Great Yarmouth: Fish and Tourists

Looking at Great Yarmouth in the mid nineteenth century it is perhaps not so surprising that Arthur was so interest in fish and in showmanship. At the time of his birth Yarmouth must have felt like a town of opportunity, with a bustle and excitement founded on the plentiful fish caught offshore and the thousands of tourists flocking to the developing resort. In the early 19th century Yarmouth was promoted as a place for wealthy people to take holidays, particularly for the health benefits of sea bathing. In the ten years before Arthur’s birth, Yarmouth had seen an explosion of development ‘for the reception of a superior class of visitor to the town’.

A magnificent hotel, an Esplanade and elegant terraces of spacious houses had been built. The Wellington pier was opened in 1854 and the admission change was only half that charged at Brighton. In 1853, when the population of Yarmouth was 31,000, an extra 80,00 visitors came by train and ship.

Meanwhile poorer families such as Arthur’s father and mother lived in cramped squalor in “The Rows” - a network of 145 unbelievably narrow parallel streets, some less than three feet wide.

A reconstructed example of one of these rows can be seen in the Time and Tide museum in Yarmouth. In the latter part of the 19th century it became clear that Yarmouth’s vision of becoming an elite resort to rival fashionable Brighton was fading since the upper classes were not attracted to Yarmouth in sufficient numbers.

However working class holiday-makers were coming in droves, and they were the basis for a new boom in the town By the time Arthur was 20, Yarmouth had three railway stations bringing people from London and the Midlands.

Now came the explosion in entertainment venues: an aquarium in 1877, a new 1,000 seater cafe and theatre, a revolving 150 foot viewing tower, side shows, slot machines and rifle ranges.