Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
RYDE SOCIAL HERITAGE GROUP
Based at Ryde Cemetery Heritage & Learning Centre. Preserving, documenting and promoting the social history of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
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The Esplanade Pavilion

Esplanade Pavilion Postcard dated 1975

11 January 1968
With Ryde’s 40 year-old Esplanade Pavilion nearing the end of its life; should the Borough Council go ahead with an ambitious plan to replace it with an “entertainments centre.”?

There were mixed opinions when the matter was debated at the bi-monthly meeting of the council on Tuesday before the project was approved in principle.

Certainly, it will be some time before the plan becomes reality—a fact obvious by another decision, to spend £650 on repainting the Esplanade Pavilion.

The Parks and Entertainments Committee reported that the Borough Surveyor, Mr. William Rowbotham, had prepared an outline plan of an entertainments centre building on the Pavilion site.  This provided a theatre, dressing rooms, general purpose room, ancillary amenities, and covered shelter accommodation around the band enclosure.  They recommended that the scheme be approved in principle.

About £100,000 was envisaged for the swimming pool and a similar sum for the theatre, and some £125,000 for the new road.  Those were big sums and it could not be seen there was any great hurry over total development costing £500,000.

Cllr. Mrs. Grace Burridge said she was astonished at the “astronomical” sum it was intended to spend there.  “In winter, even an Eskimo dressed in British clothing would not want to go down the front in an icy blast; it would cool the ardour of any audience,” she declared.

The plan showed a proposed swimming pool adjacent to the centre and bandstand.  A terrific amount of noise was inherent in a swimming pool and it should not be so close to the bandstand; it would interfere with the music. Incorporated in it should be a form of ice rink as suggested in the plan.

It was said “The Esplanade is an uncharitable place.  The Pavilion is going to fall down within the next few years.” It should not only be replaced but improved upon.

Note:
To date (2024), 56 years after the council discussion, the Esplanade Pavilion is still standing, used as a ten-pin bowling centre.  The building didn’t fall down as predicted.

Source: IW Times & RSHG Archive
Image: Postcard Ann Barrett
Article: Ann Barrett