Closed Bank Holidays.
Originally called South Hawes and situated in an area dominated by sand dunes with a small local population, Southport only really came into being in the late 1700s. Tradition has it that local inn keeper, William Sutton, saw the potential to make money from people who wished to take the sea air. The area had become accessible with the opening of the Leeds Liverpool Canal nearby and tourists began to arrive.
In the early 1800s it become fashionable to visit spa towns and Southport gained the reputation of being a refined place to visit. By 1820, the town was being visited by over 20,000 visitors per year. The railway came to town in 1848, and this led to a further increase in numbers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sigmund Freud and P. T. Barnum are among those known to have visited.
Southport also began to attract the artists. Edwin Robert Beattie and William Gawin Herdman are possibly the best known but from the very beginning the town inspired people to take up a brush and record the sites and scenes.
This exhibition uses the collections from The Atkinson and Crosby Archives to illustrate the rich history of Southport and through these recordings the visitor today can see the changes that have made the town the place that we know today.
