Brixham’s fascinating past

Arthur Hyde Dendy Paignton Pioneer

Arthur Hyde Dendy transformed Paignton and its seafront, building hotels and introducing an omnibus service, theatres, a cycle track, archery range and bathing machines as well as notably, building Paignton Pier. Torbay Civic Society Chairman, Ian Handford tells us more.

We had three distinguished solicitors leading the towns of Torbay during the Victorian era. In Torquay it was William Kitson, in Brixham Richard Wolston and in Paignton Arthur Hyde Dendy, who had moved into the town after practising as a barrister in Birmingham. Married with one daughter this successful lawyer would within twenty years transform Paignton and its seafront. As an active entrepreneur he built hotels and two theatres, also creating the rst bathing machine business and omnibus company so that he could provide a regular public service for passengers to get to and from Torquay. In essence Mr Dendy changed the lifestyles of local people and in time his services would transform the ever-growing interests of tourists in Torbay.

He built the Gerston Hotel followed by an Esplanade Hotel (today - the Inn the Green) before building the Adelphi and Terra Nova properties, later known as the recently demolished Park Hotel. It was from his Esplanade Hotel that he operated his bathing machine hire business through a ‘Bathing Machine Company’. Behind the hotel he created a cycle track, before setting up a local newspaper business, which in time published many travel guides. en nally in 1877-8 his thoughts turned towards what was to be his most ambitious project - to provide a pier for Paigntonians.

Arthur Hyde Dendy was born in London and quali ed as a lawyer in Birmingham where he became very rich. On retiring from Birmingham he brought his family to Paignton where now, as an active investor, he started to establish numerous companies for his many and varied businesses. His rst venture came in 1870 when building the Gerston Hotel. It capitalised on the railway, which had just arrived in the town courtesy of Isambard K Brunel. With the main station opposite the Gerston Hotel on

Hyde Road, Mr Dendy now built the Esplanade Hotel today the oldest building on the Esplanade. It was from here the locals could hire his bathing machines for use on the beach. With mixed bathing then illegal in Torbay, males and females bathed apart and men would be prosecuted for getting too close to a ladies bathing machine. e Duchy of Cornwall owned all the western foreshores and quiet beaches were often used for nude bathing. However, mixed bathing (then known as continental bathing) was only made legal in October 1900, after public taste had changed. Over in Torquay the law was not relaxed and it was years before they changed their rules. In fact Torquay became recognised as one of the last resorts on the South Coast not to allow continental or “mixed” bathing. e entrepreneurial risks taken by Mr Dendy were huge, yet the speed of change was quite incredible. His horsedrawn omnibus service was up and running by 1872, his Bijou eatre was opened in 1873, although in truth this was a piece of Victorian extravaganza, being little larger than a normal sized drawing room within the Gerston Hotel. But it was Dendy’s way of being seen as a patron of the arts or as his newly published guidebook said, “ e Bijou theatre …is elegantly - nay, luxuriously - tted up where high class theatrical and other entertainments frequently take place”. By now his private omnibuses were used to travel to and from Paignton on scheduled services, which even included an evening service, so that audiences could safely return to Torquay after the show at the Bijou had ended.

Next Dendy purchased the Teignmouth Pier for £1100, intending to have it dismantled and rebuilt on Paignton Seafront. He soon realised that the idea was impracticable, as extensive rusting meant movement was impossible and so Teignmouth Pier had to be rebuilt which took him some time. Meanwhile, in 1873 he acquired land from the Steart eld Estate owned by another famous man of the area, William Froude, who was in partnership with Edward Studdy. e purchase enabled Dendy to start draining the marshland on the front Esplanade, in advance of what would become his lasting legacy - a pier for Paignton. He needed Royal Assent for the project and this took until 1874. What he said was, “his air for spending money to make more” was now really put to the test. It took another two years before in 1878, a Paignton Pier Company was formed. Local architect George Bridgman created the design and by June 1879 Paignton’s rst ever pier was open to the public.

In 1881 the pier was extended so a longer walkway emerged, much as Mr Dendy had originally envisaged. Now a pavilion, a theatre plus refreshment rooms and two billiard tables were installed while outside a roller skating surface and changing rooms for seafront bathers were also built. By 1883 Mr Dendy had created his cycle track behind the Esplanade - an innovation he described in his Dendy Guidebooks as, “one of the safest, best and most scienti c yet constructed in the country”. e track incorporated an archery range (410 by 110 feet) at the centre and they seasonally allowed the track to be used by Paignton’s Scarlet Runners XV. A club with dressing rooms, accommodation and refreshment rooms, then allowed audiences of up to 250 in a new grandstand. e venue later became the headquarters of the famous Scarlet Runners XV Club.

Arthur Hyde Dendy died at Paignton on 13th August 1886. He was survived by his wife who died a year later on 10th August 1887. Arthur is remembered as we drive along Hyde Road and Dendy Road, both honouring his name. His Pier eatre was lost in a re in 1919 and was never rebuilt. As if to add insult to injury, a section of the inshore walkway was then removed as an “anti-invasion precaution” during the Second World War.

Arthur Dendy, this “Maker of Paignton”, was once asked why he chose Paignton and not Torquay and his simple reply, “Torquay was made for Paigntonians to look at”.   torbaycivicsociety.co.uk

Dendy’s house on Paignton Esplanade