XII. DOVER OF TO-DAY.
From the time when the great sanitary improvements were made by establishing the Water Works and carrying out the arterial sewerage system in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, very little was done to alter the general character of Dover until towards the close of the Victorian Period. Old Dover has been described as a town of narrow and crooked streets and lanes. Much of that was greatly altered in the last two decades of the Nineteenth Centur)'; more particularly the main thoroughfares from the Market Square to the Maison Dieu, and to the Priory Station were greatly improved. Many new houses, adapted to the wants of all classes of the inhabitants were built, most of them comprised in areas known as the Dover Castle Estate, Clarendon, Winchelsea, Maxton, Barton, Buckland, and Crabble; and, in addition to covering ground to a great extent new, large additions were made to Tower Hamlets and a much over-due effort was made to improve the dwellings in the Pier area.
A decided social advantage was the introduction of electricity, which began to be generated and used in Dover for light and power in 1894; and the widening of the streets having made it possible to introduce street tramways, the electricity was used as the motive power, providing a great facility for locomotion, which a far extending town like Dover greatly needs. At a cost of ^,^28,000 the tramways were made and equipped in 1897, and in 1905 they were extended to River. Later the Electricity Undertaking, which was first taken in hand by a Company, was transferred to the Corporation, and the Town Council controls both of those commercial enterprises.
The Corporation have entered largely into the provision of Pleasure and Recreation Grounds. The earliest effort was their obtaining a lease from the War Department of the Northfall Meadow, a pleasant glade, north east of the Castle, formerly a place for tilting matches, called Knights' Bottom. It has in later vears been used as place for a semi-rural stroll, and for golf. The Connaught Park, also leased from the War Department, a part of Dover Castle Farm, was laid out and planted by public subscriptions in 1883. It has charming walks and extensive views of the sea and the western hills ; and by passing through it from end to end the pedestrian has an unrivalled walk from the upper end of Charlton, right away to the Castle entrance at the Constable's Tower. The Danes Recreation Ground on the side of Frith Road, on the way to Guston, is a fine level plateau, opened in 1891, dedicated to cricket and football, and occasionally used for fetes. Near the sea, between the Marine Parade and Waterloo Crescent, are the Granville Gardens, with a band stand, around which visitors and towns people gather to listen and promenade to the music of Military Bands, which are provided during the summer at considerable cost by the Corporation. Up the valley, near the extremity of the town, alongside the tramway route, is the Dover Athletic Ground, at Grabble, where the matches of the Kent County Cricket Week are annually held, and all the year round cricket or football. The ground is a fine oval, in charming sur roundings, and on the margin of the oval is a track for cycle races. On this Athletic Ground the Dover Corporation spend about ;£3oo a year for its upkeep, in addition to capital charges. The Corporation also have pleasant gardens on the South side of the Maison Dieu, the main feature of which is a fine bowling green.
The Corporation Baths are a fourfold arrangement. The most important for summer visitors are the bathing arrangements on the shore from bathing boxes. On the side of the Promenade at East Cliff are ladies' and gentlemen's Swimming Baths, as well as private baths. Near the Maison Dieu there are hot and rold baths, more centrally .situated for the townspeople, and in the same locality is a ver)' well arranged Turkish Bath. These bathing conveniences are a great advantage to the town, both for residents and visitors, and well worth the five or six hundred pounds that the Corporation has to provide to balance the working expen.ses.
Land hunger does not trouble the inhabitants of Dover much, there being a good deal of available garden ground around the fringe of the building estates, nevertheless the Corporation has invested between two or three thousand pounds in the purchase of allotment ground, which is situated at Buckland, near working class houses that have only small gardens.
For the purposes of education the Corporation have in recent years had to spend much more than in former times, for until compulsion came by Act of Parliament, the Corporation's educational expenditure was very small. There was a Museum established about 80 years ago, which, when it commenced, was a centre of mutual help in higher education, but after it came entirely into the control of the Corporation its educational value declined. There has been a long agitation in Dover in favour of the establishment of a Public Library, and although it has to be recorded that Dover of to-day does not possess such a centre of enlighten ment, public opinion appears to be growing in favour of spending public money in a moderate way, not only for mental recreation but for liberally furnishing the minds of citizens with information on public affairs to enable them to rightly exercise the duties of Citizenship.