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⇒ Cover ⇒ Preface ⇒ Introduction ⇒ The visit ⇒ Weymouth map c.1930 ⇒ Portland map c.1930 ⇒ Works quoted ⇒ Postface |
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A visit to Weymouth with John Cowper Powys [ ⇒
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THE JUBILEE CLOCK A map of Weymouth seafront showing the area around the Jubilee clock and the point from which this view was taken. Erected in 1887 to mark the 50th year of Queen Victoria's reign the Jubilee Clock was originally positioned on a stone base on Weymouth sands, but in the 1920s the Esplanade was built around it to protect the sands from the encroachment of shingle from the eastern end of the beach. "The first thing we did was, when we got to Weymouth, to sit on a seat exactly below the Jubilee Clock." JCP diary entry, July 26, 1934, The Dorset Year. Close to the Clock Tower are the Hotel Burdon and the Royal Hotel. Almost adjoining the latter is the older and historic Gloucester Hotel. The house was for several summers a royal residence, and one for which George III had a great partiality. Gloucester Lodge was built by the Duke of Gloucester, and the Bristol Journal of October 27, 1801, records that "His Majesty George III has purchased Gloucester Lodge, at Weymouth, with the three adjoining houses. On this site an edifice is to be built, with suitable accommodation for the royal family on their annual visit to the favoured watering-place." JCP and Phyllis stayed at the Hotel Burdon on August 2, 1934, but it was not a success. The charming and elegant Gloucester Hotel remained a hotel up to the seventies at least. It was turned into flats in the eighties. |
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