Worthing History in the 20th century

Worthing history - key dates 1901-1945

1902
The ever-growing boundaries of Worthing are expanded again to incorporate Tarring and the southern part of Broadwater.

1907
Worthing's first cinema opens in Portland Road.

1908
King Edward VII stays in Worthing for the first time.

1909
Worthing grants legendary Anglo-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie the Freedom of the Borough by way of thanks for his funding of Worthing library and museum (now the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery.

1910
The Dome Cinema building built. Named the Kursaal it didn't become a cinema until after the war.

1913
A large meeting of suffragettes at the Kursaal turns nasty, as locals disrupt the meeting and assault some of the speakers.

Worthing Pier suffers huge damage in an Easter storm.

1914
The Worthing Police Scandal.

A number of Worthing sailors were killed when HMS Bulwark was sunk. In all around 600 Worthing men are thought to have died while serving in the First World War.

1915
Heavy rain causes the Teville Stream to flood

The Kursaal renamed as it sounded too Germanic.

1919
Final edition of the Worthing Mercury newspaper.

1920
The Worthing Herald first hits the newsstands of Worthing.

Ellen Chapman becomes Worthing's first female Mayor.

The Borough of Worthing buys the pier for a tad under £19,000.

1921
The War Memorial unveiled to honour the many dead men and women of Worthing who served in the war.

1924
The popular Rivoli Cinema takes its first bookings.

1925
Ownership of Cissbury taken over by the National Trust after a decade of over-development of the Findon Valley.

Opening of the Royal Arcade.

1929
The villages of Durrington and Goring are swallowed up by the Borough of Worthing - now called Greater Worthing.

1931
Worthing gets hooked up to the National Grid.

1933
Worthing's new town hall built.

Fire guts the Southern Pavilion at the end of Worthing Pier.

1934
Fascist rallies and anti-Fascist demonstrations in Worthing.

1936
Discovery of the remains of a Roman Bath House on Highdown Hill.

Exiled Abyssinian Emperor Haile Selassie reaches Worthing and enjoys the delights of the seaside.

1940
Worthing becomes home to over 10,000 London children evacuated from the Blitz.

1944
Worthing is right at the heart of preparations for the D-Day invasion of France by Allied forces, with a large number of Canadian soldiers garrisoned around the town.

Worthing in the modern era >>>