DESTINATION Ryde Ryde Pier Ryde Isle of Wight c1902 Words by Cath Ouston Prints supplied and available at Framers Picture Framing Gallery, Ryde
Wandering around the town today you can’t help but see Ryde’s impressive and well-connected history in every direction you turn. The architecture, the wide streets and the promenade all tell the story of just how fashionable and truly stylish this town once was.
R
yde was originally made up of two small and distinctly different communities named Lower and Upper Ryde and joined by a single, muddy track. Lower Ryde (at the bottom of the hill) was primarily a fishing village and Upper Ryde (at the top of the hill) a farming community. Traces of these
two communities can still be seen today in some of the oldest buildings of the town. The row of pretty coastguard cottages on Ryde Esplanade sat by the sea wall until the development of the railway line and Esplanade in the 1880’s. In the Upper High St on the left hand side as you head uphill sits the only remaining farm cottage from the original collection of farms which once faced onto the street. Today it’s set back slightly from the road and anonymous amongst the taller town houses that now crowd around it.
Ryde’s fortunes changed in the last half of the 18th century. Visiting the coast gained popularity as doctors began recommending that their patients spend time at the seaside, not only swimming in the sea but drinking the seawater too. The wealthier classes took to this new idea readily and so the era of the Seaside Resort was born. Ryde was to become one of the most fashionable resorts in the country and as the numbers of visitors grew, so did the size of the town, prompting the major landowner of the time, William Player, to build a grid system of new roads and houses across his two large fields which separated Lower and Upper Ryde.
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By the mid-19th century, Ryde had grown into a town attracting royalty, aristocracy, London society and the military. Earls, Dukes and Duchesses began to establish homes here such as Earl Spencer who bought Westfield House along Spencer Road and the Duke of Buckingham who built Buckingham Villa on the outskirts of town. Many others visited on a regular basis filling the town’s stylish and elegant hotels with a veritable who’s who of society. According to The Historic Ryde Society website “The ‘Fashionable Society List’ appeared weekly in the local papers to let people know who was in town. Another popular column was ‘Hotel Arrivals’. The gentry were actively encouraged to give details of their movements, in order that they could be published. Balls were frequently mentioned in the papers, often listing those present and, in the case of Fancy Dress Balls - very popular throughout the late 19th century, giving a detailed list of the costumes worn.”
The town became popular amongst the upper echelons of the military as well. Senior ranks of the Navy based in Portsmouth, who preferred genteel and picturesque Ryde to the hustle and bustle of Portsmouth, built homes here - some of the finest can still be seen in Upper George St. The Army was well represented as well and no social event was complete without a strong presence of their strikingly smart uniforms.
Royal patronage was of course a major part of the town’s heritage. Before Osborne House was built Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the Island to look for a holiday home and it is said that they stayed in The Royal Kent Hotel, now Coburgs, on
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