Blue Plaques in Worthing
- Basque 1937 – Situated at Beach House, Brighton Road – to mark the 70th Anniversary of a group of children coming to Worthing to escape the Spanish Civil War, know as the 1937 Basque Refugees
- Edward Knoblock (1874 -1945) Playwright of ‘Kismet’ Lived in Beach House 1917 -1923.
- Shelley - Situated at 23 Warwick Street - Poet & Radical Thinker Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 - 1822. Two of his earliest works were printed here.
- King Edward VII - Situated at Beach House, Brighton Road - 1841 - 1910. Stayed in Beach House 1907-1908-1909 & 1910
- Oscar Wilde - Situated at Esplanade Court, The Esplanade - In a house on this site Oscar Wilde 1854 - 1900 wrote 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in 1894.
- Private William Cooper - who fought in the Boer War at Rorke’s Drift in 1879 against the Zulus. The plaque is located at 6 Cranmore Road, West Worthing (near St Dunstan’s Road).
- Warnes Hotel – Marine Parade – On this site in 1899 George Warne 1864 – 1916 founded his hotel in part of York Terrace. Warnes was Worthing’s premier hotel. Famous visitors included King Edward VII, King George V, Emperor Haile Selassie and his family, Winston Churchill, General Montgomery, General Eisenhower and John Philip Sousa. Warnes closed in 1985 and burned down in 1987.
- George Warne – 1864 -1916 – An early Motoring Enthusiast Promoted his new hotel as ‘The Motorists Mecca’ – Establishing the first hotel garage, or engine house in England. On this site of York Road (Marine Parade) in 1900. The garage was demolished in 1947.
- Worthing’s Soup Kitchen - fine replacement plaque was erected on Provident House in Grafton Road. The Soup Kitchen has played a significant role in the town’s social history.
- Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008) – Situated in Ambrose Place, one of the town’s architectural
treasures. The playwright, actor and director lived in the historic Regency townhouse
during 1962 - 1964 where he wrote one of his best known plays ‘The Homecoming’.
Other Plaques
- W H Hudson 1841 - 1922 - Situated at Huntington House, 8 Bedford Row - The well known writer on countryside matters stayed here and at No 14 on various occasions from June 1918. He started to write 'Nature in Downland' in 1899 in the house at Goring-by-Sea where Richard Jefferies, another naturalist with West Sussex connections, had died. Both are buried in Broadwater Cemetery.
- Richard Jefferies 1848-1887 - Situated at Jefferies House, Jefferies Lane, Goring. The son of a Wiltshire farmer, he spent much of his childhood in Sydenham with his aunt. At 17 he became a provincial journalist and developed an interest in the economics of agricultural labour and poaching and from there began to publish successful essays about nature, from an overview rather than the specific.
His finest and most stimulating work was written during his last five years in Worthing. He died at only 38 from tuberculosis at 'Sea View', Jefferies Lane in Goring (now 'Jefferies House'). As he disliked Goring Churchyard, he was buried in Broadwater Cemetery. In May 1939 the novelist Sheila Kaye-Smith unveiled a plaque in his memory at the house. - A plaque to honour six members of the 49 squadron who died in 1944 after crash landing on Worthing Beach was unveiled in December 2002. The plaque is situated on the 9th column of the pier facing west. The names of the crew killed were: Sgt H Varey, Sgt L B Bourne, Sgt F B Rees, Sgt J W Moore, F/O J A Thomson and Sgt G F Callon.
Some Notable Inhabitants of Worthing
- Edward William Lane, the Arabic Scholar who translated the 'Thousand and one nights' lived in 4 Union Place from 1849 until his death in 1876.
- Frederick Dixon, the geologist and author of the 'Geology and Fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex', lived at 3 Union Place. He died in 1849 before he published his book. The first edition was issued in 1850 by his widow after several friends rallied round to help. The book was re-published by Professor Jones in 1878.
- James Bateman 1811 - 1897 the famous horticulturist and authority on orchids lived and died at 'Springbank', Victoria Road.
- Albert Hartshome, archaeologist, died in 1910 at 7 Heene Terrace.
Some Notable Visitors to Worthing
- Jane Austen spent the late summer season of 1805 in the newly fashionable seaside resort of Worthing. Whilst staying at ‘Stanford Cottage’ (now Pizza Express) in Warwick Street, she found inspiration for the many scenes, characters and themes found in her final novel ‘Sanditon’.
- On 31st July 1798 Princess Amelia the fifteenth and last child of George III arrived in Worthing at the age of 15 years. Her presence brought fashionable visitors flocking to Worthing.
- In 1806 Byron visited Worthing.
- In August of 1798 the Prince of Wales visited Worthing to see his sister (Princess Amelia). On the 7th December Amelia went home to Windsor.
- Princess Charlotte visited in the summer of 1807 and stayed at Warwick House (now demolished).
Memorials
- War Memorial by Joseph Whitehead near Worthing Town Hall in Chapel Road. Bronze figure in military dress on a stone pedestal.
- Memorial to honour pigeons killed in the Second World War. It consists of two boulders on a mound in Beach House Park. One inscription reads 'In memory of the warrior birds who gave their lives on active service 1939-45 and for the use and pleasure of living birds'. Another quotes The Book of Ecclesiastes: 'A bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter'.
Mosaic
A Broadwater schoolboy has seen a picture he drew recreated as a mosaic in the town centre.
Harry Cloke, 14, of Harvey Road, Goring, won a competition while he was at Broadwater Manor School, to get his design turned into one of the intricate works of art.
After being crafted into a mosaic, on Thursday July 31 2008, it was placed at the junction of Montague Street and the Montague Centre as part of a Worthing Town Centre Initiative to brighten up the area.
Sharon Clarke, Worthing Town Centre Manager, said: "We hope the project will be a catalyst for further public realm improvements in the future."
Sculptures
Bronze sculpture, Desert Quartet (1990) by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1931-1993) on top of the rear colonnade of the Montague Shopping Centre, Liverpool Gardens. Four large sculpted heads.
Stained Glass Window
A stained glass window was unveiled on 19th January 2009 to remind people of the scene in January 2008 when 2,000 tons of wood washed up on Worthing’s beaches, lost cargo from the Ice Prince. The stained glass panel was created by Worthing artist Chris Brown and is housed in the glass partition on Worthing pier.
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