Page 85 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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the horse-drawn bathing machines, with the men and women segregated by time or place,

and donkey-rides for the children. They sought entertainment: a promenade to walk along
parallel to the sea and then the pleasure pier projecting out into the sea from the end of

which they might take boat rides to other resorts nearby along the coast; but they wanted
still more and so the great pleasure pavilion at the pier-head followed during the 1880s

and 1890s, providing all sorts of attractions and refreshment rooms. In some cases, where
the piers might be 300 yards long, the town tramline ran all the way out to the pier-head.

Most of these amenities represented substantial municipal investments.

The successful health resort also had to be equipped with the modern conveniences:

running water, sanitation, effective refuse removal, streets that were clean, paved,

guttered and lit, and so on. All of these were public works typically undertaken by small
municipalities which raised loans the size of which was geared to the size of their

property rates base. Thus: the more they developed the larger the loans they could raise,
the more lavish and varied the amenities they could provide, and the more popular they

could become compared to their competitors. And so on, round and round, in a virtuous
circle of success breeding further success. Those places that were not already so equipped

had to invest and construct rapidly in order to take part in the boom. And as they did so

formerly quiet coastal villages were changed forever.

This template, or model, was replicated successfully over and over again along the British
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coast during the 19 century. In time it was transferred from the Mother Country to the
coasts of its colonies, one of which was the Cape, and to its renowned Peninsula coast in
particular. The agents of transfer were people who hailed from Britain, or had visited

there, and become prominent here in municipal politics, business, and the professions.

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The Peninsula resorts developed later than their English counterparts and are really 20
century creations. This is not to deny that informal pools had been excavated at rocky

inlets or that a private company had constructed the Old Sea Point Pavilion in 1895. But
the burst of municipal investment in coastal amenities spans 1910 – 1939 and in most