30-551: Sandown Fort (map reference SZ597839 ) is a fort built in Sandown on the Isle of Wight in the middle of Sandown Bay . It is one of the many Palmerston Forts built on the island to protect it in response to a perceived French invasion. It was a replacement of the earlier Sandown Diamond Fort as, in 1859, the Royal Commission felt it did not offer suitable protection. Construction of
60-621: A blue plaque from the Hammersmith & Fulham Historic Buildings Group, stating: "Kops brewed non-alcoholic ales and stouts on an eight-acre site and exported its products throughout the British Empire". In 1899, he opened the luxury Ocean Hotel, in Sandown , Isle of Wight. In 1901, Lowenfeld used some land he had bought in the West End for a new theatre designed by the architect Lewin Sharp . It
90-475: A fireworks display. Arts Council England funding was received in 2023 and 2024 to revive the town's tradition of wearing hats on Regatta day. Sandown offers an assortment of restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs along the seafront and in the town. Sandown Pier is a popular attraction for amusements and refreshments, and there are new cafes and eating places along the seafront promenade towards Lake and Shanklin. Boojum and Snark at 105 High Street opened in 2019 as
120-480: A master gunner and over twenty soldiers. Sandham Fort was demolished in the mid-19th century and is now the site of Sandham Gardens. In the 1860s, five Palmerston Forts were built along the coast of Sandown Bay, including Granite Fort at Yaverland , now the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary . On the town's western cliffs Sandown Barrack Battery survives as a scheduled monument and Bembridge Fort , where
150-655: A venue for art exhibitions and community events, with its name inspired by author Lewis Carroll who stayed across the road in the 1870s. Sandown railway station is a stop on the Island Line , the Isle of Wight's one remaining public railway line from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin . Services are operated by South Western Railway . Sandown is served by buses run by Southern Vectis with direct services to Bembridge , Newport , Ryde , Shanklin and Ventnor . Night buses run on Fridays and Saturdays. The UK group Take That filmed
180-522: Is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight , England. The neighbouring resort of Shanklin and the settlement of Lake are sited just to the south of the town. Sandown has a population of 11,654 according to the 2021 Census , and the three Sandown Bay settlements form a built-up area of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Sandown is the Bay's northernmost town, with its easily accessible, sandy beaches running continuously from
210-496: The PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) operation to keep the Allied forces supplied with fuel. Each of the 16 pumps supplied 36,000 imperial gallons (1,000 barrels; 160,000 litres) of fuel per day at a pressure of 1,500 lb per square inch. In the 1950s the site was used to house the Isle of Wight Zoo, which was renamed as the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary in 2021. Sandown Sandown
240-813: The Channel 5 series Isle of Wight: Jewel of the South , shown in the UK in 2023 and 2024. Sandown had a twinning ( jumelée in French) arrangement with the town of Tonnay-Charente in the western French département of Charente-Maritime although the relationship was reported to be 'in tatters' in 2002. Sandown has also been twinned with the United States city of St. Pete Beach, Florida . Henry Lowenfeld Henry Lowenfeld in Polish, Henryk Loewenfeld , (1 September 1859 – 4 November 1931)
270-672: The local board of health in 1869, the Grade II listed Sandown Town Hall is in Grafton Street. In March 2021, the Isle of Wight Council granted planning permission to convert the building for housing and subsequently decided to dispose of the Town Hall while exploring opportunities for community use. In 2022, paint samples found evidence of the celebrated multi-coloured ceiling decorated by Henry Tooth in 1873, hidden for many decades beneath layers of 20th century paint. In 2023, government funding
300-650: The 1940s to disguise pumping apparatus for Pipeline Under the Ocean (PLUTO) intended to deliver oil to the D-Day beaches. A conservation management plan for the 7.5-hectare (19-acre) site was published in July 2020. The town's summer carnival has existed since 1889. Today, Sandown Carnival Association puts on a series of events including the Children's Carnival and Illuminated Carnival, Sandown Bay Regatta, and New Year's Day Celebrations with
330-528: The 20th century was to become a favourite bucket-and-spade destination for all classes. The Canoe Lake was opened in 1929 by the author Henry De Vere Stacpoole followed in 1932 by Brown's Golf Course (see below). The Art Deco Grand Hotel, opened next door to Brown's in April 1938, is now closed with planning permission for demolition granted in 2014. Today, Sandown's esplanade has a mixture of former Victorian and Edwardian hotels with modern counterparts overlooking
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#1733085984539360-574: The Corney family in the 1970s; today, it specialises in rescued tigers , other big cats and primates. Nearby is the purpose-built Dinosaur Isle palaeontology centre, which opened in 2001, and Sandham Gardens, which offers a dinosaur miniature golf course, attractions for children and young people, and bowls. On 24 March 1878, the Royal Navy training ship HMS Eurydice capsized and sank in Sandown Bay with
390-575: The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust in 2012, is a place to spot kingfishers and water voles. Further inland, Borthwood Copse provides woodland walks, with many bluebells in the Spring. The area's marine sub-littoral zone, including the reefs and seabed, is a Special Area of Conservation . At extreme low tide, a petrified forest may be revealed in the northern part of the bay, and fragments of petrified wood are often washed up. Commissioned by
420-469: The National Trust offers tours, can be seen on the downs to the north-east. One of the first non-military buildings was Sandham Cottage or 'Villakin', a holiday home leased by the radical politician and one-time Mayor of London John Wilkes in the final years of the 18th century. See 'Sandown's famous connections' below. The arrival of the railway in 1864 saw Sandown grow as a Victorian resort, with
450-648: The Ocean Hotel opened in 1899. The brainchild of West End theatrical impresario Henry Lowenfeld , the Ocean built around the town's previous hotel of choice, the King's Head. For the new hotel's inauguration, a large number of dignitaries were invited from London, arriving in Sandown from Portsmouth by special boat. Guests had the chance to explore Sandown in coaches and carriages, and the hotel servants were all dressed in uniforms 'like admirals and post-captains'. Sandown's destiny in
480-408: The beach and the Bay. A new Premier Inn opened in 2021. The original Sandown Pier was opened in 1878 and extended to its present length in 1895. The Pier Pavilion Theatre closed in the 1990s and the pier's former landing stage is used for sea fishing today. Further north is the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary , formerly Isle of Wight Zoo. Established as Sandown Zoo in the 1950s, it was acquired by
510-564: The cliffs below Battery Gardens in the south to Yaverland in the north. There is some evidence for a pre-Roman settlement in the area. During the Roman period, it was a site of salt production. Before the 19th century, Sandown was on the map chiefly for its military significance, with the Bay's beaches feared to offer easy landing spots for invaders from the Continent. It is the site of the lost Sandown Castle . While undergoing construction in 1545,
540-573: The early 1880s, "with about $ 10 in his pocket". His childhood home at ul. Mickiewicza 13, Chrzanów , Poland is now the Irena and Mieczysław Mazaraki Museum . In 1890, Lowenfeld built the Kops Brewery , the UK's first producer of non-alcoholic beer in Townmead Road, Fulham , London. The name of the brewery is thought to have been based on the word "hops". In December 2014, the renovated building received
570-444: The fort began in April 1861 and was completed by September 1864 at a cost of £73,876. In later documents it is often referred to as Granite Fort. The fort originally had 18 9-inch R.M.L guns facing the sea behind iron shields, these guns were later upgraded and an extra 5 inches of armor was added. The fort was sold in 1930 but during World War II the fort played a significant role in the D-Day landings as it housed sixteen pumps for
600-454: The fortification was attacked during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight when invaders fought their way over Culver Down from Whitecliff Bay before being repelled. The castle was built into the sea, prone to erosion and demolished fewer than a hundred years after it was built. In 1631, the castle was replaced by Sandham Fort, built further inland. In 1781, the fort's complement consisted of
630-635: The longest unbroken beaches in the British Isles. To the north-east is Culver Down , mostly owned and managed by the National Trust . It supports typical chalk downland wildlife, and seabirds and birds of prey which nest on the cliffs. Nearby is the flood plain of the Eastern Yar , one of the few freshwater wetlands on the Isle of Wight, where Alverstone Mead Local Nature Reserve is popular for birdwatching . Sandown Meadows Nature Reserve, acquired by
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#1733085984539660-476: The loss of 317 lives, one of Britain's worst peacetime naval disasters. The tops of the vessel's sunken masts were still visible from Sandown two months later, on the day the town's pier was opened. The ship was re-floated in August and beached at Yaverland to be pumped out, the subject of a painting by Henry Robins (1820-1892) for Queen Victoria who came over from Osborne House with other members of her family to see
690-525: The town's safe bathing becoming increasingly popular. In the summer of 1874, the Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Victoria of Germany, their children and entourage rented several properties in the town and took regular dips in the Bay. Sandown's pier was built in the same decade, opening in May 1878, and extended in length in 1895. The town laid further claim to becoming a fashionable English resort when
720-448: The video for their fifth single " I Found Heaven " on Sandown's beaches and sea front in 1992. Sandown High School and locations nearby were used in the 1972 film That'll Be The Day starring David Essex, Ringo Starr, Billy Fury and Rosemary Leach. The TV series Tiger Island , on ITV and National Geographic in 2007 and 2008, chronicled the lives of the more than twenty tigers living at Isle of Wight Zoo . Sandown featured in
750-541: The way of business". Shaw also noted that he told Lowenfeld that he was "born to play Napoleon in my Man of Destiny ", and "I rather liked him, in fact". Lowenfeld actually made his fortune from renovating theatres and not from railways. He used the money he made to buy an estate back in Poland. The Kops Brewery closed during World War I and the building became a margarine factory in 1917. He married Alice Evans. Their elder daughter, Helena Rosa Wright (1887–1982)
780-704: The wreck. There is a memorial to crew of the Eurydice in the graveyard of Christ Church, Sandown . The town is surrounded by natural features that form part of the Isle of Wight Biosphere Reserve designated by UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in June 2019. The area features walks along the Isle of Wight Coastal Path . The bay that gives Sandown its name is an example of a concordant coastline , with 5 miles (8 km) of tidal beaches from Luccombe to Culver replenished by longshore drift . Sandown Bay has one of
810-517: Was a Polish-born British entrepreneur and theatrical impresario. He founded the Kops Brewery , the UK's first UK brewer of non-alcoholic beer , and built London's Apollo Theatre and the Ocean Hotel in Sandown on the Isle of Wight. He was born in Warsaw , the son of a tycoon, Emanuel Loewenfeld and his wife, Rose, who were said to own the town of Chrzanów in Lesser Poland. He emigrated to England in
840-512: Was a doctor and a pioneer in birth control and family planning and their younger daughter, Margaret Lowenfeld (1890–1973), also a medical doctor, became a pioneer in child psychology and Play therapy . The two daughters were both sent to a Froebel kindergarten and brought up in the Church of England, while the influence of Poland remained important in their childhood and beyond. Both of them attended Cheltenham Ladies College . Lowenfeld's wife
870-552: Was announced to renovate parts of the Town Hall for youth and community services. Designed by one of the UK's leading players of the time, Henry Cotton , the Brown's pitch and putt courses were the idea of south London pie and sausage maker Alex Kennedy. Opened on Sandown's eastern sea front in March 1932, the original clubhouse had the motto Golf for Everybody emblazoned on its roof. Brown's and its ice cream factory were reportedly adapted in
900-552: Was the Apollo Theatre . In a letter of 1906 to Siegfried Trebitsch , George Bernard Shaw wrote that Lowenfeld had "made a lot of money in a lucky railway speculation", and used it to enter theatre management, mostly "musical comedy of the vulgarest kind", but that soon after building the Apollo Theatre, he "came to grief and vanished, much discredited". Shaw advised Trebitsch, "You had better not have anything to do with him in
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