Onchan District Commissioners
Mount Royal with Imperial Terrace and Royal Avenue West
This little known name relates to the road running from Port Jack up to meet Royal Avenue West and Imperial Terrace. The row of black and white shops on Mount Royal were built by Alex Gill in 1915 but the little brick building at the top end was erected as a public toilet.
In 1951 this was altered and converted into a coach booking office for Corkill’s Garage. This was in the days when hundreds of holiday makers would be staying in Royal Avenue West, Belgravia Road and Imperial Terrace during the summer months and would make their way to the beach at Douglas or Port Jack on foot passing the shops en route.
The bottom row of shops facing on to King Edward Road were built by Alex Gill three years earlier in 1912 and the stream from Port Jack Glen passes beneath them in a pipe that then discharges over the cliff in the form of a waterfall.
There have been a number of changes to this row of shops over the years. A first floor has been added to one of the shops of more recent times and the first shop (nearest Douglas) started life as a photographic studio with a postcard shop on the ground floor but has become entirely domestic. The small building on the right hand end was built as a coach booking kiosk and altered for Ranson’s Happy Days Tours in the mid 1950s.
The top row of shops with flats above date from 1983 and were built by Frank Hunter who had purchased the row of single storey shops built by Alex Gill in 1911 in a similar manner to his other shops. The one beside the slip way was in fact used by Caley’s the bakers as a summer shop in the early years of its existence selling its products to the visitors who passed.
Mount Royal with Imperial Terrace and Royal Avenue West
This little known name relates to the road running from Port Jack up to meet Royal Avenue West and Imperial Terrace. The row of black and white shops on Mount Royal were built by Alex Gill in 1915 but the little brick building at the top end was erected as a public toilet.
In 1951 this was altered and converted into a coach booking office for Corkill’s Garage. This was in the days when hundreds of holiday makers would be staying in Royal Avenue West, Belgravia Road and Imperial Terrace during the summer months and would make their way to the beach at Douglas or Port Jack on foot passing the shops en route.
The bottom row of shops facing on to King Edward Road were built by Alex Gill three years earlier in 1912 and the stream from Port Jack Glen passes beneath them in a pipe that then discharges over the cliff in the form of a waterfall.
There have been a number of changes to this row of shops over the years. A first floor has been added to one of the shops of more recent times and the first shop (nearest Douglas) started life as a photographic studio with a postcard shop on the ground floor but has become entirely domestic. The small building on the right hand end was built as a coach booking kiosk and altered for Ranson’s Happy Days Tours in the mid 1950s.
The top row of shops with flats above date from 1983 and were built by Frank Hunter who had purchased the row of single storey shops built by Alex Gill in 1911 in a similar manner to his other shops. The one beside the slip way was in fact used by Caley’s the bakers as a summer shop in the early years of its existence selling its products to the visitors who passed.