Skinner Street was once home to famed 19th century naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who lived at No. 1 with his mother, Hannah, his siblings, and his often absent artist father.

Poole’s pioneer of the aquarium

Gosse’s childhood in Poole helped to cultivate his interest and love for the natural world, especially under the guidance of his aunt, Susan Bell.

Gosse later wrote, ‘when I found any specimen that appeared to me curious, or beautiful, or strange, I would take it to Aunt Bell, with confidence that I should learn something of its history from her.’

While Poole set the scene for Gosse’s love for the natural world, the mercantile character of the town also provided him with his first line of work as a counting clerk for Garland and Sons, aged 15.

Just two years later, Gosse set sail to Newfoundland to continue at Slade, Elson and Co, and began his career away from Poole.

A revolution for marine science

Gosse built the first successful sea-water aquarium for the long-term housing of marine creatures, as well as coining the word itself; ‘aquarium’!

In his book The Aquarium, Gosse states the ‘habits of animals will never be thoroughly known till they are observed in detail…they must be closely watched, their various actions carefully noted’.

His marine aquarium allowed him to do just that.

According to Gosse’s son, Edmund, Aunt Bell was actually ‘the first person to suggest the preservation of living animals in aquaria of sea-water’, which she’d mentioned when a young Philip found sea anemones in the springtides of Poole Quay.

It was around the same time as his invention that clear aquarium tanks became fashionable to display in Victorian society, and his cataloguing of marine animals helped to inform even Charles Darwin.

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