Superstore site is vital part of town heritage
WHILE a new superstore must be welcomed as part of the regeneration of Scarborough's town centre it is vital that the historical and social significance of the site between Dean Road and Columbus Ravine is not lost.
The new borough gaol was opened in 1866 following severe criticism by the Inspector of Prisons of the conditions in the earlier building on the corner of Castle Road and St Thomas Street. Plans were drawn up for the new institution jointly by the borough surveyor Alexander Taylor (1821-66) and the Scarborough architect William Baldwin Stewart, designer of Westborough Methodist Church and the Northern Sea-bathing Infirmary (later St Thomas' Hospital).
In October 1865 the Mayor, Ambrose Gibson, laid the corner stone of the gaol, with a time capsule. Four months later, in February 1866, a roofing-out supper was held for 200 workmen in the Prince of Wales Hotel. The gaol's stone towers fronting Dean Road (then known as Cemetery Road) housed the governor and head warder. The prison blocks behind this frontage could house 36 male prisoners, 12 female and four debtors.
The male block was designed on the so-called separate or Pentonville system where each cell looked out on to an inner balcony intended to prevent communication between prisoners but allow staff to monitor them from the balconies.
This building has been a great public attraction on recent Heritage Open Days.
Scarborough Gaol only operated for 12 years. The Prison Act of 1877 transferred control from local authority prisons to the Home Office, which conveyed the building back to Scarborough Corporation at a financial loss.
In 1880 Scarborough petitioned the Govern- ment to reopen the gaol but this was rejected on the grounds that it was one of the smallest in the country, only ever having held, on average, 20 inmates, at an uneconomic cost of 1,200 a year.
While it is good to see that the superstore plan would retain the towered frontage, where, perhaps an appropriate historical display might be created for visiting shoppers, it would seem that the main cell block is to be removed.
This would be sad as that part of the building, while perhaps less architecturally attractive, was the essence of the institution.
Your editorial expresses disappointment that a boutique hotel on this site is not envisaged, yet the conversion of a similar structure, eg the old Oxford Prison to a Malmaison Hotel situated in the old cells, has been a great success.
Similar concerns might also be expressed about the last remains of St Mary's Hospital, now the only remaining vestige of the old workhouse built in Dean Road in 1859 to the design of the York architects George and Henry Styan.
This also is not shown on the plans published, suggesting an intention to demolish. Again, the history of Scarborough's workhouse is an integral part of the town's social history and at very least the remaining administrative buildings fronting Dean Road should be retained, again with a display of the history of what once was an imposing building, albeit one that put fear into the poor of Scarborough.
Given the recent closure of Woodend Museum to routine visits, every opportunity to incorporate the history of the town into any new developments should be seized.
Anne and Paul Bayliss
Esplanade
Scarborough
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Weather for Scarborough
Friday 25 May 2012
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