Carlisle Parade

Date estimate of between 1900-1914.

See the display of bath chairs along the edge of the road, they could be hired like a modern taxi or on a regular contract. The proprietors had sites where they could ply their trade.within the town. There were several bath chair operators who were based at Cambridge Gardens near the station and town centre.

Note the sun blinds on the windows of the apartments or hotel.

There is a biography of a Bath Chairman who operated in Hastings, published around 1910. He was born outside of Eastbourne and after the death of his parents at around the age of 11 took on an itinerant life in and out of poor houses and orphanages in London and the south east. He became an avid reader as a child and his treasured possession were a few books that he attempted to keep with him.

He was associated with various radical groups in and around Sittingbourne and elsewhere. The book is available on inter-library loan from one of the London boroughs. It is now a rare item and one was on sale in the US recently for £120.

The author was George Meek, The Bath Chairman.

It is a good history of the south east from around his birth in the late 1860s onwards

Correction. I should have said that the book is an autobiography, not a biography. Having finished schooling at 11 years of age, been a vagrant and obtaining work here and there, he was able to write a book.

I have a great great uncle, William Foskett, who was a bath chair man in Hastings - so listed in the 1891 and 1901 censuses. He died in 1914.
A copy of George Meek's book, with an introduction by HG Wells can be read on the Internet Library.
https://archive.org/details/georgemeekbathch00meekuoft/mode/2up