The Now and Then column with Aled Jones: Focusing on changes along The Spa Promenade

This time Mr Jones focuses on The Spa complex area using a postcard from the early 1900s and a modern day photo.

Mr Jones said: “By the time the first moving pictures came to Bridlington in the early 1900s, when cinematograph films were shown at the Grand Pavilion theatre on the north end of the Prince’s Parade, the mass-market box camera had become a common sight along the piers and seafronts of the resort.

“This wonderful colourised vintage postcard, from about 1904, emphasises just how popular snapshot photography was in Bridlington 120 years ago. It shows a well-dressed Edwardian man (left of the group of eight) carrying a famous ‘Brownie’ camera with tripod attachment. Manufactured by Kodak and sold at a bargain price, its fixed focus simplicity got the world hooked on taking still pictures of ‘life’s best moments’ – memories that lasted generations.

“By the start of 1909 moving pictures were being shown at the New Spa Opera House, but it is the original Spa building that takes proud centre stage in the Edwardian postcard.

“The ‘Old’ Spa was first opened in July 1896 and proved exceedingly popular with residents and holidaymakers alike, indeed during its very first month it had an impressive 80,000 visitors.

“The complex had so many fabulous attractions on offer varying from a theatre and cafe to a bandstand and boating lake, all laid out with lovely flower beds and walks.

“I believe the tall edifice soaring into the sky behind the Spa building was used by daredevil stunt show riders, the Evel Knievel’s of their time, who would ride a unicycle down a spiral wooden track to the delight of the paying public. If only there could be an attraction like this today in the resort, what a crowd puller it would be.

“The modern photographic replication taken by me recently, showing the precise scene as it appears today, exhibits the truly momentous changes that have taken place since the original photo was taken.

“For example, the beautiful garden to the side of the Spa Theatre has vanished and is now a drab paved courtyard (partially hidden by the new Lifeboat Station), though it was also previously a much-loved motor boat lake.

“The Spa complex itself has, of course, altered out of all proportion from its fairly humble beginnings shown in the early Edwardian postcard.

“Intriguingly, there is a large wooden jetty in the postcard (centre, right) that no longer exists, was this used to facilitate rowing boat trips around the idyllic South Bay?

“About the only thing that really hasn’t changed at all is the beautiful curvature of the sea wall in this truly iconic area of the town.”