Captain's Log

Scarborough

I was back on the England Coast Path - North East Venture today, filling the gaps between Bridlington and Scarborough South Bay. Scarborough would be my base for the three days and I arrived at its railway station around 11:00 am. I intended to walk between Filey and Scarborough on the last day and in order to provide myself some contingency to catch my train, I was going to walk the section along Scarborough’s South Bay today. This would mean I could walk straight to the railway station on my last day if I was running, or rather walking, late. I reckoned the route around the South Bay was only about 5 miles and so if there was any time spare today, I wanted to drop in at Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum and nearby Art Gallery and peruse their collections. 

During the early 1970s (maybe, even the late 60s) I went on a day visit to Scarborough, a benefit of my Grandad’s mine workers union membership. I can’t remember much about Scarborough, but I remember the train journey with the  carriages packed with miners' families. There were lots of card playing, beer drinking and a fog of cigarette smoke. Even Scarborough’s railway station felt familiar to me as I stepped off the train and headed for the exit. The station was a 10 minute walk to the sea and I set off through a city street of generic retail outlets. 

Queen Victoria And St Nicholas Gardens

Before walking the promenade, I decided to drop in on Queen Victoria. Not the real person of course, but a bronze version standing at the top of St Nicholas Gardens and next to the Town Hall. The sculptor Charles Bell Birch was commissioned to produce the statue and he carved it out of marble in 1887. This was then used to cast eight versions of the statue. This one at Scarborough is one of seven that are still remaining. The others are at Blackfriars Bridge in London, Derby Royal Infirmary, Newcastle Under Lyme, Aberdeen, Guernsey and Adelaide in Australia. It seemed an eclectic mix of locations. Apparently, Scarborough was chosen because Victoria liked to have a paddle at this Yorkshire seaside town. I was intrigued at why Derby Royal Infirmary was chosen, and research revealed that it had been moved there in 1928 from a major junction in Derby’s city centre. The reason was to make way for an underground toilet block, since it was deemed that the statue was too heavy to remain above it. I could understand the decision. It would be quite a shock if Queen Victoria ‘dropped in’ as you were having a pee. 

The Queen certainly had quite a nice view over Scarborough’s South Bay. It was school half-term and I could see plenty of people parading along the promenade below. I descended through the pretty St Nicholas Gardens, along a maze of paths and steps. The gardens even had a few palm trees which would have given it a tropical air if it had been a bit warmer. I could have taken the Victorian-era funicular tram down the steep slope, but I thought it would seem a bit lazy for a downwards journey. 

South Bay

I have to confess that busy seaside towns aren’t really my thing. A sense of being overwhelmed from a sensory overload kicks in. It’s the noise of the music and arcades, the movement of the people and the smells from all the snack bars. I also had to keep one eye on the pavement since I noticed there was an above average amount of dog crap strategically positioned at the busiest places. I waded through the people to the north of the bay. Coastal towns usually have speed boat trips and ‘pirate galleon adventure’ trips from the harbour and Scarborough was no exception. It still was a working harbour and there were quite a few boats moored up. I soon reached my turnaround point, the amusement arcade called the ‘Silver Dollar’. This had been my turnaround point on my walk from the north, back in December 2023. The place did seem a bit arbitrary as a turnaround point and so I continued onwards to the fairground at Luna Park. This was where all the retail shops and arcades stopped and the coastal road proceeded around the peninsula to Scarborough’s North Bay. 

The Grand Hotel

I turned around and retraced my steps back along the promenade. The sense of busyness was exaggerated by all the traffic that continually tried to progress along the coastal road. Inevitably, it would stop and start as people used the pedestrian crossings to get from shops to sand. Things gradually got quieter as I got back to St Nicholas Gardens. Beyond the gardens, looming high above me was Scarborough's answer to Gormenghast, The Grand Hotel. When the hotel was opened in 1867, it was the largest hotel and brick structure in Europe. The hotel was designed behind a ‘time’ theme: 12 floors (months of year), 52 chimneys (the weeks), originally 365 bedrooms (days in a non-leap year). It was built in the design of a ‘V’, in tribute to Queen Victoria. It does look impressive, indeed ‘grand’ from the outside, with its ‘yellow’ brickwork, towers and carvings. I took some photos of the roof and zooming in I could see a lot of maintenance was required to the slates and carvings. The place gets an average of 2.4 (out of 5) on Tripadvisor (10,565 reviews - 2025). Read some of the reviews and the place makes Fawlty Towers sound like The Ritz. It obviously needs a fortune spent on it to bring it up to a good standard, but it is owned by a budget hotel chain and so seems unlikely. It is a shame that a Grade II listed building is allowed a slow death. I only noticed one of the three blue plaques on it; this was to commemorate Anne Bronte dying at a house on this site in 1849. She was buried in St Mary’s Church in Scarborough (see Captains Log, Slipping My Way To Scarborough that reports my visit to her grave). The  other two plaques were actually underneath the Bronte one and were a darker blue, which is probably why I didn’t notice them. One mentions  the RAF trainees stationed here during World War II and the other commemorates the opening of the building. 

Cliff Bridge And Spa

Just beyond the Grand Hotel was the Cliff Bridge. This was a footbridge that spanned the valley that headed off inland. It was created in 1827 and has four iron arches plonked on stone piers and abutments. There aren’t many multi-span cast iron bridges in the world, and this is one of them. Looking through one of its arches I could see the Rotunda building. This hosted the museum that I’d be visiting later in the walk. 

The shops had disappeared and there were definitely fewer people walking along the sea front now. I reached another legacy of the Victorian era, the Spa. It was originally built around the source of Scarborough’s spa waters, which seemed like a good idea to me. The earliest version of the building dates from the early 1700s and the current one from 1858.  The Victorian version included an assembly hall with adjoining galleries. In 1876 its Saloon was destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt and reopened again in 1880. It is used for conferences, exhibitions, entertainment and live music events nowadays. There was another Victorian funicular tram that could take you to the top of the hillside, just beyond the Spa. 

Holbeck Landslide

Scarborough seemed to give up on holidaymakers after the Spa. I guess it wasn’t surprising given that the sea now splashed up against the promenade wall and the hill inland looked too steep and unstable for building. Indeed, at Holbeck Hill, even the coastal path gave up following the sea and headed up to the top of the cliffs. An information board recounted the landslip that occurred here at Holbeck.  Like everybody else in the UK, from the  4th of June 1993 onwards, I was glued to the news on TV as it relayed images of Holbeck Hall gradually disintegrating as the landslide claimed it. Around 1,000,000 tonnes of cliff material was displaced. I'd just walked up most of it. The top of the cliffs was my turnaround point for the day. I now had the option of using this point as my completion point on my Filey-Scarborough walk in a couple of days time. <Spoiler Alert> I ended up reaching this point in plenty of time on my Filey-Scarborough walk and so I walked along the South Bay up to the ‘Sliver Dollar’ again anyway.

South Cliff Gardens

I found urbanisation still existed on the top of the cliffs and I did a stretch of street walking for a while. This area was definitely the posher part of Scarborough. Even the post boxes had knitted toppers. I eventually came to the ornate South Cliff Clock, which was positioned at an entry point to the South Cliff Gardens. These gardens were a pretty woodland area with plenty of managed gardens and wildlife too. There were many footpaths that went up, down and along and so there were plenty of options to progress my way northwards. There were occasional viewpoints providing good views over the South Bay. It was a very enjoyable walk through the gardens and a nice alternative to the crowds on the promenade. The gardens and tranquillity ended at the Spa Bridge as I descended some steps to cross it. 

Rotunda And Art Gallery

The Rotunda Museum was situated near to the base of the Spa Bridge and I made my way down to it. It is one of the oldest purpose-built museums still in use in the UK. It was constructed in 1829 and holds collections of fossils and other geological items. There’s also a wide variety of other artefacts on display. You can buy a ticket that allows admission to the museum and the nearby Art Gallery. Details of my tour around the museum can be found in the Captains Log, Scarborough - Rotunda Museum. 

It was possible to get to the nearby Art Gallery using the footpaths through Valley Park, although I probably wouldn’t attempt that particular route in the dark. The alternative is to go northwards up Vernon Road and then southwards along The Crescent. The Art Gallery was held in a relatively small Italianate villa. It hosted a collection by John Grimshaw and the work of plenty of  other painters.  Details of my tour around the museum can be found in the Captains Log, Scarborough - Art Gallery. 

Both the Rotunda Museum and Art Gallery were well worth visiting and are convenient stops on this walk. It was dark when I got out of the gallery and I made my way to my digs for the night (which wasn’t the Grand Hotel!). I’d enjoyed the variety of landscape on this walk, varying from the hectic arcades to tranquil gardens. There was also that wonderful view across Scarborough’s South Bay too.