Beach Road from 'The Wonder View Album - Penarth & Barry Dock District'. The pier and the rear of the Esplanade Hotel are beautifully illustrated in this lithograph which, I'd guess, dates from the late 1890's. Note the cobbled road - superb! The lower image has been colourised. [001] [393]

The Esplanade Hotel from 'The Wonder View Album - Penarth & Barry Dock District'. The downstairs cafe offers dinners, tea, coffee and confections therein. A similar Francis Firth postcard dating from the 1930's shows the same signage. The lower image has been colourised. [001] [393]

A newspaper reported the proposal to build the hotel in an issue of 1884. Part of this reports states:- 'The first floor windows of the hotel will open onto a terrace, and in the evening, when there is nothing left but to watch the twilight stars come out, above the lonely sea.' - Western Mail [138] [361] 20th July 1884.

Some views from '107 Views of Cardiff and District' nearby the Esplanade Hotel. Above is the entrance to the pier. Lower left we have the rear of the Esplanade Hotel looking over the Seven Sea. The view was taken prior to the building of the Alexandra Park which opened May 1902, the hotel being built in 1887. If you look closely, the pier is without its small pavilion at the seaward end suggesting that this photograph was taken in the period after 1895 and prior to 1902! The lower right hand image shows a lonely boatman off Penarth Head. [001] [328]