Victorian Newport
"There is no town in the Kingdom, whose progress has been more marked, than that of Newport during the period of fifty years, which today marks the Jubilee of Her Majesty's reign. On the 20th June 1837, docks were unknown at Newport, the slight railway accommodation to the Borough would in these days be regarded as quite worthless; from the river to High Street a narrow pill slowly wended its way, whilst the width of the roadway did not exceed ten or eleven feet. | In 1837 nearly the whole of the traffic with Newport, was conveyed by the Monmouthshire Canal, whilst passengers had to content themselves with the old stage coaches, carriers vans, and omnibuses. Compared with today Newport was simply a rural village. Its population did not exceed 9000, the inhabited houses being about 1500. Today, the population of the town exceeds 40,000, the number of inhabited houses is fully 7000. | The Alexandra and Newport Docks have been constructed, a perfect network of railways runs into the town, and we are exporting over three million tons of coal per annum. | These particulars, brief though they are, will serve to show the wonderful development of Newport from that day, precisely fifty years ago, when Victoria was informed that she had succeeded to the throne." | The Monmouthsire Merlin's editorial for Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations in 1887. | James Flewitt Mullock | View of Newport from the South Wales Railway (ca.1850-60)
[ work in progress ]
[1] JAMES FLEWITT MULLOCK AND THE VICTORIAN ACHIEVEMENT
JAMES FLEWITT MULLOCK AND THE VICTORIAN ACHIEVEMENT
The Art and Society in Newport Series
John Wilson, Guest Curator
Newport Museum and Art Gallery, 1993
An exhibition exploring art and the public sphere in nineteenth century Newport with particular reference to leading Victorian artist James Flewitt Mullock and the formation of the Newport Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery and Schools of Science and Art.
Locating modern Newport | The industrial frontier
Modern Newport was the product of the industrial frontier, a port for the iron and coal districts of Monmouthshire, whose trade formed part of the global network of British Imperial expansion. Newport and Monmouthshire were a pacesetter of modern democratic aspirations, as the Chartist Insurrection of 1839 erupted as a human protest against the conditions of frontier industrialism.
Chartism galvanized the municipal sphere in Newport and as the wealth
of the town consolidated through the Victorian period Newport took on
all the appearance of a Victorian boom town, from the thriving docks to
the bustling Commercial Street and the monumental Town Hall. By the
year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887, the stigma of Chartism and
radical protest had been shaken off for a more triumphant celebration
of Newport as a Victorian success story, as the South Wales coalfield
underpinned the town's commercial and municipal Progress. The passage cited above is the Monmouthsire Merlin's editorial for the Jubilee celebrations in 1887 - Newport represented the quintessential Victorian success story.
Municipal progress | Public education and art institutions
The
growth and consolidation of the municipal sphere included a push
for public education, and the new Free Library, Museum and Art Gallery
and Schools of Science and Art building of 1882 in Dock Street
marked the very cynosure of civic pride. "Any one who wants to see a
town in the making should visit Newport". enthused London Daily
Telegraph correspondent W. Clarke Russel upon a visit to the port of
Newport and witnessing the day's civic celebrations that included the
opening of the new free Library and Schools of Science and Art, "one
hears of the growth of towns, but here you see the people clapping
their hands, and shouting over every development with the delight of a
young mother who looks into her baby's mouth and finds new teeth in it".
The
push for public education
included art education, and the new Newport Technical Institute
building of 1912 in Clarence Place marked the climax of a few
generations of steady endeavour (Newport's Science and Art Classes
having previously been held at the Free Library in Dock Street). The
art world has been an integral part of Newport's evolution across
the generations. The Twentieth Century was one of growth in the post-45
period, and the Newport College of Art earned itself a solid reputation
on the wider British scene.
ART AND SOCIETY IN NEWPORT
THE ART AND SOCIETY IN NEWPORT SERIES
Surveys - Exploring art and society in Newport
[3] Documenting the City: Art and Society in Newport (2007)
[2] Documenting the Twentieth Century (2000)
[1] James Flewitt Mullock and the Victorian Achievement (1993)
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[1] James Flewitt Mullock and the Victorian Achievement (1993)