ENGLAND WILL SOON BE ONE BIG CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)

ENGLAND WILL SOON BE ONE BIG CITY.

HER WATERINGPLACES ARE NO LONGER ISOLATED. (Written for the “Star” by A C JONES.) But yesterday an American who had travelled through England said that English towns and villages were now so closely linked by excellent roads and so nearly overlapped that before long the whole country would be one big city. This comes as a shock to those who knew England when the most popular health and holiday resorts were half a day s journey from London and when the journey itself was not the least excitement of the holiday. Most colonial travellers are advised to visit Brighton or * London by the Sea,” in Sussex, and Torquay, in Devonshire. Both these coastal towns were made popular by Royalty, although recognised holiday resorts long before kings and princes i placed, the seal of tlieir approval upon them. Brighton has seen itself drawn | ever nearer London by improvements j m means of transport. The old four-in-hand coach was followed by the rail- ' wa T —the trains steadily increasing i speed until the days of the famous Brighton Express”— and the railwav yielding much of its human freight to the motor cars of to-day. “Fashionable Brighton.” The history of Brighton as a place of recreation, rest and pleasure dates from 1750. In 1783 the Prince of Wales {afterwards King George IV.) made Brighton the fashion, and it may in truth be said that it has been in! fashion ever since. The railway (through from London to Brighton) was opened in 1841, and from then until this day the town has been a special favourite with wealthy Jews. In 1831 j resident population of the town was but 40,000; to-day, with its suburb of Hove, it has 200,000. The floating population during public holidays is < probably beyond computation. Mr. Harold Clunn, in a book on ] famous South Coast resorts,* has selected i Brighton as the first of seven of Eng- t land's southern coastal health resorts } for his extended histories of the towns, j and to journey with him to any one of the seven, is to learn to know not only Its physical features but the most inti- \ mate details of its neighbours, life, and excursion advantages. We ourselves ' have “lived, and loved, and languished” ' in the soft sub-tropical climate ot * Torquay, which, except for rainfall, is: * almost a counterpart of Auckland ini normal times. J

I “No corner,” says Mr. Clunn, “on the j shores of the Mediterranean, on the 7 lake shores of Italy and Switzerland, in America, or in the Southern Seas, can properly be said to excel Torquay in the loveliness of Its exquisite domestic scenery, and its perfect climatic conditions in spring. It boasts more sunshine and less frost than many popular resorts I. the Riviera.” Napoleon gazed upon Torquay-from the deck of the Bellerophon, and probably regretted that he had not done,so as a conqueror instead of as a prisoner. “Enfin, voila un beau pays,” said he. 2 S “Select” Bournemouth, t _ Amongst the most popular of English South. Coast resorts is Bournemouth, with its gentle breezes, pine trees, and J beautiful gardens and public walks. It - perhaps, a little depressing to. the . holidaymaker, for it is a place much j recommended by the medical profession to invalids, convalescents and elderly , people. Consequently, it is the ambition of the residents and tradespeople to keep it quiet, orderly, “select,” and rather • expensive. A report says that “the , peaceful, uneventful life of Bournemouth was rudely shaken by a murder in 1921,” j and this is probably the only event of any newspaper importance which ha’s stirred beautiful Bournemouth in many -years. The population is now 150.000. There is nothing of the guide book about j Mr. Chinn's history of these towns, and ; there are over 200 photographs to illus- * trate the seven resorts he has studied, the pictures themselves being of historij cal value, some being reproduced from drawings a century old. Worthing and Bognor have been brought into public favour during the present year by the fact that it was to the latter town King George V. was sent during his illness to recuperate. Bognor is now “Bognor Regis.” Up until this date Bognor has been the inexpensive resort of middle-class workers with small incomes and large I families. Having been fifty years behind the times in the matter of accommodation, it will offer colonial visitors a taste of old-fashioned hospitality until fashionable visitors following the King { convert it into gomething more like “high-class Eastbourne,” which has since early Victorian days simply crackled and rustled with the prim starchiness of exceeding propriety. Railway facilities between all the large south towns and London are surprisingly good. The Brighton express is a seventy-five-miles-an-hour, sparkling steam conveyance which is the perfection of smooth and comfortable running, and the Worthing train does sixty-one miles in less than eighty-one minutes. When you go for a holiday you do not wish to waste a great part of it on the way to the place selected. Mr. Clunn has set out to assist you in your selection.

•“Some Famous South Coast Resort a,"by ii. Clunn Ltd.)