Torquay from Park Hill, Looking West, c.1842

A view of Torquay from Park Hill, with two figures in the foreground, lithograph created and published by William Spreat (c.1816-1897), c.1842.

This lithograph was likely created in the 1840s, for William Spreat's "A new series of stereographs of Torquay," an illustrated publication that attested to the cultural reframing of this coastal town as a fashionable seaside resort. As the Torbay area became connected to the main railway line (Torre station, formerly called Torquay station, was opened in 1848), the tourist industry gathered apace. Guides such as Croydon's Torquay Guide (1848), and Cockrem's Guide to Torquay and its neighbourhood (1850), marked out items of interest for geologists, botanists, walkers, and writers. Partly due to the purported benefits of the sea air, convalescents were also encouraged to make the journey to the South Devon coast. In 1857, Charles Radclyffe Hall discussed "Torquay in its medical aspect as a resort for pulmonary invalids," and from 1837 to 1841, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whilst suffering from suspected tuberculosis, stayed in the town in an attempt to recover her health. 

Visitors were also encouraged to go on walking tours to take in the scenery. The view from Park Hill, as this lithograph depicts, became a popular and celebrated spot:

"From the hills which surround Torquay, the most beautiful views presents themselves; but the one to which a stranger would probably be inclined to give the preference, is that from Park Hill, which comprises nearly the whole of the bay, together with the white terraces of the town, divided from each other by green slopes, and protected by hills of the most varied forms, while beyond the rising grounds, covered with wood, on the opposite shore, the eye rest on the grey peaks of some of the most picturesque Tors of Dartmoor."- E. and George H. Croydon, The Torquay Guide: Containing a Description of the Town, and of the Most Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Neighborhood, the Excursions and Walks, Geology, Climate, Botany Etc., Etc, (1848), 2-3. 

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