Scarborough by the Sea, N.E. England’s Pioneering Tourist Mecca

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Yorkshire’s spa attraction

Scarborough on North Yorkshire’s eastern coast, still popular today with domestic holidaymakers, was Britain’s first seaside resort. It all started in 1626 with one Elizabeth Farrow§. Mrs Farrow made the discovery of a stream of acidic water running from the cliff to the South Bay. The stream purportedly contained healing properties, prompting the landed aristocracy and gentry to flock to Scarborough from all over the island to “take the waters” and to bathe in the sea (for health rather than pleasure) and so a highly fashionable spa resort was born. Dr Robert Wittie (ca.1660) was instrumental in being the first medical man to promote the town’s mineral waters as a cure-all for ailments. 

Wittie also advocated bathing in the sea as a medicinal remedy. By 1735 a curious contraption known as a “bathing machine” started to appear on Scarborough’s two beaches.  These were horse-drawn boxes on wheels—“mobile changing rooms for swimmers” (Harrison)—which were driven to the shoreline, allowing (female) bathers to change into their non-revealing “bathing gowns” in private and swim briefly in the ocean unobserved by males.

Grand Hotel and bathing machines on beach

In the 1700s the town was a popular getaway spot for the wealthy of London...so much so that the contemporary man of letters Horace Walpole was moved to remark, ”London’s empty, everyone’s gone to Scarborough”. The introduction of a train service to Scarborough in 1845 made the resort destination even more of a popular haven. Today British day-trippers make the journey to Scarborough solely for pleasure and a bit of R & R as the waters have been deemed unfit for human consumption since the 1960s.

Scarborough pre-spa: Iron Age, Romans, Vikings, etc: The town dates from AD 966 (Norse name Skarðaborg), thought to be founded by Vikings under the leadership of Thorgils Skarthi. Before the Vikings came along there was a Roman signal station on the site from AD 370. Archaeological evidence points to settlements in Scarborough going back 2,500 years. An Angevin stone castle (or what’s left of it)  stands atop the great rock above the beach, built in the time of Henry II (12th century) and used as a base for campaigns by successive English kings against the Scots. In the Middle Ages the town’s main association was with its annual fair...made famous in the traditional English ballad “Are you going to Scarborough Fair?”.

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§ AKA Mrs Thomason Farrer

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Articles consulted:

‘Sea Bathing and the first bathing machine at Scarborough’, Sarah Harrison, The Yorkshire Journal, Issue 1 Spring 2012

’Scarborough travel tips: shows old and new at the Spa’, Clare Gogerty, The Guardian 18-Feb-2013