Sir Richard Hotham Develops the Resort

1787

Sir Richard Hotham, a wealthy London hatter and former Member of Parliament, arrived in Bognor in the 1780s with a scheme to develop the fishing hamlet into a fashionable seaside resort to rival Brighton. Hotham purchased land, commissioned buildings, and set about creating what he called Hothamton, a planned resort with terraces, a hotel known as the Dome House, assembly rooms, and sea-bathing facilities. The timing was deliberate: sea bathing had become fashionable among the wealthy after George III's visits to Weymouth, and entrepreneurs across the south coast were racing to develop resort towns to attract this lucrative trade. Hotham built his own residence, Hotham House, on grounds that would later become Hotham Park. He laid out streets, erected lodging houses, and promoted the town's mild climate and clean air as reasons for the gentry to visit. The development was ambitious but only partially successful. Bognor did attract visitors, but it never achieved the fashionable status of Brighton, Worthing, or even Eastbourne. Hotham spent heavily and the financial returns were disappointing. The resort scheme consumed much of his fortune. The buildings he commissioned, however, gave Bognor its first substantial architecture and established the basic layout of the town centre that persists in modified form today. Hotham is recognised as the founder of the resort, and his name endures in the park.