Torquay’s Other History: George Bernard Shaw in Torquay

By Kevin Dixon, on Sunday, June 26, 2011

George Bernard Shaw: his 1987 play You Never Can Tell was set in Torquay

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. While also a journalist, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Most of his work was concerned with social issues, such as education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.

For example, the 1897 play You Never Can Tell was set in Torquay. It was the BBC Play of the Month in 1977 and featured Cyril Cusack, Patrick Magee, Judy Parfitt and Robert Powell. It was described at the time.

Shaw’s comic tour-de-force is set beside the seaside where a holiday atmosphere prevails. Amidst the sunshine and sea air, against a background of a fancy dress party and luncheon, Shaw uses his lightest touch to explore the battle of the sexes, the absurdities of marriage and the generation gap.

The enlightened Mrs Lanfrey Clandon and her three clever and unconventional children have returned to England after eighteen years of living abroad. Whilst staying at a Hotel in Torbay the family bumps into the staunchly traditional father they had previously abandoned. Add into the equation an impoverished dentist, an eminent QC and a seemingly all-knowing waiter.

In 1884 Shaw joined the socialist Fabian Society and served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of workers, challenging private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles – Shaw was also a vegetarian, who eschewed alcohol and tobacco.

Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938) for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion.

Hydropathic Hotel: George enjoyed the lack of housekeeping, the bathing and the shops

Shaw was a regular summer visitor to the Hydropathic Hotel above Meadfoot Beach. He appreciated:

No housekeeping, plenty of bathing, taxicabs to get around in, shops galore, and every sort of urban amenity.

During his time at the Hydro in 1914, Shaw wrote a series of letters to his fellow Fabian socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb. He discussed hostilities with Germany and related the arrest of the German novelist Hedwig Sonntag, who was working as a hotel porter at the Hydro:

I got a pathetic letter this morning from Hedwig Sonntag, thanking me in moving terms for being the only honest man in England… Later in the day, he, though registered, was handcuffed and deported to the innermost centre of Britain – to Exeter, in fact. And in the evening the Coastguard threatened to shoot me and Barker on our walk before going to bed, if we approached him (we were 50 yards off).

Vane Tower: George was also a visitor to Vane Twoer, the striking Florentine style Grade II listed building on the skyline above the harbour

Shaw was also a visitor to Vane Tower in the company of Mr (later Sir) Basil Cameron, conductor of the Municipal Orchestra. This striking Grade II listed building is on the skyline above the harbour. A fine example of the Florentine Style of architecture, it was built in 1872, supposedly for the first American Ambassador to be based in England, and copied from a similar property overlooking Lake Lugano.