Contact Details

holiday@torbay.gov.uk
Tel: 01803 211 211

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A Stroll along the Prom

A Stroll Along the Prom - Paignton & Preston's Seafront

1 mile (1.6 km) One-way - linear - Grade I - Promenade & Beach
Accessible to wheelchair users.

Starting Point: Accessible anywhere along its length. For the purpose of this description, points of interest will commence at its most southerly point, adjacent to Paignton Harbour.

This wonderfully flat walk provides a chance for anyone to enjoy a view and sensation of the sea in any one of its various moods and, at the same time, ponder on the fascinating past that has created the seafront of today.

Two hundred years ago this mile of shoreline was still just a beach backed with sand dunes, behind which lay a salt-water marsh that spread back as far as the present railway line. The only break in it was a ridge of rocks on which Redcliffe Towers, now the Redcliffe Hotel, was built in 1855.

The sea wall along Paignton beach was completed in 1866 behind which the promenade and green were constructed. The green was assisted in its construction by encouraging locals to bring down wheelbarrows full of soil in exchange for sand!

The colonnaded building at the southern end of the green is the Paignton Club, opened in 1885 as a Gentlemen's Club, ladies do now play their part!

Where the present Apollo cinema complex stands, once could be found the original and only building on this isolated beach. This was the Torbay Inn, providing refreshment for the mariners whose ships were pulled up on the beach. The inn was joined to the old town by a causeway constructed across the marsh, now the site of Torbay Road. Later, the Torbay Inn became Torbay House, a gentleman's residence before being demolished at the time the green was being created.

Paignton Esplanade and green became very popular with Victorians for cycling and other sporting activities, and of course, for the coming of the fair.

Paignton Pier was opened in 1879 having been constructed by Mr. Hyde Dendy. He also introduced the first bathing machines to Paignton in the days when bathing was segregated.

The Redcliffe Hotel was built originally as a private mansion for a rather eccentric Colonel Robert Smith, lately retired from service in India. As an architect and engineer, he designed himself a retirement home that would remind him of his days in the Punjab. Later purchased by the Singer estate of Oldway, this family trust then built the original sea wall along Preston in 1876. Paris Singer later built a hangar at the southern end of Preston Green where he kept a seaplane. He was fascinated by modern technology and must have provided considerable interest to the inhabitants of Edwardian Paignton.