Bringing History to Life

This morning the presentation at the Museum was ‘bringing history to life through film’, a very interesting session by John Tomkins, a local documentary film maker. It was a selection of excerpts  from short films about Torbay’s history.
Visiting the fitness centre in the afternoon in the English Riviera Centre I was reminded of another piece of history. There is a blue plaque on the wall. These also bring history to life. On this site stood Ehrenberg Hall, later the Rosetor hotel and the home of Angela Burdett Coutts from 1862 to 77. She was the richest heiress  in England and a great philanthropist (every deserving cause had her patronage, especially the Church of England). Many distinguished people stayed here including Queen Emma of Honolulu in 1865, and the Queen of Holland in 1870. In the Second World War it was used by the RAF as a training centre.
Rosetor was demolished in 1979 and the Riviera Centre built. Now the main conference rooms are temporarily used as a Vaccination Centre, and there is an extremely fine swimming pool and gym. Not a great work of architecture though, with a facade of brutal looking pebble dash.