June. The old Borough Gaol sold for £170 12s.
July 2nd. The Royal Aquarium opened by the Mayor, after its being nearly rebuilt and beautifully decorated at a cost of about £10,000. The event was celebrated by a luncheon and concert given by Madame Alice Barth’s Opera Company. The grand hall is 115 ft. by 60 ft., and 44 ft. high; and the minor hall 80 ft. by 38 ft., and 23 ft. high. The south front is faced with buff terra-cotta, the style Italian, freely treated. Messrs. Bottle and Olley were the architects, and Messrs. Cork and Beach and Mr. B. Springall, building contractors. (See Oct. 31st, 1881.) The same builders contracted for the new Board School, Church Road, Gorleston, on July 17th, at £4,348.
July 4th. C. C. Aldred, Esq., sworn as a Magistrate for the County of Norfolk. (See June 28th, 1884.)
July. Corporal S. J. Batchelder, 2nd N.R.V., won the champion medal of Norfolk at Norwich.
July. Invalid shelter on South Parade ordered by the Council. Cost £60.
July 9th. Retired Commander Francis Harris, R.N., a Trafalgar veteran, died at Southtown, and buried at Gorleston. He was born May 17th, 1795, and was 11 years old when the great battle was fought. He entered the Navy as First-class Volunteer on board the “Téméraire;” was at the battle of Trafalgar with his father, at the defence of Cadiz until Feb., 1811; removed to the “Unité;” assisted at the capture in 1811 of the French store ship “Dromédaire,” 800 tons; in the following May, in the same frigate, in company with the “Pemone” and “Scout,” at the destruction of the “Giraffe” and “Nourrice.” He participated in many boat affairs in the Adriatic; and in the same ship shared in a partial action, fought, 13th Feb., 1814, with the Toulon fleet, under Sir E. Pellew. He was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant in 1815, and made Commander in 1860. The Graphic, March 1st, 1879, published the portraits of the then seven survivors, including Commander Harris and Admiral Spencer Smyth, of this town.
July 13th. Sydney Stalley (20) drowned on Oulton Broad.
July 17th. Columbia Fish Market, London (built some ten years ago by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, at a cost of £300,000), re-opened, to which large quantities of fish are consigned from Yarmouth.
July 22nd. On Sunday a man (name unknown) hung himself on one of the trees on Trafalgar Road, near the Grammar School.
Aug. 1st. The “Duke’s Head” and Corn Hall let by auction for seven years to Mr. Seaman at an annual rent of £460.