Worthing, a seaside town on the West Sussex coast in southeast England, has received many royal visits since Princess Amelia spent five months recovering from an injured knee in 1798. [1] The patronage of the 15-year-old daughter of King George III helped Worthing develop from a modest village into a high-class resort favoured by wealthy people seeking a quieter alternative to nearby Brighton's fashionable vulgarity. [1] [2] [3] Other members of the British Royal Family were regular visitors during the first half of the 19th century, when Worthing's prestige was at its highest. Queen Elizabeth II first visited in 1951 when she was still Princess Elizabeth, and regular visits have been made by other members of the British Royal Family since then. Foreign royal visitors include Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, who spent several weeks in a seafront hotel as a refugee during his exile. [4]
Brighton, 10 miles (16 km) to the east, experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-18th century, when it was identified by local doctor Richard Russell as an ideal venue to receive his "seawater cure", involving bathing in and drinking seawater. Regular visits and temporary residency by members of the British Royal Family attracted rich, upper-class visitors who wanted to experience the range of pleasures on offer. This growth gradually had an effect on towns and villages elsewhere on the Sussex coast. [5]
Worthing was a small fishing and farming village south of the ancient manor of Broadwater. It had transport links to Brighton, [5] and enjoyed an even better climate than that of its neighbour because of its more sheltered location. [6] In 1798, King George III's youngest daughter, Princess Amelia, injured her knee. The king's doctors sought a suitable seaside venue for her recuperation, where she could let her leg heal while improving her fragile health with sea-bathing and the seawater cure. They chose Worthing, and she eventually spent five months in the village. [1] [5] [7]
The visit was very successful—Amelia's health improved considerably—and the local authorities spent the next ten years developing Worthing as a high-class seaside resort and spa town, with amenities designed to attract fashionable visitors. By the time Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales paid a visit in 1807, Worthing was a self-governing town with more than 2,000 residents and an array of facilities from a chapel to a theatre. [5] More members of the Royal Family visited throughout the 19th century, even though Worthing's period of bold growth ended in about 1830, after which the town went into a decline from which it never fully recovered. By the time long-term growth started again in the late 19th century, the town had become a destination for quiet, low-key holidays and a residential area popular with retired people. [5]
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother had a long association with Worthing, and with the Goring Hall estate in particular. [8] Goring Hall, an independent school from 1937 until 1988 and now a private hospital, was originally a residence built for Major David Lyon in 1840; it passed from him to other members of the Bowes-Lyon family, of which Elizabeth was a member, until its sale in 1934. [9] She often visited the house and its grounds as a child; and later in her life she intervened to prevent the felling of trees in the grounds. [8] She was president of the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home at Gifford House in West Worthing—a home for disabled ex-service personnel—and visited several times. [8] [10]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2018) |
Person or people | Royal house | Picture | Year | Notes | Refs |
The Princess Amelia | Hanover | 1798 | King George III's fifteenth and youngest child began her recuperative stay in Worthing on 31 July 1798. She was treated by the Surgeon-General, and is believed to have stayed in Bedford House—built about 15 years previously, and demolished in 1940. She may also have lived at nearby Montague Place for part of her visit, which came to an end on 7 December 1798 when she returned to London. | [1] [7] [11] [12] | |
The Prince of Wales (Prince Regent) | Hanover | 1798 | The Prince of Wales (better known as the Prince Regent, and later as King George IV) lived in Brighton from 1786. He travelled to Worthing to visit his youngest sister during her recuperation. | [1] [11] [13] | |
Princess Charlotte of Wales | Hanover | 1807 | Charlotte Augusta, the 11-year-old daughter of the Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick, went on holiday to Worthing in July 1807. She stayed at Warwick House, a sea-facing flint and brick building of 1785 which was the focal point of the town's rapid 19th-century development. It was knocked down in 1896. | [11] [14] [15] | |
The Prince of Wales (Prince Regent) | Hanover | 1807 | The Prince paid his second visit to Worthing to visit his daughter during her holiday. | [11] | |
The Princess of Wales | Hanover | 1814 | Caroline of Brunswick, the Princess of Wales (as she was styled at the time), travelled from London to France in 1814. She stopped briefly in Worthing and nearby Sompting to break up the journey. | [11] | |
The Princess Augusta Sophia | Hanover | 1829 | Augusta Sophia, sister of King George IV, spent a long winter holiday at Trafalgar House on Marine Parade; it lasted until early 1830. Trafalgar House was renamed Augusta House after her visit; and after its demolition in 1948, its replacement building carried the same name. | [11] [16] [17] | |
Queen Victoria | Hanover | 1842 | Queen Victoria's only visit to the town during her long life was a brief stop when she was travelling to Arundel. | [11] | |
Queen Adelaide | Hanover | 1849 | King William IV's widow Queen Adelaide spent a holiday at the Sea House Hotel on Worthing seafront in 1849. John Rebecca's building was Worthing's highest-class hotel and became the Royal Sea House after this visit, but fire damage in 1901 caused its demolition. | [11] [18] | |
Queen Maria Amalia | Bourbon-Two Sicilies | 1861 | King Louis-Philippe of France's widowed queen consort took over the Royal Sea House Hotel for six weeks in 1861 with her team of servants and her whole family. She lived as a refugee in England for the last 18 years of her life after the events of the French Revolution of 1848. | [11] [19] | |
King Edward VII | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | 1908 | Members of the Loder baronetcy owned Beach House, a seafront mansion, for 35 years until 1911. King Edward VII knew the family, and he spent more than a month staying with them in 1908. | [11] [20] | |
King Edward VII | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | 1909 | King Edward VII returned to Beach House for another visit the following year. | [11] | |
The Duke and Duchess of York | Windsor | 1928 | The Prince Albert Convalescent Home was established after World War I in a terrace of mid 19th-century houses on Worthing seafront. The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and the Queen Mother respectively) were invited to attend a civic reception in May 1928 when a fundraising appeal was launched. The home later became the Beach Hotel. | [11] [21] [22] | |
Queen Mary | Windsor | 1929 | King George V's queen consort stopped off in Worthing to visit an antiques shop. | [11] | |
The Prince of Wales | Windsor | 1933 | Three years before his accession to the throne as King Edward VIII, Edward paid a visit to Highdown Gardens. He saw the chalk garden established in 1909 by Sir Frederick Stern, and Highdown Tower—a structure built in the 1860s by the Bowes-Lyon family. | [11] | |
The Duke of Kent | Windsor | 1933 | The Duke of Kent opened Worthing's new town hall, designed by Charles Cowles-Voysey, on 22 May 1933. A civic reception was held at Worthing Pier. | [23] [24] | |
The Duchess of York | Windsor | 1934 | The Queen Alexandra Home for disabled ex-service personnel, established in London in 1919, moved to a house in Boundary Road, Worthing, in 1934. It took the name Gifford House—the name of the original establishment in Roehampton. The Duchess of York (later the Queen Mother) performed the opening ceremony in May 1934. | [10] [11] | |
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia | Solomon | 1936 | Warne's Hotel—Worthing's most prestigious hotel throughout the 20th century, until its destruction by fire in the 1980s—served as a refuge for the Emperor of Ethiopia and several members of his family for several weeks in July 1936 during his period of exile from Ethiopia. As a gesture of thanks, he received the town's mayor and mayoress at a reception at London's Ethiopian Embassy in 1954. | [4] [11] [25] [26] | |
The Duchess of Gloucester | Windsor | 1947 | The Duchess attended an engagement at Gifford House in 1947. | [11] | |
The Duchess of Edinburgh | Windsor | 1951 | Queen Elizabeth II was still a princess when she paid her first visit to Worthing in May 1951 to open a new postoperative care hospital in Courtlands House, a stately home built in the 1820s and altered in the early 20th century. | [11] [27] | |
The Duchess of Kent | Windsor | 1956 | When Worthing Junior Technical School for Building moved from the town centre to Durrington and was renamed Worthing Technical High, the Duchess of Kent was invited to open it. It is now known as Durrington High School. | [11] [28] | |
Prince Tomislav; Princess Tomislav | Karageorgevich | 1957 | Prince and Princess Tomislav of Yugoslavia attended the opening of a residential care home in the West Tarring area of Worthing in 1957. | [11] | |
The Princess Margaret | Windsor | 1959 | John Horniman, a London merchant, opened the "Friends' Convalescent Home for Poor Children" on Park Road in Worthing in 1892. It became a special school in the 1950s, and was visited by Princess Margaret in 1959. The building was demolished in 2003. | [29] [30] [31] | |
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Windsor | 1966 | The Queen Mother paid one of her regular visits to Gifford House on this occasion. | [29] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1977 | This visit took in each district of West Sussex: Princess Alexandra met the civic leaders of each district and borough council, including those of Worthing. | [32] | |
The Duchess of Kent | Windsor | 1978 | After visiting Chichester Cathedral, the Duchess stopped off at two charity shops in Worthing. | [32] | |
The Duke of Edinburgh | Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg | 1979 | Prince Philip attended the annual visit to Worthing of the London Taxi Benevolent Fund for War Disabled—a London-based charity which arranged trips to the town for its members. It was founded in 1948. | [32] [33] | |
The Duke of Edinburgh | Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg | 1980 | Local engineering company Eurotherm's new premises were opened by the Prince during this visit. | [29] | |
The Duke of Gloucester | Windsor | 1982 | The Duke was invited to Worthing to open an extension to Worthing College of Technology (the present Northbrook College). | [29] [32] | |
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Windsor | 1983 | One of the Queen Mother's regular visits to the Queen Alexandra Home at Gifford House took place in March of this year. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1983 | Time in Chichester and Littlehampton was followed by a visit to a Worthing-based charity, the Worthing Guild for Voluntary Service. | [32] | |
The Duchess of Kent | Windsor | 1984 | The Duchess was in Worthing before a visit to Crawley. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1985 | On 26 April 1985, the Princess opened a new community centre at Durrington. | [29] [32] | |
The Princess of Wales | Windsor | 1985 | A two-part visit to West Sussex by the Princess in November 1985 started at a hospice in Worthing, at which she opened a new daycare centre. | [29] [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1986 | The Princess attended the London Taxi Benevolent Fund for War Disabled's annual holiday to Worthing. | [32] | |
The Princess of Wales | Windsor | 1986 | After touring The Body Shop's headquarters in nearby Littlehampton, the Princess visited a housing association and care home in Worthing. | [29] | |
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Windsor | 1989 | In April 1989, the Queen Mother paid another visit to Gifford House. | [32] | |
The Duke of Kent | Windsor | 1990 | The Duke's tour of industrial premises in the area took in a Worthing-based design company. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1991 | The Princess's first visit of the year took place in May, when she visited a mental health centre for young people. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 1991 | In October of the same year, the Princess followed visits to Chichester and Bognor Regis with a trip to a Worthing sheltered housing complex. | [32] | |
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Windsor | 1992 | The Queen Mother's next visit to the Queen Alexandra Home at Gifford House came in April 1992. | [32] | |
The Duchess of Gloucester | Windsor | 1994 | The Duchess began a day of visits across southeast England by meeting residents of a care home for people with multiple sclerosis in central Worthing. | [32] [34] | |
The Princess Margaret | Windsor | 1994 | Princess Margaret opened the new private hospital at Goring Hall on 26 October 1994. | [29] [32] | |
The Duke of Gloucester | Windsor | 1996 | The Duke spent a day at Worthing Boys' Club in March 1996. | [32] | |
The Princess Royal | Windsor | 1998 | Princess Anne performed the opening ceremony for a new ward at Worthing Hospital. | [29] [32] | |
Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh | Windsor | 1999 | The Queen and Prince Philip spent a morning at Durrington High School, meeting pupils and invited members of the public. | [32] [35] | |
The Duke of Kent | Windsor | 1999 | Prince Edward's visit to the town, just before Christmas, took in a daycare centre and a manufacturing company. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 2000 | The London Taxi Benevolent Fund for War Disabled's annual visit to Worthing, which included a lunch at the town hall, was attended by Princess Alexandra for the second time. | [32] [33] | |
The Duchess of Gloucester | Windsor | 2001 | The Duchess visited Davison High School, the local police headquarters and the town's fire station in Broadwater. | [32] | |
The Duchess of Gloucester | Windsor | 2003 | The Duchess of Gloucester revisited the town two years later to see the West Worthing Tennis and Squash Club, a 19-court venue which was founded in 1886. | [32] [36] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 2003 | The Princess spent time at Gifford House with the residents of the Queen Alexandra Home after visiting a hospice in nearby Poling. It was the first royal visit to the Home since the Queen Mother, its president, died the previous year. | [32] | |
The Princess Royal | Windsor | 2004 | The Princess Royal visited the town's Save the Children charity shop. Press photography inside the shop was controversially banned. | [32] [37] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 2006 | Princess Alexandra paid another visit to the Queen Alexandra Home in February 2006. | [32] | |
The Duchess of Gloucester | Windsor | 2006 | The Duchess was invited to Worthing Town Hall to meet a group of war veterans who were visiting the town on holiday. | [32] | |
Princess Alexandra | Windsor | 2009 | Princess Alexandra's most recent engagement at the Queen Alexandra Home was in January 2009. | [32] |
Worthing is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, 10 miles (16 km) west of Brighton, and 18 miles (29 km) east of Chichester. With a population of about 110,000 and an area of 12.5 square miles (32.4 km2), the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hove built-up area, the 15th most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Since 2010, northern parts of the borough, including the Worthing Downland Estate, have formed part of the South Downs National Park. In 2019, the Art Deco Worthing Pier was named the best in Britain.
Goring-by-Sea, commonly referred to simply as Goring, is a neighbourhood of Worthing and former civil parish, now in Worthing district in West Sussex, England. It lies west of West Worthing, about 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Worthing town centre. Historically in Sussex, in the rape of Arundel, Goring has been part of the borough of Worthing since 1929.
The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on the south coast of England. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care and a 24-hour emergency care service for children referred by GPs and other specialists. It is managed by the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Worthing is a large seaside town in Sussex, England in the United Kingdom. The history of the area begins in Prehistoric times and the present importance of the town dates from the 19th century.
Worthing, a seaside town with borough status in the United Kingdom, is connected to the rest of the country by a network of major roads, a mainline railway, frequent bus and coach services and a nearby airport. Its 19th-century growth was encouraged by the development of turnpikes and stagecoach routes to London and nearby towns. By the middle of that century railway services improved journey times and conditions significantly. Suburbanisation in the 20th century was assisted by a network of bus routes.
Worthing, a town with borough status in the English county of West Sussex, has 212 buildings with listed status. The Borough of Worthing covers an area of 8,030 acres (3,250 ha) on the south coast of England, facing the English Channel. The town's development in the early 19th century coincided with nearby Brighton's rise as a famous, fashionable resort, and Worthing became a quiet seaside town with a large stock of Victorian buildings. Residential growth in the 20th century absorbed nearby villages, and older houses, churches and mansions became part of the borough. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947, an act of Parliament effective from 1948, introduced the concept of "listing" buildings of architectural and historical interest, and Worthing Borough Council nominated 90 buildings at that time. More have since been added, but others have been demolished. As of 2009, Worthing has three buildings of Grade I status, 11 listed at Grade II*, 196 of Grade II status and three at the equivalent Grade C.
Worthing, a seaside town in the English county of West Sussex which has had borough status since 1890, has a wide range of public services funded by national government, West Sussex County Council, Worthing Borough Council and other public-sector bodies. Revenue to fund these services comes principally from Council Tax.
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the East Worthing area of the borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. Built in 1867–68 to serve new residential development in the southeast of the town, the Decorated Gothic-style structure was extended later in the 19th century, and expanded its reach further by founding three mission halls elsewhere in Worthing. English Heritage has listed it at Grade C for its architectural and historical importance.
Worthing Tabernacle is an independent Evangelical Christian church in the town and borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The present building, with its distinctive pale stone exterior and large rose window, dates from 1908, but the church was founded in 1895 in a chapel built much earlier in the 19th century during a period when the new seaside resort's population was growing rapidly. In its present form, the church is affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in the Goring-by-Sea area of the Borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The late Norman parish church of the ancient village of Goring retains some architectural elements from that period, but Decimus Burton's comprehensive restoration of 1837 has given the church its present Gothic Revival exterior appearance. German artist Hans Feibusch, who worked extensively in the Diocese of Chichester, provided a mural in 1954: it is considered impressive, but caused controversy at the time. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
The Connaught Theatre is a Streamline Moderne-style theatre and cinema in the centre of Worthing, in West Sussex, England. Built as the Picturedrome cinema in 1914, the venue was extended in 1935 and became the new home of the Connaught Theatre. The theatre houses touring West End theatre productions, musicals, thrillers, dramas and children's productions. Since 1987, it has been a dual use cinema/theatre with two screens, and has a seating capacity of 512. When it opened, it was a rare example of a conversion from a cinema to a theatre: the reverse was much more common in 1930s Britain, when many theatres became cinemas. The Connaught Studio, next door, was the venue for the short-lived The End of the Pier International Film Festival.
Beach House Park is a formal garden in Worthing, a town and local government district in West Sussex, England. Opened by Worthing Borough Council in 1924, the 9.57-acre (3.87 ha) park has formal lawns and flowerbeds, bowling greens of international standard, and a war memorial commemorating war pigeons. A café in the grounds was destroyed by fire in 2009.
Worthing, a seaside resort on the English Channel coast of West Sussex, southeast England, has a long maritime history predating its late 18th-century emergence as a fashionable holiday and residential town. Fishing was a major economic activity for centuries, and still retains a small presence on Worthing's shingle shoreline. Smuggling, usually by sea, also contributed to the growing town's economy. The formerly sandy beach has changed over time, partly because of sea defence work carried out to alleviate concerns over flooding, which has affected the town several times. Large seaweed deposits, driven up from the sea bed, have caused occasional problems, while undersea rock formations off the coast have national importance as a wildlife habitat. There have been many shipwrecks and groundings in the area, and lifeboats were stationed in the town for many years.
St Andrew the Apostle is an Anglican church in Worthing, West Sussex, England. Built between 1885 and 1886 in the Early English Gothic style by Sir Arthur Blomfield, "one of the last great Gothic revivalists", the church was embroiled in controversy as soon as it was founded. During a period of religious unrest in the town, theological tensions within Anglicanism between High church Anglo-Catholics and Low church Anglicans were inflamed by what the latter group saw as the church's "idolatrous" Roman Catholic-style fittings—in particular, a statue of the Virgin Mary which was seized upon by opponents as an example of a reversion to Catholic-style worship in the Church of England. The "Worthing Madonna" dispute delayed the consecration of the church by several years. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade C for its architectural and historical importance, and the adjacent vestry and vicarage are listed separately at Grade II.
St Botolph's Church is an Anglican church in the Heene area of the borough of Worthing, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. It had 11th-century origins as a chapelry within the parish of West Tarring, but declined and fell into disuse by the 18th century. Neighbouring Worthing's rapid development as a seaside resort in the 19th century encouraged residential growth around the ancient village of Heene, and a new church with the same dedication was built to serve both Heene and the high-class planned estate of West Worthing. Edmund Scott's Early English Gothic-style church stands next to the fragmentary ruins of the old church, which are listed separately at Grade II.
The Thieves' Kitchen is a pub in the centre of the town and borough of Worthing, West Sussex. Established as a public house in the late 20th century, it occupies two early 19th-century listed buildings in the oldest part of the town: a Greek Revival-style former wine merchants premises, and a Neoclassical chapel built for Wesleyan Methodists in 1839. The main part of the pub is in the wine merchants building facing Warwick Street, while the old chapel, facing Bedford Row, serves as its function room. Both buildings have been designated separately as Grade II Listed Buildings.
St John the Evangelist's Church is the Anglican parish church of the Upper St Leonards area of St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The present building—a "very impressive and beautifully detailed" church in the Gothic Revival style, with a landmark tower—combines parts of Arthur Blomfield's 1881 church, wrecked during World War II, and Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's 1950s rebuild. Two earlier churches on the site, the second possibly designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, were themselves destroyed earlier in the 19th century. The rich internal fittings include a complete scheme of stained glass by Goodhart-Rendel's favoured designer Joseph Ledger and a 16th-century painting by Ortolano Ferrarese. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.
The following is a timeline of the history of the borough of Worthing, West Sussex, England.