Scarborough Aquarium

Built on a two-and-a-half-acre site underneath the Cliff footbridge by the Marine Aquarium Company. The Company invested the colossal sum of £110,000 in a gigantic underground labyrinth. From start to official opening on Whit Monday 1877, the work took three years to complete.

SCARBOROUGH AQUARIUM —The new aquarium at Scarborough was opened on Whit Monday. The building, like that at Brighton, is underground, and designed by the same architect, Mr. E. Birch. The works have been executed by Messrs. Kirk and Parry, of Sleaford, at a cost of £100,000. The dimensions are 500 feet by 250 feet; the style of the entrance court, and reading and dining rooms is described as “Mohammedan Hindoo;” the brick arched corridors between the side tanks are Arabesque; and at the shore end is a representation of the “Caves of Elephanta; the orchestra is placed in a romantic rockery, with shrubs and cascades, the tanks are twenty-six in number, and vary from 12 feet to 36 feet square. [Builder 26 May 1877 page 543]

Reference           Builder 26 May 1877 page 543