In the latest of their series on the history of Jerseys streets, Jersey Archive staff take a look at an area formed out of sand dunes that became a home to various forms of commerce
A STUDY of the Esplanade and Castle Street is a story of the expansion of St Helier and the changing industries pursued in the Island’s capital. The area has changed completely in the last 200 years, being transformed from sand dunes to the commercial hub that it is today.
Tourism and agriculture dominated early on, with hotels and potato stores a familiar sight. As the Island has developed so has the area, with a shift in power to the finance and legal industries, represented by some of the Island’s predominant firms, like our sponsors Appleby.
The Esplanade is a relatively modern creation. The 1795 Duke of Richmond map reveals that the Esplanade did not even exist. In the place that it was to occupy all that can be seen are sand dunes.
However, Jersey has a long tradition of land reclamation and it was soon decided that a sea wall and roadway should be built so that the western parishes could have direct access to St Helier Harbour.
The first part of the Esplanade, to Patriotic Street, was started in 1829 by Abraham de la Mare. This was completed in 1835. In 1858 John Le Cras began work on widening it and extending it to West Park.
Castle Street did exist before the Esplanade was constructed but it was little more than a track across the sand. The creation of the Esplanade and the seawall meant that some measure of protection was provided to the area and Castle Street began to develop as a consequence.
Being so close to the Harbour and a central terminus for travel tourism has been a long-running industry in the Esplanade and Castle Street area.
In the 1901 census there are at least ten hotels listed, including the Victoria Hotel of 4 Esplanade, the Customs Hotel of 9 Esplanade and Bellevue Hotel of 14 Esplanade, now the Appleby building. However, by far the biggest hotel in the area is actually one that still exists today, the Grand Hotel.
The site of the Grand Hotel has a long tradition in the tourism industry. It was originally home to the Hotel Empress Eugénie, before becoming the Marine Hotel in the 1860s or 70s. In 1871 the hotel was run by Simeon Jewell, an Englishman with three sons.
Jewell was Jewish and was a trustee when a property in Upper Grove Place was bought for the purpose of building a synagogue. He also had an interest in quite a number of properties in St Helier, including a building called the Esplanade Brewery.
The Marine Hotel was bought by The Grand Hotel (Jersey) Ltd from Thomas Le Geyt Curry in 1889. Its foundation stone was laid in September 1890 and work began soon after. Its doors were finally opened to the public in June 1891 and it gained extremely positive reviews in the local press. The British Press and Jersey Times describes the hotel as ‘commodiously, not to say luxuriously, furnished throughout’ and says that all visitors will ‘have their every want carefully studied and met’.
The reviewer was also impressed by the accommodation of facilities of ‘the British national game’, with the presence of two fine billiard tables. Indeed, such was the importance placed on the game that in the 1901 census Peter Oliver, a 16-year-old from St John, was employed at the hotel as a billiard marker.
Interestingly, it is has been discovered that Achille-Claude Debussy, the great French composer, was a famous visitor to the Grand Hotel in the summer of 1904. At this point his professional life was flourishing but his personal life was mired in scandal.
In 1899 he married Rosalie Texier, a dressmaker. He then went on to meet Emma Bardac, the wife of a rich banker, and began an affair in 1904. He visited Jersey in July 1904 with his lover and stayed at the Grand Hotel. After his brief sojourn in the Island he returned to France, having decided to end his marriage.
As the Esplanade was populated by so many hotels it was not uncommon for attractions to come to the street. In September 1883 Myers’ Circus was opened for a short season in a spacious tent erected on the Esplanade on a piece of ground near the Marine Hotel.
The review in the British Press and Jersey Times was extremely complementary stating that ‘the acrobatic feats of the Hogini Brothers deserve very favourable mention’.
Sadly, the season was not to go without incident. On 27 September the performer known as George Albert Hogini – real name George Frank Burt – went to the hospital with a great pain in his bowels. He went into surgery to try to fix the problem but unfortunately it was too late and he died. He was only 13 years and ten months old.
His funeral service took place at St Andrew’s Church before he was buried at Mont à l’Abbé. The funeral service was organised by Mr J R Sinnatt, who recorded that the circus band played from the church to the cemetery and that it was very well attended, as the deceased was a great favourite.
Entertainment of a different variety was seen at the Esplanade in the 1870s. In 1877 because of the roughness of the weather the cutter Marie François of Plymouth was pulled from her anchorage and driven onto the breakwater.
It is reported that in the evening hundreds of people lined the Esplanade in order to view the attempt to pull the ship to safety. As a result of the weather one man was almost thrown overboard several times but they eventually succeeded, to great acclaim from the assembled crowd.
The railway was an integral part of the Esplanade. In 1869 a new bill in the name of the Jersey Railway Company Ltd was passed by the States of Jersey. Work on the line between St Helier and St Aubin was duly completed the following year and the inaugural journey took place on 25 October 1870. The old terminus building was located on the site of Jersey Tourism’s old headquarters.
The railway was a quick and easy link to the town from St Aubin. In 1879 a serious fire started at 12 Esplanade. It was being used as a store by a Mr Le Huquet, who rented the property from Mr McAllen, and it contained 5,000 empties, barrels and baskets, about 6 tons of potatoes and a quantity of apples.
The fire engine was called and the hose was attached to a fire plug in Castle Street, about 150 yards away. Unfortunately the supply of water was not good and holes in the hose meant that the pressure was extremely poor.
The fire soon became a spectacle as the regiment joined the firefight and more people gathered to watch the site. In fact, so interested were people that the newspaper report comments that inhabitants of St Aubin, having heard the news from the crier, boarded the first train to St Helier to watch the sight. A performance at the Assembly Rooms was even stopped so that the audience could go to St Helier to watch the blaze.
Fortunately the fire was eventually brought under control without loss of life but the States were severely criticised for not providing adequate fire-fighting facilities to protect the population.
Speaking to those who remember the Esplanade and Castle Street area in the early part of the 20th century, the thing that comes through strongly is the presence of the merchants. Names such as John Terry, Bailhache, Le Rossignol and Le Caudey all had stores in the area.
As the area expanded the religious needs of the community became important. Castle Street was a site of one of the earliest Catholic chapels in the Island after the French Revolution. The French Revolution saw an influx of émigrés to the Island who wanted to practise their Catholic religion.
In September 1803 a Catholic chapel was set up in an old flour loft in Castle Street. The only access to the site was by using a ladder. It was dedicated to St Louis in memory of the king and came to be known as Les Mielles or the Sand Hills.
Evidence of the building exists in the form of an insurance record from February 1836 in the name of Henry Lipscombe, a tobacconist. The insurance covers a building ‘used as a Catholic Chapel underneath as a Tobacco Store’. This chapel was used until the 1840s before the community outgrew it and it was replaced by a building in New Street.
The Anglican religion also had a presence in the Esplanade area. In 1854 the Rev Philippe Filleul, the Rector of St Helier, together with other members of the community, purchased a piece of land on the Esplanade for the purpose of building a district church. Work on the building of St Andrew’s Church started soon after.
The church was completed by 1869 and was conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioner, and in 1870 a new District was created to include St Andrew. Being so close to the water a lot of the early patrons were linked to the maritime profession in some way, including shipwrights, mariners and pilots.
In the 1920s it was decided that it would be appropriate to site a church in the First Tower area, which had a growing residential population. Work started on a new St Andrew’s Church and deconsecration of the church on the Esplanade took place in 1931.
The old St Andrew’s Church was finally sold to Sidney Horman Ltd in 1934 after it had its porch and bell tower removed.
