This stunning building is the Sandown Free Library. Opened in Sandown High Street, IOW in 1905, this public library was often frequented by Karl Marx. Money for the library was donated by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish businessman who had migrated to the US as a child with his parents. Having worked his way up from a factory floor worker to owner of the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world (Carnegie Steel Company), he later devoted his life to philanthr

2 High Street, Sandown, for most of the 20th century, this was Martin’s Library. Martin’s Library was established in Sandown about 1878 by William Beavan Martin. Another branch opened in Shanklin about 1886. The circulating library had a large and constant supply of books for all readers (over 4,000), London periodicals, and a special department of books for juvenile readers. The store was also a pianoforte and music warehouse, with pianos (for sale, hire purchase and rental

This is a quick marker pen sketch of 85 High Street Sandown - now Serenity’s Cafe. Over the years the building has seen various occupants initially as a furniture dealers (including Charles W Gould around 1898, Frank Morris from 1901, and Archibald Edgar Thomas from 1911) and later as a cafe (Rich and Collins in the 1940s, Penelope’s in the late 50’s and now Serenity’s) Please read more about the history of Sandown shops with more shop illustrations on our page Sandown Histor

This elegant building once stood on the Parade (also called Victoria Parade) in Cowes. Often called the New Terrace on postcards, it appears to have consisted of at least 7 terraced houses, from at least the 1880s until the 1920s. In 1924, the two houses on the left numbers 6 & 7 housed a boarding school, Solent House Boarding and Day School, run by Margaret H Caws and her sister Cecil. The school was established sometime after 1911, and by 1937, had moved to a large detache

Numbers 7, 9 and 11 Medina Road - how they looked 50 years ago (next to Lallows in Cowes). Numbers 7 on the left and 9 in the middle still stand, but number 11 on the right, once a shop, has gone leaving a gap between this building and the next. Today, Medina Road is unrecognisable to the street of yesteryear. A hundred years ago, the street consisted of terraced houses such as these, shops, marine business premises,at least 6 pubs and the offices of JS Whites. In close proxi