The Vintage Views column with Aled Jones - Prince Street

It’s a much less upmarket area than it used to be, despite having many fine shops and pubs.

For sure, there’s much class in the image, ranging from a top hotel and a quality perfumers, to a fabulous cheesecake store and a host of well-dressed people.

The “golden age” between 1901 and the outbreak of World War One was generally a time of success and prosperity for Edwardian Bridlington. Our hero image dates to around 1905 and shows Prince Street as we’ve never seen it.

To the left of the classic scene, on the current site of Premier amusements, is Meek’s Hairdressers and Perfumers shop, which sold luxurious fragrances typifying the era. Note the sign above the door advertising the services available, ‘Hair cutting, shaving and shampooing saloons’.

Next to it is the Cock & Lion Inn, a 17th-century building which started life as a private residence. Renowned for its ornamental animals on the roof, it had a Jacobean oak-panelled room.

Further down the street is the elegant Britannia Hotel, which boasted its own stables and billiard room. Formerly the mansion of the merchant John Bower, it was the place to stay.

Almost half of the house was destroyed, in a German air-raid, and sadly had to be demolished - not to the town’s advantage (as one of our noblest buildings was lost).

Shockingly, the same enemy assault also took out Meek’s and the Cock & Lion!

On the right of the street, a small carriage, of a type known as a ‘trap’, waits outside Anfield’s, famous for their homemade Yorkshire Cheesecakes. The site is now occupied by Goodwins.

In the background (left), on the corner of Cross Street, is the premises of H. Batchelor, best drapery and furnishings.

In a short time old-fashioned shops were replaced by department stores, arcades and drab units as the street began to feel the devastating effects of the Blitz on Bridlington.

It was made worse by the closure of Prince Street’s lucrative weekly market, which suddenly happened in 1949.