A Plaque for the Old Hove Town Hall

64 Brunswick Street West.

64 Brunswick Street West, built 1855-56 by a Mr Russell for the Brunswick Commissioners, has had its  history commemorated with a blue plaque. It is constructed with render over rubble with brick quoins and has outlasted its replacement, the Alfred Waterhouse Hove Town Hall in Church Road, by 56 years.

Addressses were given by the City Mayor, Cr Lizzie Deane, Michael Ray the last Chief Executive of Hove Borough council, and Vasseema Hamilton, Executive Principal of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. BIMM are the present occupiers of the building.

The plaque was unveiled by the City Mayor.

Past & present Councillors 

 

Vaseema Hamilton, Roger Amerena, Michael Ray.

A Plaque for the Hilton Twins

The City Mayor, Cllr Alan Robins, today unveiled a plaque at 18 Riley Road to the Hilton Twins.  

The twins, although exploited during their early life, gained freedom from their "guardians' at the age of 23. They went on to rise above their physical challenges and for many years became widely celebrated for their musical talents alone. However the mid 20th.C saw their popularity fade. Lacking work and money they ended up in Charlotte, North Carolina employed in a local shop. 

They died during the Hong Kong flu epidmic, Daisy preceding Violet by a few days and were buried together at the local graveyard.

   

This was the 6th and last plaque unveiling performed by Cllr Robin during his mayoral tenure.
 

A Plaque to Rabindranath Tagore

A plaque was unveiled by the City Mayor today at 7 Ship Street to commemorate Rabindranath's connection with the city. Brighton & Hove was the first place he lived in outside of India. Rabindranath was born into a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family and built on and transcended these roots, embracing universalism and humanism. He became a poet, philospher, novelist, visual artist, composer and activist. In 1913 he became the first non-westerner to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and in 1915 he was knighted by King George V for his services to literature.

Addresses were given by:-

Roger Amerena, Chairman of the Brighton & Hove Commemorative Plaque Panel.

Her Excellency the High Commissioner for Bangladesh.

Dr Kalyan Kundu, Tagore Centre UK.

Professor Shahaduz Zaman University of Sussex.

Dr Jeanne Openshaw, University of Edinburgh.

The Salvation Army Band provided welcoming music and the National Anthems.

A Plaque to Elizabeth Robins and Octavia Wilberforce

This plaque has now been installed at 24 Montpelier Crescent. Due to infection control measures it was deemed unadvisable to hold an unveiling ceremony. 

Elizabeth Robbins was born in America and moved to London in September 1888. She had a very active and eventful life, great success as an actor and wrote as C.E. Raimond. She met Octavia Wilberforce in 1909. 

Partly supported by Elizabeth and against strong parental oppositions Octavia entered the London School of Medicine for Women in 1913, qualifying in 1920. She entered general practice in Brighton  and ran a women's shelter near Henfield. Octavia was friendly with members of the Bloomsbury Group and treated Virginia Woolf's mental illness towards the end of Woolf's life. She retired in 1954.

Smuggler's Cottage, Rottingdean

The semi-detached cottage shown on the left in the above postcard (see also: Rottingdean) was at one time known as '"Smuggler's Cottage".

The photo on the right shows it in 1957 with a curious object above the downstairs window. It has been suggested that this was an air-raid siren left in place after the war but it seems to be the wrong shape for that.  Closer inspection reveals what might be decorative features and a hint that it is barrel-shaped. Was it in fact an ornamental brandy-barrel displayed as a nod to the smuggler's trade and in lieu of a conventional house nameplate?

 

No. 10 Ship Street

In the early 19thC. 10 Ship Street was occupied by a Ladies Seminary. By the mid 19thC.  a Civil Engineer & Architect was in residence. Later in the 19thC. it was rebuilt in  extravagant style as The Bodega, a Wine & Spirit Merchants which by the mid 20thC had become a silver service restaurant. Later on it became the Smugglers' Arms and more recently the Walrus, run by the southern  England and Wales chain City Pubs. 

It was Grade 2 listed by Historic England in August 1999.

It is good to see a splendid classical Victorian frontage nicely maintained.

The "Surrey Style" in Hove.

In the closing decades of the 19thC sources as diverse as the writings of William Morris and the cottage paintings of Helen Allingham had created an idealised version of country life in the collective Victorian mind.  Wealthy Londoners, encouraged by the expansion of railway lines serving the capital, began to look beyond metroland to the hills and woodlands of Surrey for their retirement homes. In what was then a mainly rural county the supply of suitable properties was limited and they turned to architects such as Lutyens (influenced by Gertude Jekyll), Falkner, Bailey and Nevill to help fulfil their rural idyll. 

Apprised of their clients' domestic and comfort needs the architects turned to the Surrey vernacular for inspiration and found it in the various combinations of red-brick, red-tiles and the occasional timber framing. The Surrey style was born. Unaccountably what later came to signpost the Surrey Style were  imposing chimneys which, whatever decorative features they incorporated, were always large.

The architect of 11 Grand Avenue, Hove, was A. Faulkner. It was built by William Willett, 1900-1903. The manner in which it has, over the years, withstood the ravages of time in what is quite an exposed location bears witness to the quality of the build. It is Grade II listed with Historic England.

Portslade Norman Manor.- Video

Patcham Place preserved

In the evening sunshine which only reaches it at this time of year.

The gate posts & fencing.

The KSD Group took over the lease of Patcham Place in 2012 and deserve every credit for the thoroughness with which they have restored and maintained Patcham Place since.

Following recurrent thefts of lead prior to 2014 estate-style mild steel fencing and handsome gate posts were installed.  Remnants of original wrought-iron fencing are still to be found at the top of Coney Hill.

Patcham Place was built in the 16th.C but the facade was later modified with the black mathematical tiles that can be seen today. It is said to be haunted by one of its owners Anthony Stapley who lived there c1620-1655. He was a leading Puritan and Parliamentarian in the area and one of the 59 MPs who signed Charles I's death warrant.

Previous posts:

Move to dispose of Patcham Place 

Patcham Place Proposals

Patcham Place Stables

Fencing for Patcham Place

Black Rock Gasworks redevelopment

This brownfield site’s use as a gasworks dates back to 1818 and the days when coal was unloaded from colliers on the beach and hauled up through a tunnel cut in the chalk, parts of which are said to still exist. After gas production on site ceased in 1860 the site was used for gas storage and distribution. For much of this span of time activities on the site went unrecorded leading, as far as redevelopment is concerned, to significant uncertainty and risk of unknown underground obstructions and contamination.The site forms part of the council's strategic site for redevelopment DA2 which includes the Marina. 

Now prospective developers St William have launched a public consultation on their landscape-led proposals for the site. St William is a joint venture between National Grid and the Berkeley Group to regenerate redundant gasworks sites across the South of England to deliver new homes and jobs.

EPR Architects are project leaders and landscaping is by Brighton-based Andy Sturgeon Design.

A key feature of the site has been identified as it ability to open up a new green link between the South Downs National Park, the city and the sea.

The site is identified specifically to deliver new homes and employment floorspace, with the potential for ancillary retail. 

Artist's impression.

A feedback form can be found at:- https://brightongasworks.co.uk/feedback/

A Cannon Place Hotel?

Visualisation of the hotel viewed from King's Road

The owners of the Hilton Metropole Hotel (Topland), are seeking the views of local residents on a proposed development of a new 221 room hotel on the northeast corner of the Metropole site.

The site  comprises vacant hotel exhibition space to the rear of the Metropole which is no longer required by Hilton,  and also incorporates 31-32 Cannon Place, on the corner of Cannon Place and St. Margaret’s Place. This Grade II listed building, which currently accommodates a fire escape for the Hotel, is to be retained and fully integrated into the new proposals with the splendidly porticoed entrance reopened to provide a second entrance to the new hotel. The main entrance will be on Cannon Place also giving access to a large reception area opening on to a landscaped courtyard.

The existing blank wall of the Exhibition Hall creates an unwelcoming atmosphere on an important pedestrian route to the seafront from Western Road. The frontage of the new hotel provides a good opportunity to improve on this.  Main concerns are likely to be with the bulk and height of the building and the extent to which this can be ameliorated by sensitive design.

The former Newburgh Assembly Rooms on St. Margaret's Place.

See also: https://www.brighton-society.org.uk/brighton-society-response-to-the-cannon-place-hotel-public-consultation/

To respond to the consultation go to:- https://www.cannonplacehotel-consultation.com/blank-5

For some background see: Extinguished Splendour

Hove hole

This central circular feature of Hove Recreation Ground dates from its opening in 1891. It once comprised a complete circle of trees which, up to well into the last century, surrounded a bowl-shaped concavity possibly about 15 foot deep. It may have been intended originally as some kind of grotto or fernery.

google earth view 

The circle of trees is now incomplete and, like many other original features of the city's parks & gardens the bowl no longer exists having been filled up sometime in the latter half of the 20th century.

The Brangwyn Estate

There is some mystery about how the Brangwyn Estate between Withdean and Patcham Village was so named. It was built in the 1930s by developer W.H.Lee who, according to Carder, upset Sir Frank Brangwyn of Ditchling by using his name. However the London Road entrance to the estate was ultimately adorned by two massive lamp columns designed by Brangwyn which suggests a placatory gesture from Lee. It still leaves open the question as to why Lee chose the name in the first place. Was he a friend of Brangwyn or just an admirer of his impressive artistic oeuvre?

Although the estate is built in the ever popular Tudorbethan style Brangwyn, who had no architectural training, has looked to the fading Art Deco for inspiration and these rather grotesque creations are the result. The lamps themselves are graceful, but whereas they could have been adequately supported on cast-iron lamp standards, they are instead perched like "peas on a drum" on redundantly massive brickwork. Nevertheless the intricate decorative features are clever and must have posed a good test of the bricklayer's skill.

The lamps are never lit. In the 1930s the electrical supply will have used rubber-insulated cables which have limited life and no doubt were never renewed.

The columns are grade II listed by Historic England.

At Patcham Roundabout - then & now

Then. The pumping station, which can be seen beyond the railway line, was built in 1889 so this postcard is dated later than that but before the age of the motor car swept all of this away. Note that the railway bridge is a simple brick arch. On the left can be seen the flint wall of Patcham Place, most of which was demolished when the Patcham by-pass was built in 1926.  See also: Patcham Village - then & now.

2020

Now. With the growth of motor transport came the need to provide the same headroom over the whole width of the road and the brick arch was replaced with beams supported at their ends on the original brickwork which left the width of the roadway unchanged.

The roundabout today doesn't get any prettier

The roundabout was part of Brighton bypass scheme completed in 1995. Before then the A23 crossover from Mill Road to Vale Avenue was controlled by lights.

Progress at All Saints, Patcham.

 

Through the scaffolding it is already possible to get some idea of how All Saints will look stripped of its modern drab rendering. The rough flint walling is being flush pointed, and the brick quoins repaired. 

Old Patcham, which was a prosperous farming village when Brighthelmstone was still a poor fishing hamlet will soon be able to view its parish church in something like the state its medieval builders left it. 

Previous post: All Saints Patcham to get a face-lift.

The Shakespeare's Head - then & now

1 Spring Street

The Shakespeare's Head was built in the 1830s as part of the development of Spring Street which had started in the late 1820s. It was sited on the southern corner of Hampton Street on the back plot to 157 Western Road which later became part of Boots the Chemists. Boots originally occupied 157 to 162 Western Road to the west of Spring Street. The photo shows the Shakespeare's Head in 1935 after most of the north side of Western Road between Hampton Place had been demolished for the Mitre House development. By then Boots had moved to purpose-built premises between Spring Street and Dean Street taking some of the street numbers with them.

The Shakespeare's Head was rebuilt in typical 1930s style retaining the corner entrance to the public bar and flourished for over 3 decades under landlord Sidney Berger. It closed about 10 years ago and two side entrances to other bars were replaced with windows. It now serves as the breakfast room of the Britannia Study Hotel in Mitre House.

In 2020

Today the only remaining hint to its history is in the coloured plaque of Shakespeare's head surmounting  the corner doorway.

See also - Spring Street - then & now
                 More on Spring Street shops

Amon Henry Wilds' offices

84 Western Road

Brighton Street Directory for 1845

Brighton's famous Regency architect built the Western Pavilion for his own residence in 1828 and occupied offices conveniently close at 84 Western Road.  He was still there in 1846 but gone by 1850 when he retired to Shoreham.

Upper Russell Street (2)

Before it was cleared in the 1960s, for the building of Churchill Square, Upper Russell Street ran parallel to Western Road from Clarence Square to near the top of Regency Road where it turned sharply north to join Western Road alongside the Lamb & Flag (now Crowns) pub. It could not join up with the west end of Regency Road because it was on a higher level. Instead a rough grassy bank existed between the corner of Upper Russell Street and Regency Road, probably about 10 feet below. 

Upper Russell Street now lies under the Churchill Square 1 car park where it roughly follows the ground floor central east-west feeder lane.

Google Earth view of the area today.

Below are two photos from the RP&M Collections of the northward running section of Upper Russell Street in the 1950s.

The side of the still existing Lamb & Flag can be seen in the distance.

On the right of the photo is the southernmost building of this section of Upper Russell Street which flanked the bank down to Regency Road.

See also:
Upper Russell Street.

Gigins, bakers & confectioners.

Grenville Place.

A Plaque to Edward Bransfield RN

At 11 Clifton Road.

The plaque was unveiled by Deputy Mayor Cllr Alan Robins with
Rear Admiral Richard John Lippiett CB, CBE, DL, in attendance. 

Music by Salvation Army musicians

Guard of Honour

200 years to the day that Edward Bransfield became the first known person to glimpse and chart part of the Antarctic continent a plaque has been unveiled at his one-time residence, 11 Clifton Terrace. This follows the unveiling, on 25 January, of a memorial at Bransfield's birthplace, Ballinacurra, near Midleton, Cork. See below.

At Ballinacurra

His 2 year expedition in command of the 216 ton merchant vessel Williams is remarkable for being accomplished without loss of life even though Bransfield, then in Valpariso, had been ordered by the Admiralty to sail at short notice, and none of his crew were equipped for icy weather. His remarkable achievements was recognised by later explorers by the naming of Bransfield Strait and Bransfield Basin in his honour.

Bransfield's achievements had for many years been overshadowed by controversy over whether he or the Russian explorer Bellingshausen were the first to discover the Antarctic mainland but this has recently been resolved by author Rip Bulkeley, who following an exhaustive study of the Russian expedition concluded: “Bellingshausen was not the first commander to see the Antarctic mainland.” 

With the unveiling of these two memorials Edward Bransfield's important place in the annals of Antarctic Exploration is finally recognised.

Edward is buried in the Brighton Extra-Mural Cemetery.

Read more.