South Cliff Gardens and Valley Gardens, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Public gardens, comprising a series of seaside walks and gardens, laid out as publicly and privately owned features from the mid-19th century to the 1930s, including work by Joseph Paxton in the 1850s.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The town presses upon the South Cliff Gardens to the north and the west. The sequence of gardens affords a long and continuous walk from a largely residential part of the town to the west, eastwards through Valley Gardens, and then southwards along the Esplanade overlooking South Cliff. The Valley Gardens flank Valley Road, a busy carriageway that runs about 600 metres east-north-east towards the sea. It passes underneath the Valley Bridge, which carries the A165, and Cliff Bridge (listed grade II), which gives pedestrian access to the Esplanade and the South Cliff from Cuthbert Brodrick's Grand Hotel (completed 1867) and the centre of town to the north.

The junction of the Valley Gardens and the foreshore is overlooked by the Swiss Chalet. The Spa and Grand Hall, surrounded by the Spa Gardens, lie about 400 metres to the south. Parts of this Paxton garden are obscured by the extensions added to the south side of the Grand Hall. The Spa Gardens are closed about 100 metres south of the Spa by the cliff tramway. Southwards from the cliff tramway, the South Cliff Gardens extend almost 900 metres along the steep cliff side. In places, the cliff walks are now (2000) closed because of erosion or the poor condition of the fencing. Of the separate garden areas, the Rosary lies about 450 metres south of the Grand Hall; the Tidal Pool at Dickinson's Point, about 500 metres south; the Italian Garden, about 550 metres south; the Holbeck Gardens, about 700m south; and the remnants of the Holbeck Ravine, about 900 metres south of the Grand Hall.

The majority of the South Cliff Gardens is fairly open, with views eastwards towards the sea. In contrast, the Rosary and the Italian Garden are formal, geometric, and enclosed. The Italian Garden is laid out on a curve and articulated by steps so that its topography and levels are married to the natural form of the cliff. Access and views into and out of these gardens are designed to be limited. The Esplanade runs for about 1 kilometres along the cliff top, to the west of the gardens. From here, spectacular views are afforded, now (2000) obscured in parts by vegetation.

The Esplanade is flanked on the west by a sequence of 19th-century hotels. One of the largest is the Prince of Wales, about 200 metres south west of the Grand Hall, near the top of the cliff tramway. Its southern elevation overlooks the Prince of Wales Gardens, now open to the public. Further to the south are the Shuttleworth Gardens, about 750 metres south of the Grand Hall.
 

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

W S Rowntree, The South Bay Undercliff and South Bay Gardens: A study in Municipal Enterprise at Scarborough (1919) [copy held at North Yorkshire County Library, Scarborough]

Park Trail 1, South Cliff Gardens: guide through the South Cliff Gardens, Scarborough, guide leaflet, (1977)

M Whittaker, The Book of Scarborough Spaw (1984), pp 86-93, 101-2, 105-24, 130-49

G Lord, Scarborough's Floral Heritage, Over 40 Years of Parks and Gardens In Britain's First Resort, (Scarborough Borough Council, around 1984)

'The Man Behind Scarborough's Gems', Evening News, 5 October 1993, p 22

'Secret Garden Turns Public', Evening News, 13 July 1996

'"Cons" Behind Gardens Scene', Evening News, 26 July 1996

Maps

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition surveyed 1890-1, published 1893; 3rd edition published 1912; 1919 edition; 1929 edition; 1939 edition

Archival items

Early to mid-20th-century postcards of South Cliff Gardens, Scarborough (Scarborough Local Studies Library)

D and C Prescott, The Prescott Collection 1, (22/A (1965?85)), (North Yorkshire County Library, Scarborough)

S Foord, Harry W Smith A M Inst C E, Borough Engineer and Surveyor of Scarborough 1897-1933: an appreciation (no date), (North Yorkshire County Library, Scarborough)
 

Description written: December 2000

Edited: December 2002