Walkie Torquay

Photo © Rob Jones

It is a little known fact that the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, after surrendering to the British after the Battle of Waterloo, was brought aboard a British warship, HMS Bellerophon moored off … Torquay.

It was a fleeting visit, as he was being transferred to HMS Northumberland en route to exile on St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Napoleon never came ashore, and in fact he was forbidden from doing so. He did become a tourist attraction though, with boats of gawpers hoping to see Napoleon walking on deck. People brought him chocolates and flowers.

It is tempting to imagine him arriving in Torquay, getting a taxi to his B&B overlooking the harbour. Perhaps being instructed by a strict landlady on the time of breakfast, rules over guests in the room, and the availablity of extra blankets should he need them, and oh … the windows are screwed shut, and please don’t encourage the seagulls.

He would perhaps have spent his day sitting in a waterside cafe, reading, and then taking a look at the Tessier Gardens, which were built in the 1930s for the use of ‘adults only.’ Mind boggles.

Napoleon was apparently a very keen botanist and gardener - in addition to invading most of Europe and decapitating aristocrats - and largely reconstructed the gardens at the house where he was exiled.

Also in this fictitious guest house, several other famous visitors who’ve come by over the years such as the cast of Monty Python who found inspiration for Fawlty Towers, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Beatrix Potter, Agatha Christie - who roller skated along the pier and studied poisons - Brunel, the poet Keats, the comedian Peter Cook, Rudyard Kipling - who allegedly wanted to dance naked through the town - the inventor of the computer Charles Babbage and the tragic actress Isadora Duncan.

What an entertaining guest house breakfast that would be.

R