A Tour of Onchan 2
Round The Edges.

Mount Royal

This little known name relates to the road running from Port Jack up to meet Royal Avenue West and Imperial Terrace. The row of black and white shops on Mount Royal were built by Alex Gill in 1915 but the little brick building at the top end was erected as a public toilet.

In 1951 this was altered and converted into a coach booking office for Corkill’s Garage. This was in the days when hundreds of holiday makers would be staying in Royal Avenue West, Belgravia Road and Imperial Terrace during the summer months and would make their way to the beach at Douglas or Port Jack on foot passing the shops en route.

The bottom row of shops facing on to King Edward Road were built by Alex Gill three years earlier in 1912 and the stream from Port Jack Glen passes beneath them in a pipe that then discharges over the cliff in the form of a waterfall.

There have been a number of changes to this row of shops over the years. A first floor has been added to one of the shops of more recent times and the first shop (nearest Douglas) started life as a photographic studio with a postcard shop on the ground floor but has become entirely domestic. The small building on the right hand end was built as a coach booking kiosk and altered for Ranson’s Happy Days Tours in the mid 1950s.

The top row of shops with flats above date from 1983 and were built by Frank Hunter who had purchased the row of single storey shops built by Alex Gill in 1911 in a similar manner to his other shops. The one beside the slip way was in fact used by Caley’s the bakers as a summer shop in the early years of its existence selling its products to the visitors who passed.

Royal Avenue and Royal Terrace

Larger Image Royal Terrace with the end house of Royal Avenue on the left. “Gorselea”, as it was called, had an extra storey to the remainder of the terrace in Royal Avenue which were built by Alex Gill in red Ruabon brick. The first house in Royal Terrace is double fronted but because of the layout of the land the property steps back so the accommodation is not twice that of its neighbours.

The terraces of red brick houses were built by Alex Gill who purchased the land in November 1897 for £2570 from the Douglas Bay Estate Company. He started work immediately building the red brick Royal Avenue houses, south facing and overlooking the glen and Douglas Bay. They were built in two groups and he actually sold off the completed dwellings which was not his usual practice. Of the Royal Terrace houses four were complete during 1899 and six by 1903. These were built as guesthouses yet such was the volume of visitors to the island that a number of the houses in Royal Avenue also took guests. It was not uncommon in such cases that the visitors were provided with a bed and they bought the food they wanted which the householder cooked for them as part of the overall fee.

A small stream passed in front of the Royal Terrace houses and its route can be discovered by the failure of brick work in the front garden walls of the houses.

The building opposite Royal Terrace was built in 1923 as a café for Mr Ley after blasting out the rock face which caused several complaints by the neighbours to the commissioners. Later it served various uses including butcher and tatooist. In 1995 the property was virtually rebuilt to become two storey and has since been used as an office.

Falkland Drive

The first two houses in Falkland Drive date from 1904 and were built by James Oliver Caine who was a son-in-law of Alex Gill and previously one of his workmen.

The remaining houses on the left-hand side of the road were also built by Alex Gill and completed in 1914. Here he used the new diamond shaped asbestos roof tiles as he did with the Port Jack shops and Belgravia Road houses.

As with Belgravia Road these houses have a false or mansard roof slope on the front with a flat roof behind, again something new in the building industry in the Isle of Man. The houses are a mixture of single and double fronted properties as those at the upper end have much shorter back gardens and so the accommodation is set sideways. Alex Gill named the terrace after the battle of Falkland which took place during the First World War.

The houses on the other side of the road from 26 to 6 inclusive were all designed by R.H. Cain for Mr H.G. Fletcher and were built from 1934 onwards. At the bottom end Nos 2 and 4 were also designed by Mr Cain, this time however his clients were Mrs W.A. Craine and Miss B. Gilton. They received Building Bye-law approval in August 1934.

King Edward Road

This was the road constructed in 1892/93 from Derby Castle (the electric tram terminus) through to Groudle and then on to the Liverpool Arms over the viaduct at Groudle Glen as built by Mark Carine and his men during the winter of 1893–94. When the road and railway track were being constructed as many as 400 men (mostly Irish navvies) were employed, even working night and day to get the work complete by August of 1893. When the road was complete it was called The Marine Drive which was appropriate enough but a little confusing when three years later a Marine Drive was opened up from Douglas Head to Kerristal and then on to Port Soderick. As luck had it, in 1902 King Edward VII and Queen Alexander paid a short visit to the island.

Larger Image King Edward Road showing the area of masonry wall below the road where the original creek was built up to support the new road and tramway. In the background is the Douglas Bay Hotel with its extension of 1897 showing on the left.

They came ashore at Ramsey and travelled by horse and carriage to Bishopscourt, Peel for lunch alfresco in the ruins of the castle, Cronkbourne House for afternoon tea then along Douglas Promenade to Derby Castle to board the electric railway and a train journey back to Ramsey.

Here was the ideal opportunity to rename the road to what we know it today. Like the Marine Drive running south it was a private road and so a tollgate was set up at the viaduct at Groudle.

Onto Royal Skandia Building