on the lower High Street.

Three children are playing in the sea in front of wooden rowing and sailing boats which are on the shoreline.

The building that is now a fish and chip shop in the Square, is E.Moffat Sailmaker and outfitter.

Along the area which is now The Parade are several stacks of stone waiting to be loaded onto boats.

The buildings behind are what is now the West side of Institute Road with scaffolding on several of the buildings.

The Mowlem building is in the centre of the photo with more stone stacks waiting to be loaded to the east of the building.

Behind the Mowlem building is Station Road and the only building visible on the right side is now the estate agents Miles and Son. On the left of Station Road are several shops and more houses and carts. The fence at the end of Station Road marks the end of the Swanage steam railway platform with Gilbert Road behind.

The sea wall was not yet built, and the beach goes up to a rough track with the White House, now Tourist Information Centre along Shore Road.

Behind Shore Road you can see several large houses in Rempstone Road.

A high resolution version of this photo can be viewed and enlarged at virtual-swanage.co.uk/gallery/zoom/view/pier-to-town

The Esplanade and cliffs Swanage from Townsend Road in the 1930s