The rise of this popular and still elegant Victorian seaside resort lies in the tradition of sea bathing that began at nearby Churchtown centuries ago. As the number of people celebrating Bathing Sunday grew the need for a more accessible beach also grew and a stretch of sand two miles south of Churchtown was deemed suitable. As the crowns flocked over the sand dunes the need for accommodation increased and a local entrepreneur known as Duke Sutton built the first hotel in driftwood in 1792.

It was Doctor Barton who when christening Sutton's hotel with a bottle of champagne coined the name Southport (the South Port Hotel) and the town grew up around the ramshackle building.

The driftwood hotel was replaced by a grander stone building known as the Duke's Folly as its construction resulted in Sutton losing all his money and being imprisoned in Lancaster jail in 1803. Now an established town the expansion of Southport came as a result as with all of the region's famous resorts, of the extension of the railway services from the mill towns of Lancashire and from Manchester and Liverpool. Of all these places none has managed to retain its air of Victorian grandeur more so than Southport.

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