While people have lived on this pleasant bit of the southern English coast for most of human history, Bournemouth didn’t hit the big time until the 19th century, when the new railways made this one of the easiest stretches of sandy beach and attractive coastline to reach from London. The entrepreneur Merton Russell-Cotes took advantage of this trend, building the Royal Bath Hotel to cater to the richest and most famous visitors. As Bournemouth thrived, so did he and his wife Annie.
Eventually, they had the money to become significant collectors of art, furniture and decorative objects, Which they originally used to furnish their elegant hotel. With the hotel’s reputation established and team running at peak efficiency, they were also able to travel widely, including a long trip to Japan. That country, only opened to the west for a few decades, had become wildly fashionable. Gilbert and Sullivan were taking London by storm with The Mikado, the Impressionists were finding inspiration in Japanese prints, and opera fans would soon be weeping over Madame Butterfly. The treasures Merton and Annie acquired in Japan form an impressive collection within the house, which was partially built just to give them proper display space. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
They named the house East Cliff Hall, and it was finished in 1901 as a birthday gift from Merton to Annie. It was one of the last Victorian villas ever built in England, boasting all the modern conveniences of electricity and plumbing. It stands as a curious hybrid of historicist decoration and cutting-edge domestic technology, befitting a couple with one foot in tradition and another boldly embracing the modern world.
Each room is a masterpiece of Edwardian design, strongly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. There is beautiful woodwork, opulent wallpaper, delicate stained glass and colourful murals, many bringing the natural world inside. The life-sized peacocks painted around the cornice of the dining room, strutting on their gold leaf background, are particularly impressive. The swallows in the stained glass windows are so lifelike it’s as if they’re flying into the room.
In true Edwardian style, there are wonderfully eccentric touches. Stars and moons are scattered across the ceiling of the main hall, giving an otherwise traditional room a sense of magic. There’s a whole room turned into a mini-museum honouring an actor friend of the family’s, and a lavish Oriental room straight out of Arabian Nights. You wouldn’t be surprised to encounter the ghost of Oscar Wilde puffing on a hookah. While Japan gets top billing, the couple collected from across the globe, and you’ll find objects from Egypt, Australasia, and beyond tucked throughout the house.
Best of all are the bedrooms, with broad bay windows and slim, wrap-around balconies overlooking the sea. These days the view is slightly less spectacular because of modern developments on the waterfront, but it’s still magnificent. There’s a chaise longue in Annie’s room where you’re invited to recline and contemplate the view.
Merton and Annie’s collections quickly outgrew the ability of the house to showcase them, so the builders returned to add a series of museum-style gallery rooms onto one side. These are elegant, top-lit spaces, and today display mostly paintings and a bit of sculpture. There are no immediately recognisable masterpieces here, though you’ll probably know Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Venus Verticordia when you come face-to-face with her. The painting was controversial in its day for its sensuality, and seems a fitting centrepiece for a house so steeped in fin-de-siècle flamboyance. The lack of big names doesn’t matter. The exoticism and love of history that runs through the house come to life in canvases of historical and biblical scenes. Landscapes from local artists show the Jurassic Coast at its best. There are some spectacular portraits of that optimistic generation that kicked off the century—before the First World War crushed the joy out of everyone.
There’s a smaller display space at the back for rotating exhibitions, free with entry. At the moment the focus is on May Morris, a woman who worked for and contributed mightily to the output of her father, William. I never knew. For anyone fond of discovering stories of women who deserve to be better known, this alone is worth the trip.
Despite its opulence, if you ignore the gallery rooms the Russell-Cotes house isn’t that big. Many modern homes would exceed the handful of bedrooms upstairs, though the location and views would make it quite an expensive one indeed. Strangely for a house of this era, you’ll see no service wing, no staff rooms and no kitchens. Merton and Annie didn’t bother, since they owned the hotel across the garden and could call on its staff for anything they needed. It must have been a good life.The couple had three children who survived into adulthood, but they didn’t inherit the house. Merton had been mayor of Bournemouth and was perhaps the promoter most responsible for putting the town on the map for A-listers. In 1909, he was knighted for his services to the arts and to the town. He loved the place so much he wanted his house to become a resource for future generations.
Locals clearly still adore Merton and Annie’s house today. It’s staffed by enthusiastic volunteers, one of whom was giving an impromptu luncheon concert on the piano in the great hall as we visited. The entrance is through a modern addition tastefully tucked into the western side of the building; locals clearly come to use the café and enjoy the gardens, both of which don’t require an admission fee.
The garden is neither large nor exceptional, but it’s extremely pretty. One feels the terraced borders of traditional English perennials would have delighted Gertrude Jekyll (and were probably inspired by her). A line of trees between the house and hotel—still there, but no longer under family ownership—blocks the view of modern seaside development. Instead, your eyes are forced southeast, where the only things beyond the garden gates are steep embankments of wildflowers and grasses, plunging down to the beach. Just across the water you can see the western tip of the Isle of Wight, with its iconic Needles rising from the churning waves. On a return visit I’ll make more time to sit here and watercolour.
The gilded age at the turn of the 20th century saw many injustices, forced inhumane working conditions and fostered shocking gaps between rich and poor. And yet it was also an age of enormous generosity, when philanthropists like the Russell-Coteses felt a need to give back for their good fortune. This treasure house has beautified Bournemouth for more than a century, and looks set to do so for many years to come. Thank you, Merton and Annie, for paying some of your good fortune forward.
The garden is neither large nor exceptional, but it’s extremely pretty. One feels the terraced borders of traditional English perennials would have delighted Gertrude Jekyll (and were probably inspired by her). A line of trees between the house and hotel—still there, but no longer under family ownership—blocks the view of modern seaside development. Instead, your eyes are forced southeast, where the only things beyond the garden gates are steep embankments of wildflowers and grasses, plunging down to the beach. Just across the water you can see the western tip of the Isle of Wight, with its iconic Needles rising from the churning waves. On a return visit I’ll make more time to sit here and watercolour.
The gilded age at the turn of the 20th century saw many injustices, forced inhumane working conditions and fostered shocking gaps between rich and poor. And yet it was also an age of enormous generosity, when philanthropists like the Russell-Coteses felt a need to give back for their good fortune. This treasure house has beautified Bournemouth for more than a century, and looks set to do so for many years to come. Thank you, Merton and Annie, for paying some of your good fortune forward.