Seaview

Isle of Wight

Old postcards are sometimes poorly produced and grainy, I've done my best to scan them. Please click thumbnails for full size picture. Dates are from the card or my estimate (where possible). The manufacturer of the card is shown in brackets (where available).

Seaview is a coastal village to the east of Ryde which dates mainly from the early 19th century. The 900 feet suspension pier was built in 1880, fell into disrepair before the second world was and was destroyed by a storm in 1951.

Pretty Seaview, long regarded merely as an outpost of Ryde, has of late asserted a well-justified independence, and to-day holds an enviable position among those minor seaside resorts which appeal so much more strongly to discriminating holiday-makers than do the larger towns.

It is appropriately named, being situated on a prominent headland at the north-eastern extremity of the Island, commanding a spacious outlook over the Solent and the open sea. The constant procession of warships, liners and craft of all kinds is a source of never-failing interest. The fine firm sands of the two bays, the bordering woodland, reaching down to the very water, and the leafy lanes in the vicinity lend the place a rare charm. Both on and near the front are many attractive houses, but accommodation is in such demand during the season that the would-be visitor has generally to make arrangements months in advance.

The speciality of Seaview, and the principal attraction to the families who regularly, year after year, resort to it, is the sea-bathing. Very pleasing the many bathing tents look from the water, with their crowd of merry children on the sand in front and their dark green setting of foliage behind and eastward.

Ward Locks Red Guide around 1930



Seaview Yacht Club, 1907. (National)	Seaview, 1910. (National)

An Artistic view looking toward Seaview Pier (Salmon)	Seaview Pier entrance, undated. (Jarrolds)

A busier scene at Seaview Pier, undated. (Photochrome)	Seaview beach to the east of the pier, visible in the background. (LL)

Seaview, a view looking west, postmarked 1921. (Horsey)	The same beach, looking in the opposite direction.

The promenade at Seagrove Bay, Seaview about 1910. (LL)	This advert from 1950 shows the Pier Hotel taken from the Pier. This was renamed the Halland Hotel when the pier was demolished and itself later demolished for redevelopment as housing.

To the east of Seaview is St Helens. The tower of St Helens of the old church, a victim of coastal erosion, now used as a Sea Mark, about 1910. (Peacock)	St Helens beach, probably from the late sixties, note the old railway carriage on the left. (Bay Series)

St Helens Green, about 1904

22 November 2009