Welcome to Happyland: how bathing station transformed Bournemouth seafront

The town had spent a large amount of money improving facilities for bathers by opening a new bathing station and shelter at the West Beach promenade.

And the building – which is today home to the Happyland amusement arcade – was commissioned in the nick of time. War clouds were already gathering over Europe, and the outbreak of the Second World War would make such public spending on leisure attractions unthinkable for years to come.

Bournemouth man Terence Anthony has been researching the history of the building, through news cuttings, council minutes and photographs stored at Bournemouth Library. He began looking into the subject as a favour for friend David Francis, who runs Happyland and owns the Balmoral Hotel.

In June 1938, the minutes of Bournemouth council’s town planning and buildings committee recorded the latest news on the “proposed Bathing Station and Shelter, West Beach”.

The minutes recorded: “The Town Clerk reported that the Ministry of Health had intimated that a local Inquiry would be held into the council’s application to borrow £18,000 for the erection of the bathing station and shelter.” The following month, the committee agreed to accept a tender from Messrs W Hayward & Sons to build the station for £13,246.

In October, the beach and pavilion committee heard that the Ministry had approved a loan of £14,395, repayable in 30 years, and £205, repayable in 10 years, “for the erection and equipment of a bathing station and shelter on the West Promenade”.

A decision by the same committee in February 1939 shows how the plans for the building were taking shape. It recommended: “That the Borough Engineer be instructed to arrange for the roof of this building to be strengthened by the provision of a number of upright supports; that means of access to the roof terrace be provided from the zigzag path only, and that deck chairs be provided on the roof for hire by persons using the roof terrace.”

Councillors also resolved that the borough treasurer should buy an “automatic ticket issuing machine” for £10 and 10 shillings.

The bathing station was finally ready to open on Saturday July 22 1939.

An Echo report that day gave an idea of just how luxurious the facilities must have seemed.

It read: “First, bathing machines on wheels; then, canvas tents which littered the promenade; and now the latest bathing pavilion where you can undress, leave your clothes in a paper bag and descend by blue terrazzo steps to the sands, and then after the dip spend hours in the sun if you so wish.

“That is the evolution of bathing in public at Bournemouth, of which the latest stage is signified by the opening of the new bathing station de luxe on the west beach.”

The report commented on the impressive entrance hall with a seagull motif, which remains in the space occupied by the Happyland amusement arcade building today. It noted approvingly that there was a tiled hall leading to the dressing cubicles, which had partitions made of teak that “does not strike so cold as steel if one happens to lean against it”.

Beachgoers could soon hire bathing costumes at the station, and in 1940 the beach and pavilion committee agreed to order “84 dozen costumes at £120 13s 6d” from Messrs WH Bradbury & Son.

The arrival of the war was to make seaside bathing impossible, with barbed wire installed on the beaches to protect against the threat of a Nazi invasion. Civilians were allowed back on the south’s beaches 70 years ago last month.

The bathing station was in operation for around 30 years before the building became an amusement arcade – where people would still occasionally wonder in looking for a changing room. Meanwhile, the seafront is still waiting for another improvement suggested in that July 1939 report of the bathing station’s opening.

“Perhaps this is not the last word in luxury,” the paper said. “But it is difficult to imagine many improvements unless the Corporation undertakes to heat the sea to the required temperature.”