Richard Challoner is not only one of our wonderful Church Wardens but also our resident historian, who over the years has conducted detailed research in our archives and elsewhere into the history of Holy Trinity and the Anglican community in Nice. In the coming months we will be publishing a number of historical articles that he has written.
Below is an extract from the first of these articles entitled "Beach Road Nice - The Revd. Lewis Way and the Origins of the Promenade des Anglais" . You can read the full article by clicking HERE.
The Revd. Lewis Way and the Origins of the Promenade des Anglais.
At the re-inauguration of the newly refurbished Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Nice in the summer of 2012, Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice, while talking about the British contribution to the city and its life, described the Promenade des Anglais as the most beautiful avenue in the world. Some might disagree, but no one can deny the Promenade’s iconic status as one of the most recognisable stretches of road on Earth. Approximately three miles (or five kilometres) long, it sweeps in a majestic curve around the Baie des Anges, the grand hotels, apartment blocks, beaches and restaurants - a world away from its humble origins as a simple beach road.
The essential story of how the Promenade des Anglais came to exist is familiar to most who come from, live in or visit Nice: a variation on the theme of wealthy British visitors and residents clubbing together to pay impoverished local people to clear a stretch of road along the beach on which they could walk and ride, and its gradual extension into the modern Promenade. Some versions suggest that only two people were contributors to the first Beach Road: the main instigator of the project and temporary first Chaplain of Holy Trinity Church the Reverend Lewis Way, and Way’s brother-in-law the Reverend Edward Whitby. Indeed, Lewis Way’s name features in most books about the history of Nice in connection with the Promenade’s origins; few others do and in those instances they are inevitably British.
The true story of how the ‘Camin dei Anglés’ (as the first stretch was known) came into being is, perhaps inevitably, more complicated. Great philanthropist though he was, Lewis Way was only one of a number of subscribers to the Beach Road project. With the help of Reverend Way's own file, we can get an insight into who these subscribers were and how much they contributed, among other aspects.
Follow this LINK to read the whole of Richard's fascinating article .......