The Postcard
A postcard published by the Photochrom Co. Ltd. bearing an early image of the Children's Paddling Lake at Rhyl.
The card was posted in Rhyl to a recipient in Wylde Green Birmingham on Monday the 10th. September 1934.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.
These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color.
They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.
In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process.
This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.
Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.
One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.
Photochrom postcard series include:
-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.
-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.
-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.
-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.
The Paddling Lake
The lake has provided a free and much-loved facility for generations of children. It has recently undergone a makeover - it was redesigned in 2006 and reopened in 2007, to include a new water treatment building, water wall, and an island feature allowing access to all.
It has also undergone a name change - it is now known as the Paddling Pool Water Play Area.
You will find the pool on the Promenade on West Parade next to the Sky Tower.
If you want to sit round the pool, you can hire a deckchair for the day for £2, or a sun lounger for £3.
The Pavilion Theatre
The landmark Pavilion Theatre behind the pool, an ornate building with 5 domes, was demolished in 1974, and the nearby pier was removed in 1972.
The replacement theatre on the promenade, the new Pavilion Theatre, plumbs new depths of ugliness - it looks for all the world like an aircraft hangar made out of corrugated iron sheets.
Rhyl
Rhyl is a seaside town in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the historic boundaries of Flintshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at the mouth of the River Clwyd.
To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, and to the east Prestatyn.
At the 2011 Census, Rhyl had a population of 25,149.
Rhyl was once an elegant Victorian resort town but suffered rapid decline around the 1990's and 2000's, but has since been improved by major regeneration around and in the town.
Rhyl has a number of Grade II listed buildings and landmarks. These include the Parish Church of St. Thomas in Bath Street, which is listed as Grade II*.
Others are the Midland Bank building, the railway station along with two signal boxes and the public telephone box on the up platform, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the Sussex Street Baptist Church, Rhyl Town Hall, the Swan public house in Russell Road, the war memorial, and the Welsh Presbyterian Church in Clwyd Street.
Also notable is the Grade II listed Foryd Harbour Bridge, a blue bridge with distinctive bowstring girders built in 1932. Situated over the River Clwyd, it links Rhyl with Kinmel Bay.
Another landmark is the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch. The Marble Church was built by Lady Margaret in memory of her late husband, Sir Henry Peyto Willoughby de Broke. It was completed within four years and consecrated on the 23rd. August 1860.
A previous Rhyl landmark was the ornate Pavilion Theatre with five domes, which was demolished in 1974. Half a mile further down the promenade stood Rhyl Pier, opened in 1867 with a length of 2,355 feet (718 m). The structure was damaged by ships in 1883 and again in 1891.
It was further damaged in 1901 by fire. Storms were responsible for further damage in 1909 in 1913 was closed as unsafe. Although it reopened with a much-reduced length in 1930, it closed again in 1966, and was demolished in 1973.
Rhyl's top attractions on the West Parade are Rhyl Children's Village theme park, and the 250-foot (76 m) Sky Tower (formerly the Clydesdale Bank tower, brought to Rhyl from the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival). The Sky Tower opened in 1989, but it was closed to the public in 2010 and transformed into an illuminated beacon in 2017.
On the East Parade is the SeaQuarium. Up until 2014, Rhyl Suncentre was also an attraction on the East Parade; an indoor water leisure centre which opened in 1980 at a cost of £4.25 million and featured a heated swimming pool, water chutes and slides, and Europe's first indoor surfing pool.
The local council closed the centre in early 2014 and it was demolished in 2016. A new Travelodge hotel was built next to the site, which opened in early 2019.
A new indoor/outdoor water park, the SC2, opened further along the promenade in 2019, and includes various pools with water chutes and slides, as well as a separate "Ninja Tag" assault course game complex.
Also on the East Parade is the New Pavilion Theatre, opened in 1991. It has over 1,000 seats and is managed by Denbighshire County Council. Redevelopment of the Pavilion theatre in 2017 provided for a new façade, entrance foyer and restaurant, and refurbished bar areas.
The Marine Lake
The Marine Lake in the west of the town used to be a tourist destination, with fairground rides and a zoo. The lake is a 12-hectare man-made reservoir, and it was officially opened in 1895. Rhyl Miniature Railway is the only original attraction remaining on the site, a narrow gauge railway that travels around the lake and is now based at the new museum and railway centre. There is also a playground and numerous watersports clubs based around the lake.
The Marine Lake Funfair was demolished in the late 1960's, having been replaced by the nearby Ocean Beach Funfair. Ocean Beach finally closed on the 2nd. September 2007, and was demolished to make way for a new development initially called Ocean Plaza. This was to include apartments, a hotel and various retail outlets.
However, work on Ocean Plaza never went ahead as scheduled, and the land lay vacant for several years after the original developers, Modus Properties, went bankrupt in 2009. The site was sold to a new company, Scarborough Development Group in 2010, but again no work commenced on the site for several years.
In 2014, SDG submitted revised plans to develop the land on a much smaller scale than the original plans. Now called Marina Quay, the plans no longer include the building of new apartments on the land as Natural Resources Wales' flood regulations now prohibit this.
The plans were approved by the local authority in November 2014. In August 2015, The Range retail chain signed a 20-year lease and opened a new superstore on the site in March 2018. Aldi also opened a store on the site in 2019.
Adolf Hitler
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 10th. September 1934 was not a good day in world history - it was the day that Adolf Hitler further strengthened his position by giving a closing speech at the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) Congress in Nuremberg.
During the speech he stated:
'It is our wish that this State
and Reich will endure for
millennia to come'.
Fortunately the Allied Powers were able to do something about that.
