Page 42 - Bulletin 17 2013

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However, the beach was being scoured of sand due, apparently, to current action

channelled by the two walls and exiting through the rock barrier at the sea end. So this
was converted into a proper concrete wall, and it was reinforced again in 1923. It has

remained like this ever since. (Figs. 1.40 & 1.41.)

Bathing boxes were constructed in an irregular pattern along the back boundaries of the
beach. The first was in 1886 by John Wesley Wells the owner of ‘Botheration Cottage’,

forerunner of St. James Hotel. Thirty years later in 1916 there were 41 boxes, and within

eight years these had more than doubled to 87 (73 singles and 14 doubles) in 1924. Later,
the layout was reorganized to produce three neat rows on the south side and two on the

north end. (Figs. 1. 42 & 1.43.) With 60 singles (one guinea/yr rent) and 20 doubles (two

guineas/yr rent) there were 100 people renting and their names read like a Who’s Who of
St. James.

No pavilion was ever built at St. James and there seems never to have been any request

for one. In 1933 a Gents and Ladies toilet block was built on nearby St. James Common.
The Common itself was an important extension of the beach amenity as it contained the

Marine Aquarium and a double row of Manitoka trees. It was well-maintained by the City

Council who grassed it and equipped it with benches and two summer houses in the
1930s. (Figs. 1.44 & 1.45.)

At nearby Danger Beach a notice ‘Bathing Dangerous’ was erected in 1924 in reaction to

numerous drownings there. Later, in 1927, the owner of ‘Sandy Beach’ (today
‘Sonnekus’), Alfred Precious, requested Council to investigate possibilities of

constructing pools, and this was done: pools of 100 ft, 125 ft. and 150 ft. wide were

considered, plus 100 concrete bathing cubicles. The total cost of £7,500 negated it as
there were more urgent matters to be funded. In 1933 Frank French proposed a circular

pool joining the rock outcrops at the north and south ends of the beach, but nothing came

of it.