Beach House in Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 is a Regency

Regency architecture

The Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...

 beach-side villa, built in 1820 to designs by John Rebecca

John Rebecca

John Biagio Rebecca , the son of Italian-born decorative painter Biagio Rebecca , was an architect of many buildings in Sussex and London. He is credited as being the principal architect of Georgian Worthing...

. It was originally known as Marino Mansion.

History

In the mid-eighteenth century, Sir Frederick Adair Roe, Chief Magistrate

Chief Magistrate

Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a public official whose office—individual or collegial—is the highest in his or her class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate : as a major political and administrative office , and/or as a judge Chief Magistrate is a generic designation...

 of the Bow Street

Bow Street Magistrates' Court

Bow Street Magistrates' Court was the most famous magistrates' court in England for much of its existence, and was located in various buildings on Bow Street in central London close to Covent Garden throughout its history.-History:...

 office and head of the Bow Street Runners

Bow Street Runners

The Bow Street Runners have been called London's first professional police force. The force was founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding and originally numbered just six. Bow Street runners was the public's nickname for these officers, "although the officers never referred to themselves as...

, London's police force, owned and lived in Beach House.

Sir Robert Loder

Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet

Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet DL, JP was an English landowner, magistrate and Conservative politician.Loder was the son of Giles Loder, of Wilsford Salisbury, and his wife Elizabeth Higgbotham, daughter of John Higgbotham, of St Petersburg. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge...

, Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for New Shoreham

New Shoreham (UK Parliament constituency)

New Shoreham, sometimes simply called Shoreham, was a parliamentary borough centred on the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in what is now West Sussex...

, lived at Beach House until his death in 1888. His wife, Lady Maria Georgiana Loder and his eldest son Sir Edmund Loder continued to live at Beach House after Sir Robert's death.

Between 1907 and 1910 King Edward VII

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 stayed at the house several times while visiting Sir Edmund Loder and his family.

In 1917, playwright Edward Knoblock

Edward Knoblock

Edward Knoblock was an American-born British playwright and novelist most remembered for the often revived 1911 play, Kismet-Biography:...

 bought the house. His visitors included Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...

, J. B. Priestley

J. B. Priestley

John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...

, and Sir Compton Mackenzie. Knoblock refurbished the interior and forecourt of the property to the designs of Scottish architect Ormrod Maxwell Ayrton, while displaying furniture from the Thomas Hope collection he had bought from a sale at Deepdene in Dorking

Dorking

Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 .

During the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 in 1936, Beach House was used to house children evacuated from their homes in the Basque

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 province of Biscay

Biscay

Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

. The children were fleeing bombing and starvation after the destruction of the town of Guernica by the Nazi Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

. They were supported and cared for entirely by local volunteers.

From 1939 to 1945, during the Second World War, Beach House was used by the Air Training Corps

Air Training Corps

The Air Training Corps , commonly known as the Air Cadets, is a cadet organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary youth group which is part of the Air Cadet Organisation and the Royal Air Force . It is supported by the Ministry of Defence, with a regular RAF Officer, currently Air...

.

Beach House is a Grade II* listed building.

The grounds

This beach-side open space surrounding the Regency building of Beach House is situated in Brighton Road and was purchased by Worthing Borough Council in December 1927 and laid out in 1937-1938. The grounds are 2.78 acres (11265.25 sq. m) and have a playground, two tennis courts and a car park.
Beach House gives its name to nearby Beach House Park

Beach House Park, Worthing

Beach House Park is a formal garden in Worthing, a town and local government district in West Sussex, England. Opened by Worthing Borough Council in 1924, the park has formal lawns and flowerbeds, bowling greens of international standard, and a war memorial commemorating war pigeons...

, opposite Beach House, one of the world's best-known venues for bowls

Bowls

Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...

.