Does anyone know about the Queensbury? Where was it, what was it?
It has now come to light that the Queensbury Hotel was in Station Road and according to the Kelly’s Directory for 1925-6 the proprietor was a Mrs P Phillips.
We have added the photo below to show where the building was located, see the left hand side of photo, thanks to Graham Stevens comment below.
Early picture of the two story bungalow with its galvanised iron weatherboarding walls
Please comment below.
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Hello
It says board residence
Regards
Sparrow
Of course it does I can see it now thanks Sparrow
What a great looking building.
Yes, what a great looking building and I have some thoughts on where it was and something about it’s history. This is just my theory drawn from from some photograghic evidence, the mininimum of written record and a little local knowledge. If you go onto the Archive page entitled ‘ The Cottage of St Hugh’ the photo on that page shows the Queensbury Hotel in the centre. St Hugh(aka the Riverside Cafe) was on the corner of Eastern Esplanade and Hellendorn Ave so I estimate the Queenbury to be in Weel Rd to the north of what is now Kismet Park, in fact in the distance one can make out the Mulley’s bungalow’ Buccleugh'(artist Paul Smyth’s page) and vaguely the apex roof of ‘Stanley Villa’ the Ogg’s house which is still extant on the corner of Gafzelle Dve and Crescent Rd.
There is a photo somewhere, probably in one of Barsby’s books, which shows the frontage of ‘Buccleugh’ and east facing aspect of the Queenbury Hotel but it’s mis-titled ‘Queensmere’ which was another bungalow.
As to history it would appear it was built very early in the 1900s about he same time or even before St Hugh(there is no St Annes Church in the picture so it’s pre 1910).No idea who built it or the original owners but I think it later became known as the ‘Hotel Canvey’ prop. Nathan Nabovsky, Shell Beach according to Kelly’s Directory of 1929 & 1932.
At some time could be pre or post WW2, like other large properties ie Coxs and Ozonia it came into the posession of Fielder Estates and was then generally known as ‘The Canvey Hotel’
In the 1950s I recall from my ‘ telegram boy’ days it was being used as a multi-occupation establiment to house families awaiting council house accommodation. I’m sure at that time none of the wonderful architectural features remained, I certainly don’t remember the ‘Belvedere'(conservatory on roof) which was such a feature of it’s elegant past but the south facing verandah still remained.
Just another snippet of info gathered from an ‘Escape to the Country’ programme, it appears that the Queensbury Estate of I don’t how many acres in Thornhill, Galloway and Dumfries, Scotland is owned by the hereditary Duke of Buccleugh and Queensbury. Not a coincidence then that these neighbouring bare the same names. Seems likely that the original owners or developers had close connections to that area.
I lived in The Canvey Hotel from 1950 to 1953 when I joined the Royal Navy. This was a half way house used by the Council and Colonel Fielder to house tenants paid off by him to vacate his bungalows.The building was corrigated iron clad, painted cream and white and had four resident families who were later allocated council houses. The families were the Neals, us the Giles’, Rose and George Wiles and The Pepper family. We later move to Mornington Road at number 27.
Graham Stevens, I think you could be correct with your estimate of the location of Queensbury House in Weel Road. I have a map with identifies this also, and have also found the linked plans identifying Queensbury Hotel as Weel Road.
http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/result_details.aspx?ThisRecordsOffSet=3&id=93625
I can’t explain why Kelly’s has station Road, maybe it was a typo error.
The original plan for this building was here:
https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/result_details.aspx?ThisRecordsOffSet=1&id=93144
The plan shows that the “glass house” on top was not there. It might have been a later addition to the plan or a later addition. Mr Preedy was the Owner, approved April 1903. The Architect was William Hart Gregson.
There were 6 rooms and a pantry. 4 Bedrooms, a Kitchen and a Sitting room. The Earth Closet being a small building in the garden.
The Queensbury sign faced south, and as such, the sea wall and estuary.
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