Here is an early twentieth century photograph
of South Parade
from my collection; judging by the clothes the women are wearing
it was taken post war and probably in the very early 1920s.
The photographer was an amateur and
this might be the only copy. The picture could have been
taken either early one bank holiday morning or late in
the day - as there is quite a bit of litter it was probably
later on. When it was really busy the pavements and roadway
were almost solid with people.
There are two charabancs
in the road which were used by the visitors ("trippers").
There are more vehicles parked in the yard on the extreme
left. There is a sign on top of the wall but it cannot be
read. However, the yard used to be the stabling for Hodgkinson's
Hotel.
If you look carefully at the right hand side of the photo,
where a group is waiting on the pavement, there is a sign
sticking out which is for the Edinburgh Restaurant; it is
almost at the edge of the picture. In the 1920s John William
Boden was at Edinburgh House and running both the dining
rooms and the Derwent Gardens Café[1].
If you look above, you can just about make out the very edge
of Hogkinson's sign and the pole from which
it hangs.
The next shop along the Parade is a butchery; it has sheets
of white paper hanging on the hooks in the window. The butchery
was one of a pair of shops which used to share a doorway,
but by the time this photograph was taken there was a door
for each shop. A little further along above the huge bay
widow the sign facing the photographer reads "MOTORS"
although the rest of the sign is indistinct. This was run
by E. Williams & Co. Ltd, whose managing direcror was Guy
Le Blanc Smith. Next to it is a building with two smaller
bays and the central sign on the wall above them reads "THE
ROYAL MUSEUM".
Peeping out from amongst the trees on the skyline is the
distinctive roof of the Old Pavilion.
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