History of Torquay - A Nascent Holiday Resort (1821-1848)

A Nascent Holiday Resort (1821-1848)

In 1821 there were still fewer than 2,000 people living in Torquay, but it was to experience a massive rate of growth in coming years. In 1822 Torquay's second hotel was opened on the site of the modern day Queen's Hotel, despite objections raised by the Vicar of Torre who believed that "Two hotels in the town would be detrimental to its moral health".

The atmosphere of these years is well conveyed in Octavian Blewitt's book A Panorama of Torquay, published in 1832. He tells us, among other things, that those who wished to avoid the fatigue of the long coach journey from London, travelled to Portsmouth by coach and there took the Brunswick "a steam vessel of considerable power" directly to Torquay.

In 1832 Torquay acquired its first bank, The Torbay Bank, run by William Kitson, already a partner in the town's premier solicitors Messrs Abraham and Kitson, founded in 1823 and soon to be land agent of the Palk family. In the same year, when future British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone was staying in the town, he was summoned to fight the election in Newark for the Conservative Party and the journey north to Nottinghamshire took him three days by coach.

Throughout the 1830s and 1840s Kitson shaped the way that Torquay developed to such an extent that he is known to this day as the 'Maker of Torquay', acting in the place of the absentee Palk who had by now fled to Dieppe to avoid debts. Kitson was essentially given free hand to develop Torquay along his own line after being put in charge of the Palk estates in 1833. Alongside his roles as a banker, solicitor and manager of the Palk's affairs, he was elected as commissioner to an early form of local government in 1835, where he introduced many basic amenities to the town such as most of the central road network of the town, a sewer system, a regulated water supply and street lighting.

In 1833, Princess Victoria visited the town for the first time, with modern day Victoria Parade named in honour of the place where the future queen first stepped ashore. At this time, the mild winter climate and fresh air in Torquay attracted many visitors in ill health who visited the town for its apparent cleansing nature and the town started to develop as a health resort for the wealthy rather than its former naval character. It retained this new character for the rest of the century. The town's increasing popularity caused the population to grow from 838 in 1801 to 11,474 in 1851 and by 1850 there were about 2,000 bedrooms in the small hotels of Torquay.

During this period, the town was mostly owned by three families: the Mallocks who owned the Cockington region, the Carys who owned Babbacombe, St Marychurch and the old monastery at Torre Abbey, and the Palk family which owned central Torquay or Tormohun. Tor Mohun takes its name from the tor or conspicuous hill known as Tor Hill today, and its suffix from the Mohuns who acquired the manor from the Brewers in the 13th century. The Mallocks resisted the changes convulsing Torquay for a long time because they did not want a town on their rural property, and they threw away a fortune rather than have it. It was not until 1865 that one of them consented to grant a building lease, and that only to a family connection.