The Royal Malvern Spa Concert Hall

In the 1880s, Mr William H Ryland, a former Mayor of Bewdley, owned the Royal Well spring and 5 acres down to the road below. He had come to Malvern in 1869 to take the waters in the hope of arresting the consumption which was threatening his life. Malvern was a booming Spa in those days: people of means were flocking in to exchange good money for water-cure treatments.

Ryland shopped around the various hydropathic establishments but got worse instead of better. He was about to accept his fate and go home to die when an old man - presumably a resident who was not part of the fashionable water-cure business - advised him to try the water of one of the outlying springs high up on the western slopes. He did so, and whether out of faith or because of the efficacy of the water he recovered - or was persuaded to believe so.

The source of the water was St Thomas's Spring, which he proceeded to buy. However there was disagreements with the local residents as to access to the water[1]. In the end, he provided a roadside fountain. The stone tablet announcing the gift can still be seen, set in the wall over a grating alongside the pavement of the West Malvern Road, about four hundred yards from its junction with the Wyche Cutting with the A4150 Malvern - Colwall road. The inscription reads:

"This fountain of pure water and tank is the sole gift of W. H. Ryland of Bewdley to the inhabitants of this neighbourhood and the public, 187O.
Waste not, want not."

He was approached by wealthy entrepreneurs who asked him to build a Well Room for the public to take the waters. Instead of a simple well room, Mr Ryland decided to build an enormous concert hall, pump room, art gallery and pleasure gardens on the site. In 1882 he started work on a major complex costing £40,000, an enormous sum in those days. Much secrecy surrounded the operation and many local people were under the impression that a convent or a monastery was being built. No-one in Great Malvern knew the purpose of the colossal structure until it was completed and Mr Ryland proudly announced that he was about to open the Royal Malvern Spa[2].

The building was designed by a London architect and built in Corinthian style using Bath stone and Malvern Hills granite. It measured 150 by 60 ft. The whole was surmounted by a great dome rising 76 ft. above the floor of the hall. The body of the hall seated 1,100, the gallery 600, and a further 200 were accommodated in boxes and a small dress circle.

There was an art gallery exhibiting valuable paintings on loan from private collections. There were statues and carvings everywhere, especially around the richly ornamented marble fountain in the shape of an angel bearing a water lily inscribed "God's water: drink and thirst not: pure water is life." In addition there was a suite of water-cure baths, catering facilities and meeting rooms, and everywhere was centrally heated. Outside there were landscaped gardens, a grotto fountain, rustic structures, shrubberies and tennis lawns.

The Royal Malvern Well Spa Hall, Art Gallery and Pleasure Gardens, were opened to the public at 10 a.m. on Monday 7th May, 1883 with an inaugural concert, a ball and, later in the evening, a firework display mounted by Brock & Co. of Crystal Palace. The proceedings were clouded for part of the time by a characteristic hill fog.

The complex became a huge success attracting thousands of visitors with a multiplicity of events including an All Night Ball. On 23rd July 1883 Jenny Lind gave her final public concert to raise money for Railway Servants Widows' and Orphans' Fund

The grandeur was an obvious threat and clearly alarmed those on the other side of the Hill. They immediately drew up plans for an even larger and prestigious Assembly Hall and Winter Gardens in Grange Road. These were completed in 1885 and opened at another glittering ceremony. The Winter Gardens were an overnight success and doomed the Royal Malvern Spa to gradual failure.

The site was away from the centre of population and at times cut off by bad weather. Access was difficult because of the steep slopes and cramped because of the gradient with there being little level ground for vehicles. In its heyday, it is said that the roads all about were so cluttered with carriages that it took hours to clear them.

By about 1890 Malvern's water-cure boom was over and the long decline was beginning. Moreover, such residents and visitors who were looking for entertainment preferred the more convenient Assembly Rooms. Trade for the Royal Spa Hall and Gardens fell away though the running expenses must have been enormous. In 1895 the Royal Malvern Spa was closed down with Mr Ryland losing all his investment in the project.

The floor of the Hall was designed with the idea of laying timber planks every 6 inches or so in the brickwork and nailing stained and varnished boards to these planks. Cuprinol had not been invented then and the result was catastrophic. The building was shored up with immense baulks of timber inside and this helped for a time, but the building was unsafe for its original use. It was demolished in the 1920s.

All that remains of the pleasure palace are a pair of gate pillars by the roadside, a stage door up a little alleyway, and some fragments of the mosaic floor in the garden of the house which now occupies the site.

Sources

1. Wells of the Malvern Hills: Rylands Royal Malvern Well
2. Wells of the Malvern Hills: Royal Malvern Spa
3. Colwall Village Society Newsletter:"The Doomed Pleasure Palace on the Hills" by Wilfred Harper
4. Colwall Village Society Newsletter: "The Royal Malvern Spa Concert Hall
5. Colwall Village Society Topic Booklet: " The Commercial Complex - now Residential - on the West Malvern Road" by T B V Marsh (available in Colwall Library)