Sitwells at Scarborough

Osbert Sitwell

His sister Edith, later Dame Edith, and their younger brother Sacheverell were born in Scarborough, the former at Wood End, the latter at Belvoir House.

Wood End, now a museum, in The Crescent was bought by the widowed Lady Louisa Sitwell, their grandmother, in 1870. Her son George was 10 when the family came to live in the house, so both he, and later his own children Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell, were very familiar with the resort.

After Wood End was given to Sir George by Lady Louisa, he built the library wing and the connecting bridge across the conservatory. He left an account of the exotic birds that frequented the conservatory, and also his impressions of life in late 19th century Scarborough.
Wood End became the family's autumn and winter home, and it was there, during a frigid Scarborough winter, that Edith first noted the pattern of fern and feather mirrored by frost on the window.
Osbert Sitwell, five years younger than his sister, recalled his turn-of-the-century Scarborough childhood with affection. In the first volume of his autobiography, Left Hand, Right Hand, he gives us Davis, the nanny whose all-purpose remedy was Butler and Crisps Pomade Divine; and the sound of a band playing at the corner of the Crescent "and a voice somewhere singing 'Linger Longer, Lucy, Linger Longer, Lou"; and the Cat Man who mewed to himself on the sand. Osbert made pre-First World War Scarborough, thinly disguised as 'Newborough' the setting for his novel Before the Bombardment.
Sir George decided that it would be a good thing for Osbert to enter the town clerk's office. However, Osbert became a soldier in the Grenadier Guards and soon afterwards came the First World War.
The German bombardment of the resort on December 16 1914 provided Sir Osbert with the subject of his novel Before the Bombardment (1926). Some of Sir Osbert's short stories were also set in Scarborough, most notably Low Tide and the spine-chilling A Place of One' s Own. Early on in the latter of the two stories is a description of Newborough's seaside atmosphere of summer crowds, "hokey-pokey" sellers and banana vendors, then a novelty fruit. A film of A Place of One's Own starring the Huddersfield-born actor James Mason was made in 1945.
Just after the First World War and before he embarked on his career as an author, Captain Osbert Sitwell, as he then was, stood as Liberal candidate for the Scarborough constituency.
In 1925 Sir George Sitwell closed the mansion altogether, and nine years later he sold it to Scarborough Corporation.
One of the earliest visitors to Scarborough was Tobias Smollett, who described the spa town in Humphry Clinker, his novel about a journey round the country.
Scarborough, he said, "was a paltry town". However, he was clearly intrigued by the bathing protocols of the day which surrounded the famous spa.
"Imagine to yourself a small, snug, wooden chamber, fixed upon a wheel-carriage, having a door at each end and on each side a little window above, a beach below.
"The Bather ascending into this apartment by wooden steps, shuts himself in and begins to undress, while the attendant yokes a horse to th end next the sea, and draws the carriage forwards, till the surface of the water is on a level with the floor of the dressing room then he moves and fixes the horse to the other end. The person within being stripped opens the door to the seaward where he finds the guide ready and plunges headlong into the water.
"Should he be so weak or ill as to require a servant to put off and on his clothes, there is room enough in the apartment for half a dozen people. The guides who attend the ladies in the water are of their own sex and they and the female bathers have a dress of flannel for the sea; nay, they are provided with other conveniences for the support of decorum.

Creative centre draws on Sitwells connection

Published Date: 08 October 2008

By Mark Branagan

GONE but not forgotten. Artists are celebrating the future of a new creative arts centre by looking back on its history as the home of one of Yorkshire's greatest literary families.

Crescent Arts in Scarborough, has opened its new gallery at Wood End, former home of the Sitwell family, now a suite of offices for a number of creative industries.

Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell spent much of their childhood at Wood End, and many

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fans of the family, including leading author Susan Hill, who grew up in Scarborough, were concerned the connection might be lost in the redevelopment.

But Crescent Arts and the other business tenants are determined the family's contribution to the cultural landscape of the early 20th century should not be forgotten in the new surroundings.

The Sitwells, especially Edith, were leading lights of the avant guard of their day and had connections to Cecil Beaton through his many photographic portraits of the three siblings.

Crescent Arts still has one foot in the basement of Scarborough Art Galley, its former home, but has expanded into Wood End for its new Crescent Artspace activities.

Members teamed up with costume students at the resort's Yorkshire Coast College, Hull University, Scarborough School of Arts and New Media Arts, and photographer Graham Mack for a number of events to celebrate the life of the Sitwells.

Highlights include a display featuring the combined talents of visual artists, designers, and performers, inspired by Beaton's photo. The celebration would not be complete without the faces of the Sitwells themselves who appear as head sculptures on Corinthian columns, plus a haunting vision of Edith peeping through the library window.