Regent Street.

 

Follow the link below for a ‘map’ of premises in the street.

Regent St map 

Regent St. was  developed on the causeway which originally  extended west from the site of the  Mason’s Arms (on what became Victoria St), to serve the  Royal Clarence Hotel. The entrance to The Clarence was from this street (The coach entrance archway can still be seen) as there was then no vehicular access across the dunes from the seaward side. The passageway between the east end of the street and the Masons Arms was widened to become a northward extension of Alfred Street (High Street) when the Lifeboat Temperance Cafe was built.

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Royal Clarence Hotel showing gateposted  entrance to Regent St,  by this time connecting with the original North Esplanade

Below are two views of Ernest Tucker’s department store (drapery, millinery, grocery, wines & spirits, which extended around the corner into Alfred St (High St) during there early years of the 20th century. It was replaced by International Tea Co (International stores) around 1929. If this is compared with the picture at the head of the page it can be seen that the building has been altered  to form the oblique corner , probably when Alfred St was extended. In the second photo  the Lifeboat Restuarant can be seen.

Photo courtesy of Ann Popham.

John Tucker’s had previously been at an address further up the street. Advert below from Mate’s Guide 1903.

On the opposite corner with Victoria St is an imposing Victorian building (‘Clarence Buildings’) which looks every inch as if created as a bank. However recent discoveries show that it was originally  Horrill’s Grocers (1888), and is not recorded as a bank until the 1891 census (Stuckey’s) by which time Horrill’s had moved further up the street.

It later became Parr’s Bank and then Westminster and finally National Westminster until its closure a few years ago. At some point the handsome pediment has been removed.

Other commercial premises in the street around the turn of the 20th century included:

Woodmans reg st

Biddick

Advertisements above from Burnham on Sea Golf Handbook, probably 1910’s

The picture below is probably of the George V coronation celebration. The front of  what is either at this time Tucker’s Motors and Cycles or Rogers’ Motor Engineering is visible at left and beyond it the Burnham Institute.

Regent St

The picture above, possibly from the late 1960s, shows the International Supermarket and W.H. Smith.  Below are the interior and exterior after the refurbishment of 1973 when the footprint of W.H Smith and of the Bluebird cafe were incorporated into the store.

From the Royston Broom collection.
From the Royston Broom collection.

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