THE secret history of a "master of spin" may lie behind the creation of one of Bournemouth's cultural gems.
It is a tale of political shenanigans, angry mobs burning effigies - and shady financial dealings.
Today tourists and visitors enjoy the plush surrounds and extensive art collection of the Russell-Cotes Museum in peace and quiet.
But the controversial career of the former mayor who donated in to the town 100 years ago this year, in what may have been an attempt to turn the tide of some bad press, was anything but uneventful.
Sean Garner, the museum's collection development officer, said he thinks the donation of the house was a piece of media manipulation designed to give Russell-Cotes "immortality" in the town that had never taken to him.
Merton Russell-Cotes arrived in Bournemouth as a man of great confidence in himself - and great connections.
Comfortably off but not wealthy, he somehow bought the Royal Bath Hotel with the aid of a massive loan from an unknown source - possibly secured through one of his wife's relatives.
He then tried to effectively annexe the road between the hotel and the modern day car park. He claimed it was his and built three houses.
The council had other ideas and pulled them down.
Mr Garner said: "There's a newspaper report that says at 3am, 60 workmen and 12 horses and carts were sent down to remove one - and this is all while he was the mayor."
His image got even worse.
Russell-Cotes had studied medicine and was put in charge of finding a location for an insane asylum for the town - which proved so unpopular effigies of him were burned in the street.
He was nouveau riche' as well, at a time when the aristocracy still held sway.
His installation of numerous heraldic emblems and mottoes in the house may have been his attempt to compensate.
Mr Garner said: "He was unpopular for a large number of years. Being an outside didn't help."
Russell-Cotes's most spectacular piece of controversy and political manoeuvring led to the donation of the house on November 6, 1907.
The cliffs the house stand on were in danger of collapse and some kind of building work could prop them up, while providing an attraction for the town.
The question was what should be built? The council wanted a row of shops - Russell-Cotes didn't.
"The last thing he wanted as the smell of fish and chips wafting up to his home," said Mr Garner.
"He wanted a promenade to bring in high class visitors like they had in Eastbourne."
He used his power to dash the plan and got the council to instead commit itself to spending £5,000 on the undercliff path and promenade.
The town was split - many people thought it was just his way of using his power as a town improvement commissioner, and the town's money, to stop his house falling into the sea.
The night before the undercliff was due to open a celebratory dinner was held - and Russell-Cotes announced he was donating his house and art collection to the town.
The next day the tide of opinion had begun to turn.
The house was worth £60,000 to £90,000 so it seemed a good deal for the town. Russell-Cotes and his wife were dubbed "the good fairies of Bournemouth".
He died in 1921, one year after his wife, at the age of 86, and the house passed to the people of Bournemouth.
Whatever the reasons for its building, Mr Garner acknowledge the economic benefits of the promenade, But he said: "Russell-Cotes might have planned to do it, but it was an opportunity to give himself a good press.
"I think he was a master of spin."
