ORIGIN AS A SEASIDE SPA RESORT
Scarborough became England's first seaside spa resort after the discovery, made c.1626, of the medicinal properties of Scarborough’s spring water. "Taking the Water" quickly became Scarborough’s accepted medicine and its fame quickly spread.
In 1660 the "summer season" began after a well-known doctor stated that the waters were best drunk from mid-May to mid-September. Very soon wealthy and health-conscious people were flocking to Scarborough from all over the country.
At about the same time doctors also began promoting sea-bathing as a healthy pastime. They gave plenty of advice on the best way to bathe: briefly, healthy males for five minutes before breakfast daily; the ‘weaker sex’, invalids and children for three dips of two minutes duration three hours after breakfast three times a week!
To encourage sea bathing a horse-drawn box on wheels could be hired to take the bather out into the sea, enabling the occupier to undress before ‘dipping’ in the sea. In the Public Library there is a view of the town as it was in 1735 by John Setterington, which shows people bathing and the first recorded evidence for the use of bathing machines.
Scarborough responded to the large number of visitors by providing every fashionable amenity. A Long Room in St Nicholas Street provided nightly dancing, music, gaming tables and billiards; plays were performed in the Theatre, there were coffee shops and bookshops with circulating libraries, and horse-racing on the sands. A whole range of accommodation was offered to suit every pocket - board and lodgings, a room at inns and hostelries, renting a Georgian house or, later, top-quality hotels.