The crescendo built up until 1883 when the town was granted its charter for the Incorporation of the Borough on 16th June, and on 1st November the same year G. A. Wallis became the first Mayor of Eastbourne. Also in the same year the Prince of Wales officially opened Princess Alice Memorial Hospital, Bedfordwell Pumping Station and the western parades. Eastbourne Town Hall, designed by W. Tadman Foulkes, was completed in 1886 at a cost of £40,000.

Eastbourne s building fever reached its zenith in the 1880s but was cut short by a hard-hitting recession during which some builders went bankrupt. The progenitors of modern Eastbourne were growing old and the impetus declined with them. The 7th Duke died in 1891, followed by G. A. Wallis in 1895. With the passing of these two great men the town seemed to lose its enthusiasm.

Corporation bus waiting outside Hampden Park.

The 8th Duke was a close friend of Edward VII, who patronized the town before and after taking the throne, and the Royal association continued with George V who also stayed at Compton Place. The Duke, who was to become Mayor in 1897, put the Eastbourne estate on a business footing and met the problems of the expanding town which included the opening of a new waterworks at Friston. During this decade the Gilbert family developed Upperton Road, Prideaux Road and Green Street, providing houses for the middle and lower classes.

Eastbourne Town Hall in the 1890s

However, while the town was never quite the same again, the Council continued in the early traditions and were soon engaged in purchasing Hampden Park in 1901. In 1903 the town set up the world s first municipal bus service. The next year the Technical Institute was opened and housed a museum, school, art school and library. In 1909 the 9th Duke of Devonshire became Mayor and Eastbourne had as its first citizen the Crown s greatest subject - a distinction it shared with no other resort. In 1911 the town received County Borough status, and by 1914 Eastbourne was numbered among the largest, most exclusive and most successful holiday resorts in the country.

Expansion of the Borough area had included part of the Parish of Willingdon acquired in 1880 and subsequently added to in 1911. During the 1920s downland was purchased by the Borough and in 1938 an almost continuous strip of land was added to the periphery of the Borough.