Vernon Road

Vernon Road was constructed in 1791 using money donated by a clergyman called Dr Falconer and in fact the road was named Falconer’s Road until the 1920’s.

The Georgian House opposite the Geology Museum was built in the 1830’s and appears to have been apartments, a boarding house or flats for most of its existence. In 1930 it was probably the Grove Boarding House but by the late 30’s it had been converted to flats.

 

Heading up the hill we pass under the bridge, built in the 1860’s by Lord Londesborough. The iron bridge replaced a previous wooden one that I presume was deemed too rickety for the Prince of Wales and Lord Londesborough to use.

The houses on the right that currently accommodate the Hole in the Wall pub were built in the 1840’s and probably haven’t changed that much over the years. The larger building contained a shop in the 1930’s, one that sold stationery, cigarettes, magazines etc. The smaller building was a pub called the New Road Inn.

Down the middle of Vernon Road ran the tramlines. Scarborough had trams from 1904 until the system was closed down in 1931.

Just beyond the Hole in the Wall is an untidy weed infested gap that was occupied until recently by the E T W Dennis Printworks. This was an extremely large building that was constructed sometime around 1930. It obviously had a chequered history and I’ve no idea who occupied it when it was first built. In the 1940’s I think it was a restaurant that catered for the many visitors that arrived on the excursion trains. It could seat 300 people at a time and often served 2000 meals in a day. In the fifties it was a skating rink, probably roller skates and then, until its demolition in 2014 it was the printing shop. E T W Dennis produced, among other things, postcards and is credited with being the first company in Britain to produce picture postcards in 1894.

Opposite the printworks is the White House, built in the early 1840’s and until the mid 1870’s known as East Villa. It would appear to have been temporary accommodation for the clergy judging by the number of different reverends that occupied it in this early period, including the Archbishop of York, who stayed in the house for the autumn of 1865. After it became the White House, its history is difficult to separate from the other two White Houses in Scarborough on Deepdale and Stepney Drive.

In 1932, next to the printworks, was Thompson’s garage. It was later bought by the Tesseyman family and remained as a business selling and repairing cars until the 1960’s when it became a United bus depot and finally the car park to the Palm Court Hotel.

Across the road from the White House, where the Brunswick Centre is now, was an impressively large building called Leighton House where the painter, Lord Leighton was born in 1830. In 1930 it was a boarding house.

Where the Brewers Fayre is now, was the Scarborough School of Art. The first building on the site was the Harland Public Baths, but in 1880, the baths were closed and the building converted to an Art School. Both Leighton House and the Art School were destroyed in a German bombing raid on May 10th 1941.

Continuing along Vernon Road (or Vernon Place as it was in Victorian times), towards the town centre on the right is the library. This was built as the Oddfellows Hall in 1830 and later became the Mechanics Institute. In 1930 it became the library and shortly afterwards was enlarged necessitating the demolition of the cottages next door.

Next door to the library (where Iceland is now), was Christchurch. This large and imposing church opened in 1828 and the funeral service of Anne Bronte took place there in 1849. It was demolished in 1979.