Skegness Magazine

Okay, wiseguys, which one of you said this looks like hubby after a night out in Skegness?

This Skegness postcard was designed by Frank Evans the Art Master and Fish Cafe Proprietor, High Street, Skegness.

But apparently, Mr Evan’s postcard designs caused him a few problems when he advertised them on a poster in his cafe window…

Cafe Window Smashed

Mr Frank Evans displayed a poster advertising his comic postcard in the plate glass window of his fish cafe on High Street in Skegness. But the poster apparently caused much controversy among Skegness folk and one November afternoon in 1958, his cafe window was smashed and the poster damaged. The sound of breaking glass was heard in High Street around 3.30pm and a man was seen walking away from the scene bleeding from the wrist.
Other posters on display, including some with reference to the Council and religeous verses remained intact.

Picture: Repairs taking place to the broken window in Mr Frank Evan’s High Street premises. The window displays have been the subject of Skegness Council debate and much local controversy.

You can see part of the figure in the postcard above in the picture below.

Cafe Closed After Summons

A few months earlier, in August of 1958, well-known Skegness businessman, Mr Frank Evans took the decision to close the newest of his two fish restaurants on High Street Skegness, after one of his staff was summons for touting for business.
The summons was served on employee James Anthony Daley, of 31 Wainfleet Road, who pleaded guilty as charged.

A local policeman had seen the employee, wearing a white smock-type coat outside the High Street cafe, frequently indicating with his hand to the door of the dafe, seemingly to invite people inside.

Mr Evans wrote a letter to Skegness Magistrates Court, via his solicitor, explaining that he had been under the impression that part of the pavement outside his premises belong to him, but it appeared that this was not so. He went on to say that due to this trouble and other difficulties he had experienced, he immediately closed the premises.

Mr Evans was fined £1.

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This story about being prosecuted for touting for business in 1958 serves as a stark contrast to what seems to be acceptable today.

Nowadays, Skegness businesses often tout for business by handing out leaflets in town, usually sending out their mascot to do the touting. The Rockin’ Rooster with its cockerel mascot, the Marine boathouse with its cuddly elephants, why, only this morning, I saw Dino the Skegness Pier Mascot touting for business in High Street!

Perhaps the police have more on their minds these days than frog- marching a hand-cuffed cuddly dinosaur through the streets of Skegness?