Brief History of the Broadway Inn

The building housing the Broadway Inn was built around 1870. Originally it was Totland Bay Supply Stores which sold everything from groceries to coal, beer to bread and was also the post office.

In April 1897 Signor Marconi walked into Totland Bay Post Office and asked the Postmaster Mr J B Garlick if he could assist him in his experiments in radio transmission a mile up the road at the Needles.  Signor Marconi was unable to use morse code hence his request.

These successful experiments concluded by December 1897, were the first wireless transmissions sending messages at first back to Totland then to a yacht in Alum Bay and finally to the SS St.Paul 36 miles out at Sea. 

This was the birth of radio.

By 1902 Totland had started to expand and the post office was relocated 300 yards away.  The Supply Stores were renamed Jordan & Stanley and ran as such until after the second world war. 

In 1948 an application was made to turn the shop into a public house, the Broadway Inn was born in 1951.