Publications
Worthing: The Postcard Collection, by Antony Edmonds, published 28 March 2013 (96 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445616408 & ISBN-13: 9781445616407) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:During the reign of Edward VII (1901 - 1910) Worthing was a thriving resort in its architectural prime, its seafront graced by numerous elegant and charming buildings. The first decade of the twentieth century was also the period when the sending of picture postcards became almost a national obsession. Today these postcards provide us with a unique and fascinating record of the buildings, the traffic and the people of a long-vanished England. This photographic record is of especial value in the case of Worthing, since so many of the town's historic buildings have been demolished over the past seventy-five years. Reproduced in this book are over 160 postcards of Worthing that show the town in its Edwardian glory. Nearly 60 are in colour. All are richly atmospheric, and many - such as those of the Tunbridge Wells photographer Harold Camburn and the French form of Levy Sons & Co. - are of a high artistic standard. The collection takes us first to Broadwater and Tarring, and then along Worthing parade and through the streets of the town. The long section of cards of the promenade is of particular interest, the views being arranged in a tight geographical sequence, bringing the Edwardian seafront back to life building by building. Old maps of Worthing are included to assist the reader.
Review by Esme Evans in Sussex Past & Present no. 133, August 2014:Unlike many recent illustrated publications on local towns, this title has a coherent theme, Edwardian Worthing. Not just "the Charm of Edwardian Worthing", as the review in the Worthing Herald (11th April 2013) was headlined, though that will doubtless help to sell the book, but illustrations of Worthing at its most graceful architectural period, so many of the buildings of which have been demolished in the past 75 years.
Using over 160 postcards (60 in full colour - with some interesting examples of different methods of tinting, in the days before widespread colour photography), the centre of the book is a photographic record of the Edwardian promenade, building by building, from what is now Dolphin Court (the former illfated attempt to build a Metropole Hotel at West Worthing in the 1890s - commonly known as Worthing's White Elephant) to the Esplanade (best known as the location where Oscar Wilde stayed while writing The Importance of Being Earnest - hence the character Ernest Worthing). Most of the postcards are contemporary; a few more recent ones have been included to complete the sequence as they illustrate Edwardian buildings. All the terrace names are included (not always easy to identify now), and details of what does and does not survive.
The other areas illustrated concentrate where visitors are most likely to frequent, such as the beach, town centre, Homefield Park (the People's Park); and the first section of the book covers the outlying areas (e.g. Tarring (including the fig gardens) and Broadwater.
The publishers for most of the postcards illustrated are identified, two of which (the French firm Levy Sons & Co., and the Tunbridge Wells photographer Harold Camburn) contribute one third of the postcards used.
He also has the wisdom to include a map (1896) so that readers can identify the locations of many of the pictures - the source of this is not actually acknowledged to Ordnance Survey (2nd edition 1898, surveyed 1896).
This title will be attractive to visitors and residents, those interested in Edwardian architecture and also postcard collectors, as he is clearly knowledgeable on the history of postcards.
Using over 160 postcards (60 in full colour - with some interesting examples of different methods of tinting, in the days before widespread colour photography), the centre of the book is a photographic record of the Edwardian promenade, building by building, from what is now Dolphin Court (the former illfated attempt to build a Metropole Hotel at West Worthing in the 1890s - commonly known as Worthing's White Elephant) to the Esplanade (best known as the location where Oscar Wilde stayed while writing The Importance of Being Earnest - hence the character Ernest Worthing). Most of the postcards are contemporary; a few more recent ones have been included to complete the sequence as they illustrate Edwardian buildings. All the terrace names are included (not always easy to identify now), and details of what does and does not survive.
The other areas illustrated concentrate where visitors are most likely to frequent, such as the beach, town centre, Homefield Park (the People's Park); and the first section of the book covers the outlying areas (e.g. Tarring (including the fig gardens) and Broadwater.
The publishers for most of the postcards illustrated are identified, two of which (the French firm Levy Sons & Co., and the Tunbridge Wells photographer Harold Camburn) contribute one third of the postcards used.
He also has the wisdom to include a map (1896) so that readers can identify the locations of many of the pictures - the source of this is not actually acknowledged to Ordnance Survey (2nd edition 1898, surveyed 1896).
This title will be attractive to visitors and residents, those interested in Edwardian architecture and also postcard collectors, as he is clearly knowledgeable on the history of postcards.
Jane Austen's Worthing: The Real Sanditon, by Antony Edmonds, published 19 September 2013 (128 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445619733 & ISBN-13: 9781445619736) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:During her stay in Worthing in late 1805 Jane Austen became friends with Edward Ogle, who was the driving force behind the chaotic little town's transformation into a well-ordered seaside resort. Then, in 1817, the year of her death, Jane Austen used Worthing as the background for her final, unfinished novel, Sanditon, one of whose main characters was based on Ogle. This book gives a detailed account of the town Jane Austen knew in 1805, and explores in full the close links between Sanditon and early Worthing. But this is more than just the snapshot of a single year. It is also the portrait of an era. Taking the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century as his time frame, the author explains how Worthing changed and developed during this period, and paints vivid pictures of some of the people associated with the town. We meet Worthing's most paranoid resident, the volatile reformed criminal John Mackoull, as well as notable visitors to the town such as the poets Byron and Shelley, the satirical writer Horace Smith, and Colonel Berkeley, the louche nobleman and part-time actor with a passion for young actresses. Jane Austen's Worthing includes seventy-five illustrations, over a third of them in colour.
Review by Esme Evans in Sussex Past & Present no. 132, April 2014:Antony Edmonds considers the evidence that Sanditon, Jane's last and unfinished novel of 1817, may have been based on the early development of Worthing as a seaside town. As he rightly says, Jane Austen was a novelist, not a travel writer, and describes her as muddying the coastal waters by placing the fictional Sanditon between Eastbourne and Hastings, specifically mentioning Worthing as one of the large towns on which Sanditon was an improvement. There are clear resemblances between Trafalgar House in the novel and Warwick House in Worthing; between Mr Parker in the novel and Edward Ogle, the owner of Warwick House when Jane was in Worthing, and an indefatigable promoter and developer of Worthing as a seaside resort; between Old Sanditon and Broadwater, and possibly Sanditon House and either Broadwater Manor or Offington House.
From this thesis he expands into an account of the development of Worthing as a seaside resort in the early 19th century (to about 1825), when the establishment of circulating libraries, hotels (including Assembly Rooms as part of the Steyne Hotel), and a theatre (most of which Ogle had an interest in or promoted) brought the town into line with other resorts. When Jane Austen visited, Worthing had only recently (1803) become a town with a Board of Commissioners, of which Edward Ogle was the first Chairman. Antony Edmonds quotes liberally from the guidebooks of the time, and has a chapter on "The Life and Grievances of John Mackoull", the author of "A Sketch of Worthing" (1817 and earlier editions), in which the (known criminal) author takes the opportunity of being very rude about many persons (including Ogle) and establishments in Worthing. There is also a concluding chapter on "Seven Notable Visitors".
The book contains a considerable number of prints and watercolours of early Worthing, many in colour. He does provide an Index of Locations and Buildings Around Worthing, but a fuller index would have been welcome.
Whether or not any further evidence comes to light regarding Jane Austen's intention to use Worthing as a template for Sanditon, this possible link gives an excellent reason for telling the story of Worthing in its early seaside development days, and an opportunity to publish or republish some of the excellent early illustrations of the town.
From this thesis he expands into an account of the development of Worthing as a seaside resort in the early 19th century (to about 1825), when the establishment of circulating libraries, hotels (including Assembly Rooms as part of the Steyne Hotel), and a theatre (most of which Ogle had an interest in or promoted) brought the town into line with other resorts. When Jane Austen visited, Worthing had only recently (1803) become a town with a Board of Commissioners, of which Edward Ogle was the first Chairman. Antony Edmonds quotes liberally from the guidebooks of the time, and has a chapter on "The Life and Grievances of John Mackoull", the author of "A Sketch of Worthing" (1817 and earlier editions), in which the (known criminal) author takes the opportunity of being very rude about many persons (including Ogle) and establishments in Worthing. There is also a concluding chapter on "Seven Notable Visitors".
The book contains a considerable number of prints and watercolours of early Worthing, many in colour. He does provide an Index of Locations and Buildings Around Worthing, but a fuller index would have been welcome.
Whether or not any further evidence comes to light regarding Jane Austen's intention to use Worthing as a template for Sanditon, this possible link gives an excellent reason for telling the story of Worthing in its early seaside development days, and an opportunity to publish or republish some of the excellent early illustrations of the town.
Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer: The 1894 Worthing Holiday and the Aftermath, by Antony Edmonds, published 28 July 2014 (224 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445636182 & ISBN-13: 9781445636184) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:In the summer of 1894 Oscar Wilde spent eight weeks in Worthing, and it was during this family holiday that he wrote his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest.
The Worthing holiday was a microcosm of Wilde's turbulent life during the three years between his falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1892 and his imprisonment in 1895.
Constance Wilde, lonely and depressed, became emotionally involved with her husband's publisher, to whom she wrote a love letter on the day he visited the Wildes in Worthing. Meanwhile Wilde was spending much of his time with the feckless and demanding Douglas, and with three teenage boys he took out sailing, swimming and fishing. One of these boys was Alphonse Conway, with whom Wilde had a sexual relationship, and about whom he was to be questioned at length and to damaging effect in court six months later when he sued Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel.
This book tells for the first time the full story of the Worthing summer, set in the context of the three years of Wilde's life before his downfall. In the final chapter the author reassesses the trials, offering fresh insights into Wilde's attitude to the boys and young men with whom he had sexual relations.
There are fifty-six illustrations, over thirty of which are photographs of Worthing as it was in Wilde's time, and three contemporary maps of the town.
The Worthing holiday was a microcosm of Wilde's turbulent life during the three years between his falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1892 and his imprisonment in 1895.
Constance Wilde, lonely and depressed, became emotionally involved with her husband's publisher, to whom she wrote a love letter on the day he visited the Wildes in Worthing. Meanwhile Wilde was spending much of his time with the feckless and demanding Douglas, and with three teenage boys he took out sailing, swimming and fishing. One of these boys was Alphonse Conway, with whom Wilde had a sexual relationship, and about whom he was to be questioned at length and to damaging effect in court six months later when he sued Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel.
This book tells for the first time the full story of the Worthing summer, set in the context of the three years of Wilde's life before his downfall. In the final chapter the author reassesses the trials, offering fresh insights into Wilde's attitude to the boys and young men with whom he had sexual relations.
There are fifty-six illustrations, over thirty of which are photographs of Worthing as it was in Wilde's time, and three contemporary maps of the town.
Lost Buildings of Worthing: A Historic Town and its People, by Antony Edmonds, published 15 October 2016 (256 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445657074 & ISBN-13: 9781445657073) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:Demolition and redevelopment over the past seventy-five years have done great damage to Worthing, and relatively few of the town's historic buildings survive.
Lost Buildings of Worthing is a lavishly illustrated record of the most interesting and important of these vanished buildings. It is also a rich and detailed history - and social history - of Worthing, with numerous fascinating narratives and anecdotes about people associated with the buildings described.
In the first section, 'Lost on the Seafront', we travel from east to west along the parade, visiting over twenty buildings, including the Haven, where Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in 1894; Warne's, the famous hotel where Emperor Haile Selassie stayed after he was exiled from Ethiopia; and the Marine Hotel, where Benjamin Disraeli 'sojourned for a time' during a period when he was in opposition.
The second section, 'Lost in the Town Centre', features buildings and streets that once stood in the historic heart of Worthing - from the slum dwellings of Cook's Row to the fine old houses of the High Street - while the third, 'Lost on the Periphery', focuses on the ancient estates of Charmandean and Offington.
Illustrated with over two hundred engravings and photographs - together with six extracts from the Ordnance Survey map of 1859 - Lost Buildings of Worthing is an indispensable historical account of the largest town in West Sussex.
Lost Buildings of Worthing is a lavishly illustrated record of the most interesting and important of these vanished buildings. It is also a rich and detailed history - and social history - of Worthing, with numerous fascinating narratives and anecdotes about people associated with the buildings described.
In the first section, 'Lost on the Seafront', we travel from east to west along the parade, visiting over twenty buildings, including the Haven, where Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in 1894; Warne's, the famous hotel where Emperor Haile Selassie stayed after he was exiled from Ethiopia; and the Marine Hotel, where Benjamin Disraeli 'sojourned for a time' during a period when he was in opposition.
The second section, 'Lost in the Town Centre', features buildings and streets that once stood in the historic heart of Worthing - from the slum dwellings of Cook's Row to the fine old houses of the High Street - while the third, 'Lost on the Periphery', focuses on the ancient estates of Charmandean and Offington.
Illustrated with over two hundred engravings and photographs - together with six extracts from the Ordnance Survey map of 1859 - Lost Buildings of Worthing is an indispensable historical account of the largest town in West Sussex.