Hove in the Past: Search results for Willett

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Cromwell Road, Hove

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2023)

According to a conveyance dated 29 September 1887 the original name of the road was intended to be Vernon Road, but this was probably before the houses were even built. The Hove Courier (8 April 1882) had this to say ‘ Cromwell Road … is a row of eleven houses facing the south, half of them being let or sold and rents varying from £90 to £130 a year, prices for the freehold being about £2,000, and along this road on the south side … a large plot of ground (is) being planted and turfed for lawn tennis.’

These houses and later ones were built of yellow stock brick by the noted builder William Willett and are embellished with his characteristic moulded and incised bricks to decorate cornices, window surroundings, and string courses. Numbers 2 to 36 consisting of two terraces and six semi-detached villas were built between 1880 and 1883, and on 2 November 1992 they received Grade II listed building status. It is interesting to note that the tennis courts were still in the ownership of William Willett in 1935, while his builder’s yard was located at 1A.

Public Highway

In July 1886 the road between the east side of Denmark Villas and the west side of The Drive (a distance of 625-ft) was declared a public highway.

In September 1889 the road between Wilbury Road and Holland Road was declared a public highway, and an agreement was signed between the Hove Commissioners and the West Brighton Estate.

In February 1898 Hove councillors asked Mr Willett to pave the foot-way on the south side between Eaton Gardens and The Drive in accordance with an agreement made with him on 24 June 1886.

In 1926 it was decided that cross-roads signs should be erected at the junction of The Drive and Cromwell Road, and at the junction of Wilbury Road and Cromwell Road. The signs were to be provided with reflectors and the wording would read ‘Very Dangerous Crossing’. Nearly one hundred years later, these crossings remain a perilous place for pedestrians, although at The Drive there is at least the ‘green man’ to see them across.

Trees

In December 1910 Mr Willett stated that there were too many trees on the north side of the road between The Drive and Wilbury Road. The Borough Surveyor agreed because there were 27 trees in this stretch of road with the distance between them varying from 11-ft to 28-ft. It was decided to remove some of them.

Motor Bus Complaints

In June 1915 a petition signed by 40 residents and ratepayers was presented to Hove Council complaining of the great annoyance caused by the motor buses. Apparently, the motor buses rushed along the road, causing such clouds of dust that residents were unable to open their windows. In addition, the vibrations caused walls and ceilings to crack, and pictures and china to rattle. The residents had no objection to horse buses but said motor buses were not required. However, Hove Council decided to allow the motor buses to continue running on condition that they slowed down.

Street Lighting

By 1928 Cromwell Road was still lit by 33 gas lamps, but in that year Hove Council decided to substitute overhead electric lighting instead.

House Notes

Number 7 – Major General Sir Philip Palin (1864-1937) lived in this house where he died in January 1937. His funeral was held at Holy Trinity Church, and he was buried in Hove Cemetery. He, his two brothers, and his father all rose to distinction in the Indian Army. Sir Philip was in charge of a Sikh regiment and in his younger days saw service on the Indian Frontier. During the First World War his regiment became part of the 29^th Indian Brigade, which was sent to Gallipoli in 1915. In June 1917 he commanded the 75^th Division (composed of Indian and British troops) and he led it in the Third Battle of Gaza. He was Mentioned in Dispatches no less than eight times.

Number 9 – Major General Robert William Bland-Hunt (born 1831) served with the Royal Marines in the Crimea (1855-1856), Jamaica and British Honduras (1864-1867) and South Africa in the Zulu War of 1879. He was Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria from 1880 until 1885.

Number 10 – For many years this was the home of Brigadier General Frederick Charles Lloyd (1860-1957). He was there in the 1930s and died at home in June 1957. He served with the Lincolnshire Regiment in Malta and India, and by the end of the South African War he had been awarded the Queen’s Medal with five clasps, and the King’s Medal with two clasps.

Number 12 – Rear Admiral Anson Schonberg died at this house aged 78 on 12 June 1925. At his funeral his coffin was draped with the Union Flag, and his sword and cocked hat were placed on top. He was buried in Hove Cemetery, close to where the First World War graves are to be found. Anson Schonberg entered the Navy at the age of fourteen in 1860, and eight years later when he was a sub-lieutenant, he was awarded the Humane Society’s bronze medal for rescuing a Marine private who fell into Portsmouth Harbour. In 1879 he was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1882 he became commander and served on HMS Achilles during the Egyptian War. His next post was as executive officer aboard HMS Audacious, the flagship in the China Seas of Admiral Sir William Dowell. Some of the other ships he served in were as follows:

HMS Boscawen, training ship at Portland

HMS Abyssinia, coastal defence ship in East Indies (by this time, he was a captain)

HMS Dreadnought, at Bantry

HMS Victorious, China Seas

He retired in 1901, and was promoted to Rear Admiral on the retired list in 1903.

The name Schonberg was long honoured within Naval circles. Anson’s father was Rear Admiral Herbert Schonberg, his grandfather was Vice Admiral Alexander W. Schonberg, son of a Captain RN. Anson’s cousin was Commissioner Isaac Schonberg author of Naval Chronology.

(It is interesting to note that in 1880 a Mrs Schonberg lived at 22 Brunswick Road.)

The artist Mary Hoad (1908-1968) later lived in this house. She was born in Beckenham, Kent, and went on to study at Chelsea School of Art. In 1957 she became Principal of St Alban’s School of Art, and continued in the post for ten years. When living at Hove, she took full advantage of being near the Sussex County Cricket Ground, and liked to attend matches. She must have had friends or known some of the officials, at any rate she undertook some calligraphic work on their behalf. Mary Hoad certainly had a wide range of styles. For example, the rather lovely Rain in St Albans could be described as in a traditional style, and when it came up for auction was only accorded a price range from £200 to £400, while Areas of Colour can best be described as some modernistic daubs of colour on an untidy background, and is now to be found in the University of Reading Art Collection.

Number 15 – Major General Alexander Gregor Forsyth fought in the Punjab Campaign (1848-1849) and the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859).

Number 18 – The house has some attractive stained glass roundels featuring a song bird on either side of the front door. Another window on the east side facing the Drive depicts an owl. Similar windows are to be found inside 2 New Church Road. During the 1940s the premises served as a private hotel run by John Fox. In around 1973 it became home to St Giles School of English, today it is a Regent English Language Training Centre.

Number 27 – Colonel George Malleson (1825 –1898) served 35 years in India, 10 years in the army and 25 years in the civil and political departments of the Government of India. He was guardian to the young Maharaja of Mysore. Malleson was a prolific author, below is a brief list of his publications :-

History of Afghanistan, from the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878. (1879)
The Decisive Battles of India from 1746 to 1849. (1883)
The Indian Mutiny of 1857. (1891)
History of the French in India (1893)
The Refounding of the German Empire 1848-1871. (1893)
Akbar and the Rise of the Mughal Empire. (1896)
Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations. (1899)

He also wrote biographies on Lord Clive, Akbar the Great, Warren Hastings and Prince Metternich - who lived at 42 Brunswick Terrace, Hove.

Mrs Rebecca Willett was in her 92^nd year (having been born on 15 February 1854) when she died in this house on 8 January 1946. She had been a widow for many years because her husband had died on 18 November 1904 and was buried in Hove Cemetery. Her husband was Everard John Willett, son of the famous William Willett who was responsible for so many fine Victorian buildings at Hove, including some in Cromwell Road. E. J. Willett was a member of Hove Council at the time of his death. The couple had two sons who were present at their mother’s funeral – they were noted as Everard W. Willett of London, and Thomas George Willett M.B.E. Honorary Secretary of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society, Brighton & Hove branch. He died on 2 October 1953, and was buried next to his parents in Hove Cemetery. Mrs Rebecca Willett was also aunt to William Willett, junior (1856-1915) who wrote a famous pamphlet entitled The Waste of Daylight, and was in fact the instigator of daylight saving. It was considered a somewhat eccentric idea at the time although he had an ardent fan in Winston Churchill.

Number 33 – Baron and Baroness de Crevoisier de Vomecourt and their children lived at this address from 1908 until 1914 before moving to the The Drive. In 1918 the Baroness moved back to Cromwell Road to live at number 2 for a few months before returning to France. During the Second World War their three sons, Jean-Francois, Philippe-Albert and Edouard-Pierre all served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) as secret agents and were all heroes of the French Resistance.

Numbers 35/36 – For many years a prestigious prep school, Holland House, occupied these premises, and a famous Old Boy was the writer Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962).

By 1935 Miss Elizabeth Gowland ran a school of dancing at number 35.

Number 44 – Vernon Peters Appleyard said he lived in Cromwell Road all his life, and the 1947 Directory records that a Mrs Appleyard lived in a flat at number 44. During the Second World War Mr Appleyard served in France with the Royal Sussex Regiment, and he was severely wounded. Soon after demobilisation he took over the large Hove estate of his grandfather Joseph Peters whose firm built coaches for the royal family by Royal Appointment. Mr Appleyard’s uncle, Alfred Joseph Peters, superintended the preparation and arrangement of the royal coaches for the coronation in 1953, although he was a venerable 89 years of age at the time. Vernon Peters Appleyard served as a Hove councillor for fourteen years, and he had also been a member of the Special Constabulary since 1926. He died aged 60 in 1955.

In 1959 Davies’s Tutorial College was opened in these premises. It was an offshoot of the Davies’s College already established in London. They were popularly known as ‘crammers’ – that is, they were for youths who had failed to to gain the necessary qualifications to further their career, and could now expect a time of rigorous teaching.

The most famous student from the Hove college was the exoctically-named Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, who was born in 1944, and who was later claimed to be the most famous explorer in the world. The fact that he was once at Hove is not mentioned in on-line biographies, although Eton certainly is, as well as the fact that he failed to get into Sandhurst at the first attempt.

Fiennes was already displaying his adventurous nature, and had been in trouble at Eton because of his penchant for climbing spires at night. At Hove he could not resist the challenge of the high tower on Waterhouse’s Town Hall. He duly clambered up the tower and planted a flag on top. The next day Hove Fire Brigade valiantly tried to remove the offending flag but found their ladder was too short, and sensibly decided to leave it alone. It is not known for how long Fienne’s flag fluttered aloft.

By1986 it was taking 300 students a year composed of 35 different nationalities. The principal, Robin Bellerby, was a radio enthusiast, and once found that the man he was chatting to over the airwaves was King Hussain of Jordan. Eventually through this contact some 30 Jordanian military cadets came to Hove on government scholarships in order to take their ‘A’ levels before progressing on to study at British universities.

The King Hussain of Jordan Scholarship enabled two or three Jordanians (boys and girls) to study in Hove each year. During the Gulf crisis the college ran into difficulties because of the dramatic drop in the number of Arab students, and although the college was supposed to have a turnover of around £14 million a year, the banks froze their financial support. On 31 October 1990 the college closed, but re-opened the following month after being sold to a consortium of twelve companies headed by Sun Living Co. Although Bellerby remained as head for a while, by August 1992 the principal was Tony Burton who said they were expecting an enrolment of 230 students. Bellerby’s had a college hostel in Cambridge Road. Early in 1992 the college bought a controlling interest in Deepdene School, New Church Road. In June 1996 Lawrence Denholm was the principal, and the college had 520 students studying for diplomatic, government, or top business jobs.

Number 46 – Scottish born Robert Allan McLean (1840-1915) was an accountant by profession and in his day was a leading figure in the world of finance. He successfully reorganised the Hudson Bay Company and was intimately concerned in the developments of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the West Indian Railways. McLean was a great financial supporter of Christian Missions in the Far-East and travelled widely in China and Japan. It was through his large donation that St Cuthbert's Presbyterian Church in Cromwell Road (on the corner of Holland Road) was built free of any debts.

In 1935 Commander Edmund Prendergast OBE was the occupant of this house.

Number 47 – A boarding school for Jewish girls called Mansfield House occupied this house from 1918 to 1958, apart from the war years when the school de-camped to North Wales.

Number 52 – The Goodwood Court Medical Centre was located here. In May 1999 it was stated that the centre offered complementary therapies alongside orthodox medicine. These included shiatsu, aromatherapy, reflexology, therapeutic massage, reiki, and champissage (Indian head massage).

Number 91 – In the 1990s the premises were used as a boarding house. In 1942 Joan Eva Edwards, a 21-year old Hove typist, shot dead Mrs Sadie Bardwell at point blank range with a service revolver; the victim received five bullet wounds. Miss Edwards was tried at Lewes Assizes in 1943, and was found guilty but insane.

Number 99 – This house, situated on the south side of the road, was briefly occupied by Avondale College from 1932 to 1937. It was a girls’ school run by a Mrs Cobbold whose husband Arthur B. Cobbold was a gymnastic instructor. Also living in the house in 1935 was Charles Henry Cobbold who earned a living as a lantern-slide artist.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
The Palmeira Hotel on the corner of Cromwell Road and Lorna Road, the building on the right is Hove Electricity Works in Davigdor Road.

Cromwell Court – The premises consist of two nine-storey blocks of flats rising to a height of 90-feet, and arranged in a cruciform plan. The building made use of calculated load-bearing brick-work, a technique pioneered in Sweden. A feature of the flats was a panel of painted asbestos cladding, backed with concrete blocks under the main living room widow of each flat. Cromwell Court occupied a corner site at the junction of Cromwell Road and Palmeira Avenue. It was developed by the Land & General Group, and built by the Brighton firm of Rice & Son. There is a total of 46 flats and four penthouse suites, the latter costing from £7,500 to £10,000. Prices of the flats ranged from £4,750 to £6,550 – all on a 99-year lease. Since the building overlooks the Sussex County Cricket Ground, Arthur Gilligan, former England and Sussex cricket captain, was asked to perform the opening ceremony in May 1964.

Hovedene – In 1994 the residents of this block of flats hired planning consultant Michael Parker to produce his own report on the re-development of the Sussex County Cricket Ground. The flat dwellers were not happy at the prospect of having a new north stand built in front of Hovedene. It seems the proposed back wall of the new building would be 48-ft high. They wrote a letter of protest to Prime Minister John Major.

Philip Court – This block of flats for old people, and neighbouring Elizabeth Court, named after the royal couple, were built in the late 1970s. The flats were erected on what had been private tennis courts. Hove people wanted to keep the site as a green open space for everyone, but it all came to nothing, and Hove councillors were determined to have the flats. In January 1971 Philip Court was given the number 102 Cromwell Road, while Elizabeth Court became 101 Cromwell Road. Then there was a change of heart, and Elizabeth Court became 65 Wilbury Road.

St Thomas Fund – This was a local charity set up in the 1980s by the Roman Catholic community to help people with dependency problems. The Fund operated two therapeutic houses where residents could stay for up to two years. In November 1989 a new, half-way house opened in Cromwell Road for people coming straight from detox. It catered for seven residents who could stay for three months.

Fires

In November 1998 a man rescued his mother-in-law from her smoke-filled flat after she had left a candle burning in a plastic bath.

In May 1999 fire broke out at 12.45 a.m. in the bedroom of the first floor flat of a building that was being converted into four flats. People were obliged to flee in their nightclothes, but fortunately nobody was hurt. Arson was not ruled out.

Hove Planning Approvals

1889 – Daniel Field, one house

1891 – G. Sherrin for J. W. Faulkner, one house on the south side

1893 – A. Creswell for G. T. Congreve, two pairs semi-detached villas, south side

1896 – C. Nye for W. Stuckey, one pair semi-detached houses, south side

1898 – S. Denman for E. J. Reeves, one house, south side

1900 – Messrs Loader & Long for H. M. Stevens, one detached villa, south side

1903 – Mr Faulkner for M. R. Blount, one house on the south side

1906 – Messrs Overton & Scott for Mr Cook, one pair semi-detached houses, north side

1906 – Messrs Overton & Scott for Mr Slack, two pairs semi-detached houses, north side

1906 – Messrs Overton & Scott for Mr Cook, two houses, one on the corner of Lorna Road

1911 – W. H. Overton for Mr Bennett, two detached houses with motor garage, south side

Sources

Argus

Brighton Herald

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Hove Council Minute Books

Internet searches

Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Copyright © J.Middleton 2021
page layout and additional research by D.Sharp

Eaton Gardens, Hove

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2024)

copyright © J.Middleton
There are some fine examples of Willett-built houses in Eaton Gardens. This is number 7; note the decorative details

The Hove Courier (8 April 1882) had this to say:

‘Eaton Gardens, another aristocratic neighbourhood of detached residences with large gardens and bold carriage approaches, arranged and built by Mr Willett, is just becoming filled, six (all that is finished) of the twelve houses already being tenanted and last week one was sold for £4,680.’

By 1886 Eaton Gardens contained ten occupied houses; in 1888 the road south of Cromwell Road for a distance of 358 feet was declared a public highway

William Willett

In around 1875 William Willett started his building operations at Hove with two houses in Second Avenue, in one of which he resided for some time. Afterwards he turned his attention to building on land belonging to the Stanford Estate. He constructed many residences in Wilbury Road, Eaton Road, Cromwell Road, The Drive, and Eaton Gardens.

In 1879 Willett lived at 9 Wilbury Road, in 1881 he lived at 1 Eaton Gardens but by 1883 he was located at The Drive where he remained until his death. It was in the latter house that Willett entertained General Booth of the Salvation Army in 1887. In 1893 the Willett Estate Office was at 79 The Drive.

J.W. Lister, Chief Librarian of Hove, wrote the following tribute:

‘The work of Mr Willett, senior, is a triumph of private enterprise and Hove can neither estimate nor repay the debt she owes to this worthy citizen … The quietest and most unassuming of men without advantage of birth, wealth or scholarship, he built upon the foundation of a good and honest heart … He was a pillar of Nonconformity and was given to charity and hospitality. His hobby was the building and maintenance of the Clarendon Mission Hall.’

It is worth noting that when he undertook the building of the Police Seaside Home in Portland Road he did it at cost price, thus foregoing any profit because he believed in the worthiness of the enterprise.

In fact his acts of charity were not trumpeted abroad because he preferred ‘to do good by stealth’. He retired in 1900 and died in 1913 exactly six years after his wife had died; he was buried in Hove Cemetery on the anniversary of her interment.

William Willett was so well known that his death merited an obituary in The Times (12 November 1913).

‘Mr Willett, a Colchester man, founded the business of building and contracting now carried on in Kensington, Hampstead and elsewhere.’ The firm enjoyed a high reputation for building solid town houses and the term ’Willett-built’ applied ‘to a type of residence, which is distinguished by individuality of design both inside and out.’

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An 1915 advert from the Brighton Season Magazine for the sale of two Willett homes in Grand Avenue

His son, another William Willett (1856-1915) worked alongside his father in the business. He was also a member of Hove Council. Both Willetts had a horror of gloomy passages and dark corners and consequently ‘brightness and cheerfulness were always striven for’ in their houses. Willett, junior, was the originator of daylight saving or summer time but he died before his idea was implemented. His pamphlet The Waste of Daylight met with general derision but he had important supporters in Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Keir Hardie, Balfour and Edward VII.

Willett, junior, died in 1915, only sixteen months after his father. Willett junior’s son, Herbert William Mills Willett died in 1917, 26 months after his father. It must surely be unusual for three generations of a family to expire within four years.

Late Appreciation

Today the name of William Willett is a byword for good quality building and interesting decorative details. Unfortunately, Hove councillors came rather late to an appreciation of such qualities and it is incredible to record that it was not until 1990 that a Willett Estate Conservation Area was established although it must be admitted that in 1989 numbers 3, 8 and 14 became listed buildings. Some people considered it a case of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted because some of the handsome houses had already been demolished. But now the aim was to ensure the preservation of those that remained intact.

By 2001 the only original houses were as follows:

Numbers 3, 5, 7, 13 and 17 on the west side

Numbers 8, 10 and 14 on the east side

House Notes

Number 2

Edmund Yates (1831-1894) lived in the house from 1891 to 1894. He was a journalist and author and a friend of Charles Dickens. Yates was famous in his day and his name was one of four inscribed around the interior of the dome at Hove Library as being a noted Hove resident. The other three were Richard Jefferies, Roden Noel and Hablot Browne.

In 1987 developers wanted to pull down the house and build an eight-storey block of flats but planning permission was refused in July of that year. Michael Ray said the house was of particular importance because it occupied a prominent site and was screened by trees.

By 1990 the house had fallen into a bad state of repair and attacks from thieves and vandals made matters worse. In fact the situation was so bad that the building could not even be converted into flats. Hove Council was obliged to give permission for its demolition but the front wall must be preserved. Moreover, bricks salvaged from the demolition would be re-used together with other second-hand bricks; even the mortar would be treated to give it a mellow look.

David Garbutt of Garbutt McMillan was the architect behind the scheme and Newbay Construction were the builders. The development was called Eaton Gate and it proved to be an expensive undertaking.

In October 1991 Roderic Chaffin-Laird, chairman of Brightsky, spoke highly of the support given by local councillors, particularly Peter Martin, former chairman of planning, and Garry Peltzer Dunn, former leader of the council, in the enterprise.

The building has an impressive entrance hall with ornate plaster cornices and panelled doors. Flats were sold for prices ranging from £85,000 to £250,000. The completed building, which also has a frontage to Eaton Road, was deemed to be an architectural success.

Number 3

This Willet-built house was erected in the 1880s and on 7 December 1989 it received listed building status.

In 1999 although the ground floor remained in use as a doctor’s surgery, planning permission was given for the charity Phoenix House to utilise the rest of the premises. It was stated that around eight former drug and alcohol users and their respective families would live in the house, which would replace a smaller establishment in Seafield Road, Hove. It later transpired that the house in Eaton Gardens would be able to accommodate twelve adults plus ten children under the age of twelve for a period of six months.

Naturally enough, there was uproar among other residents of Eaton Gardens with petitions and letters of protest flying about; the Evening Argus stated there were 498 signatures and 83 letters of objection while The Leader specified 49 names on the petition and 80 letters of objection. But whatever the exact numbers were, councillors took no notice and voted eight to four in favour of allowing the scheme to go forward.

The director of operations with the Phoenix House Housing Association said they had been established for over 30 years and were the largest drug rehabilitation association. A manager would be present in the premises on a 24-hour basis and there would be a strict family routine.

It was announced that from 1 June 2000 the Eaton Gardens Surgery would be known as the Eaton Centre and would provide general medical services as well as dental, chiropody and complementary health care. Eaton Gardens Surgery and Goodwood Court Medical Centre were to merge.

Number 4

During the Second World War the house was the headquarters of the Brighton & Hove League of Remembrance that supplied garments to the armed forces, hospitals and missions.

In the late 1950s Maud Stewart-Baxter lived at flat 5. She was of Scottish descent and became a well-known composer of her time and some of her works remain in print to this day. At the age of eight she composed her first song and when she was fourteen she won the Associated Board Open Scholarship for violin playing out of 300 entrants. She considered her best song to be Loveliness More Fair. In later years her advice to aspiring composers was never to waste time on poor lyrics because only fine words could inspire fine music. Her favourite composers were Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. She had a wide range of interests including swimming, fishing and shooting and she also read a great deal. She enjoyed collecting old china, fine glass and seals. She lived at various addresses in Hove including flat 2 / 35 Adelaide Crescent (1951) 49 Wilbury Gardens (1954) and Eaton Gardens.

Number 5

In the 1880s Mrs Henrietta Challis put this property up for sale. Her husband called her Hetty and he was a member of the Reform Club. But he had recently died and she must have felt the house was too large for her now she was widowed. The house was first offered for sale on 17 November 1884 and again on 20 April 1885.

The property had a frontage of 165 feet and a depth of 145 feet; the house was surrounded by lawns and shrubberies and was approached by a carriage drive.

Glazed panelled doors fitted with cathedral glass divided the entrance and inner halls.

The dining room measured 22 feet 8 inches by 17 feet. There was a carved, marble chimney-piece, a decorative bronzed stove with tiled hearth, and there was an enriched ceiling.

The drawing room measured 22 feet 8 inches by 17 feet. There was a richly carved statuary marble chimney-piece and tiled hearth.

A broad staircase led up to the first floor where there were four principal bedrooms.

There were a further four bedrooms on the second floor.

The basement contained the housekeeper’s room, a spacious kitchen, large scullery, larder, butler’s pantry, manservant’s bedroom, wine, beer and coal cellars and several large cupboards.

In 1883 an inventory of the house contents was taken and the effects sold off on 13, 14 and 15 May 1885. Among the items were the following:

A wainscot oak dining room table with three extra leaves measuring 16 feet 3 inches by 13 feet 6 inches

A brilliant tone seven-octave tri-chord pianoforte in a walnut case by Broadwood & Sons

A 28-day clock in an ormolu case enriched with a Sevres china dial and eight Sevres china panels under a glass dome

Sevres china vases richly gilt

A table mirror in a Dresden china frame with raised flowers and figures (from the south front bedroom)

Most rooms contained a Berlin black ornamental curb fender

The contents of the cellars included the following:

One dozen bottles of Pol Roger champagne (1874 vintage)

Fifteen pints of T. Logette’s champagne

One dozen bottles of sparkling Moselle from Deinhard & Co

One dozen bottles of Amontillado sherry

One dozen bottles and eleven pints of Chateau Margaux claret

Twenty-three bottles of hock

In 1921 Hove Council gave planning permission for the property to be converted into flats.

Number 8

In 1925 Mr A. Faulkner on behalf of the Willett Estate submitted plans to convert the property into eight flats. Hove Council gave approval but it appears the conversion did not take place.

On 7 December 1989 the house received listed building status.

In February 1990 the William Willett Trustees applied for listed building consent to demolish the house but Hove Council refused permission.

In November 1993 it was stated that the house was one of the last vacant and un-modernised Willett mansion houses in Hove and would be sold on 6 December 1993 in the ground floor lounge. There was planning permission for the house to be turned into nine flats with another five in a new block at the rear.

In 2001 it appeared that the bricks had been cleaned and thus it gives the appearance of what a Willett house looked like when it was newly built.

Number 9

In 1905 Herbert Welsford Smithers (1868-1913) and his family occupied the house. The following year Herbert and his brother Edward Allfree Smithers founded their brewery at Brighton with the amalgamation of the North Street Brewery and Bedford Brewery. In 1913 they acquired West Street Brewery (Vallance & Catt) and in 1919 the firm purchased Portslade Brewery. Edward lived in a house called The Gables at Furze Hill. The brothers were unusually close and when Herbert died on 9 June 1913, Edward never got over his loss and died on 5 February 1914. The grieving father donated two stained glass windows in their memory at All Saints, Hove; he only had one daughter left, Mrs C. Somers Clarke.

copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries copyright © J.Middleton
This fine portrait of Captain Smithers is stored in the Roll of Honour Archive at Hove Library, the elegant memorial plaque in All Saints is in memory of Captain Reginald Cuthbert Welsford Smithers.

But there was further tragedy in store for the family. Captain Reginald Cuthbert Welsford Smithers of the 7^th Battalion King’s Own Light Infantry was killed in action near Ypres on 16 August 1917; he was only nineteen years of age.

Captain Smithers’ widowed mother married again, becoming Mrs A.J. Hollick and continued to live at 9 Eaton Gardens.

Number 10

Sir Robert Hussey (1802-1887) occupied this house in the 1880s. He joined the East India Company in 1819 and followed a long and distinguished Army career, seeing action in Burma, India and the Crimea. He was eventually promoted to the rank of general.

In 1846 he married Emma, widow of Captain Gordon of the Madras Army. She died just four days before her husband’s death. He died at Eaton Gardens on 3 May 1887.

From at least 1940 the house was run as a registered nursing home and it was called the Eaton Gardens Nursing Home. On 3 December 1962 Richard Olivier was born there. He was the son of famous actors Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) and Joan Plowright who married on 17 March 1961 when he was aged 53 and she was 29 years old. Unusually for those times, Olivier was present at the birth. This was Olivier’s third marriage, his first being to Jill Esmond. In 1940 he married the actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967). Olivier was not content with being just an actor and tried his hand at being an actor-manager too, notably in three films of Shakespeare’s plays.

The actress Fay Compton (1894-1978) lived here for a year before she died in London on 2 December aged 84. She was the sister of author Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972) whose most famous work Whisky Galore (1947) was made into a memorable film two years later. Fay and her brother came from a long, theatrical line, with both parents, a grandfather, a sister plus various aunts and uncles all being involved in the theatre.

Olive Gilbert, a friend of Ivor Novello, died in the nursing home aged 82 in February 1981. Olive Gilbert was born in 1898 at Carmarthen and thus shared a Welsh background with Ivor Novello, She started her career with the Carl Rosa Opera Company but in 1935 joined Ivor Novello’s company. She appeared in many of the musicals he wrote including Glamorous Nights (1935) Careless Rapture (1936) Crest of the Wave (1937) The Dancing Years (1939) Perchance to Dream (1945) and King’s Rhapsody (1949). Novello wrote We’ll Gather Lilacs especially for Olive (it came from Perchance to Dream) and it proved to be one of his most popular songs, almost trumping that other favourite Keep the Home Fires Burning. When Ivor Novello died on 6 March 1951 Olive was at his bedside and at his funeral We’ll Gather Lilacs was played and relayed to the crowds outside the crematorium.

Ivor Novello left Olive a cash legacy, as well as his collection of quartz, amber and jade items. In his biography of Novello the author MacQueen Pope wrote:

‘Ivor owed much to Olive who for a long time looked after him, controlled his staff and his flat, to say nothing of Redroofs, which became perhaps the best known theatrical home in the world.’

Ivor and Olive had separate flats at the Aldwych and she was one of a select party that accompanied him to his home in Montego Bay.

As for Olive’s musical abilities, even a stern critic like James Agate admitted her singing was admirable. She gave 2,000 performances as Sister Margareta in The Sound of Music.

It is said that in later life Olive lived at Brunswick Square, Hove and her friend, celebrity vet Buster Lloyd-James, also lived in Hove. He moved from Courtenay Gate to a house near Hove Park and she presented him with some lilac trees and a magnolia. When she became too frail to live on her own she moved into Eaton Gardens Nursing Home.

Ethel Read celebrated her 108^th birthday at the home in September 1992; she was believed to be the oldest person in Sussex. She died in October 1993, two weeks after her 109^th birthday, by which time she had lived at the home for eleven years.

Mike Enright had run the home since 1979 after he retired from the Royal Navy, having served for 27 years. In June 2001 Mr Enright, 66, and his wife Mary announced that they were closing down the home and 24 residents were obliged to move out and find alternative accommodation. The Enrights were caught in a cleft stick, as it were, because on one hand there were strict planning regulations governing what they were allowed to do to the house while on the other hand new Government regulations were due to come into force in April 2002. The new measures aimed at the comfort of the residents meant that it was no longer financially viable for small homes to stay open. During the previous year, 54 beds in Brighton and Hove had been lost because of the new rules. Perhaps the last straw for the Enrights was being told to close until a new lift costing £600,000 had been installed; the reality was that planning permission for such an improvement had already been rejected.

Number 11

Sir Joseph Sheridan (1882-1964) lived in this house in the 1960s. He was born in Ireland and was called to the Irish Bar in 1907. He entered the Colonial Service the following year and rose to become Chief Justice in Tanganyika in 1929 and Chief Justice of Kenya from 1934 to 1946. He was knighted in 1932. He was married to Muriel, also from Ireland, and they had two sons and four daughters. Sir Joseph died on Boxing Day 1964.

Number 12

James Bull (1844-1911) lived in this house when he came to Hove in 1888. He was born in Bedford and educated at Bedford Grammar School. He followed the career of civil engineer and spent some 30 years working on various projects in Spain including constructing railways and developing mines. When he lived at Hove he still made periodic visits back to Spain. He called his Hove residence Valverde House because of his Spanish enterprises and it was named after Valverde del Camino (Heulva). He was married to Mary and they had two sons and three daughters.

In 1900 Bull was elected to Hove Council and to East Sussex County Council. At Hove he was chairman of the Works Committee and his knowledge of engineering was of great value. During this period the King’s Gardens extension scheme and Kingsway widening scheme were carried out. Bull was also chairman of the sub-committee formed to design the layout of St Ann’s Well Gardens. He was one of the original members of the Hove Bench and gave liberal assistance to All Saints building fund. In 1902 Bull and George Cheesman were both proposed for the position of Alderman but in the ensuing vote, Cheesman won. Bull was a Freeman of the City of London and a member of Turner’s Company.

Bull suffered from heart trouble for three years and for the last eighteen months of his life, he was unable to leave the house. He died on 14 January 1911 and was buried in Hove Cemetery where his grave is marked by a white cross.

He left a widow who died on 16 July 1946. One of his daughters married Captain Grant of Third Avenue while another became the wife of Captain Herbert Spencer of Byfleet.

Today, Bull’s residence has long gone and a block of flats now occupies the site but it is pleasant to record the name of Valverde House is still in use.

Ronald Martin lived here in the 1960s and his career spanned both commercial and fine art. His most famous design was for the Mars bar wrapper. He also worked on many paintings of the old Hove Town Hall, one being a watercolour he completed just two months before the building was wrecked by fire. Hove Museum purchased it for its collection. Martin also painted the Town Hall as it was being demolished.

Number 13

The ‘notorious Marquess of Ailesbury and his plebeian wife’ occupied the house in the 1890s. He was George William Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, the 4^th Marquess (1863-1894). The residence in Eaton Gardens was called Savernake House because the Brudenell-Bruce family were hereditary Wardens of Savernake Forest. The lady came from very humble circumstances and attended the Central National School in Brighton. But when she grew up she achieved fame on the stage as Dolly Tester. She married Viscount Savernake in 1884 at Brighton Registry Office and two years later she became a Marchioness. She attended the last Polo and Hunt Ball held at the Royal Pavilion resplendent in white satin and flashing diamonds. Her husband maintained an interest in horse racing but ended up being warned off every course in the country.

Number 14

By the 1980s this villa was in use as a nursing home and it received listed building status on 7 December 1989. In 2001 it was still a registered nursing home called Sunningdale.

Number 15

Phyllis Dare (1890-1975) lived in this house from 1955 and remained for several years before moving to 22 Pembroke Avenue. Although she was born in London, she would not have been unfamiliar with Brighton and Hove, having appeared with her sister Zena Dare at the Hippodrome, Brighton.

Phyllis Dare trod the boards from an early age, rather like Vesta Tilley, who also retired to Hove. Phyllis was on the stage from the age of nine and by the time she was sixteen, she was a seasoned performer in musical comedies and pantomime. Phyllis was enormously popular and indeed during the First World War she was a pin-up girl. The public eagerly bought the many postcards produced for her fans, and she was so in demand that the poor girl was obliged to sign up to 300 postcards a week. She had a great success at the Shaftesbury Theatre when she was nineteen, taking on a musical role in The Arcadians, which ran for no less than 809 performances.

But there was tragedy in her life too because her song-writer fiance died in 1917, and for a while she could not face the stage. She might also have thought that she deserved a respite, and she was well able to do so because the fiance kindly left her some money. Perhaps she felt old before her time and she wrote her autobiography From School to Stage during the lull when she was only 27 years old. On returning to the stage, she opted to take on straight acting roles. But she did not neglect her singing either, because she recorded some songs. She retired in 1951.

Number 16

In 1891 Mrs Campbell and Miss Campbell obviously thought that 16 Eaton Gardens was not spacious enough for a grand social event. They hired the newly-built Clarence Rooms attached to the Hotel Metropole, Brighton, where the local Press reported they gave a charming ‘At Home’. The Campbells hired the Fraser Quintet from London to provide the music and the guest list included Lady Pocock, Lady Napier and General and Mrs Holland.

Captain Sir Henry Digby-Beste (1883-1964) lived in flat 5 in the early 1960s. He was born in Hampshire, educated at Stonyhurst, and at the age of sixteen he went to sea on the sailings ships of the Shaw Savill Line. Six years later he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Indian Marines, and saw service in the Persian Gulf. He served as Deputy Port Conservator of Madras. For ten years he was Captain Superintendent of the Indian Mercantile Marine training ship Dufferin.

During the Second World War he served with the British Expeditionary Force off the French coast, and finally found himself once again in Indian waters. During the 1950s he was Chief Scout Commissioner.

He was married twice. His first wife was Olave, whose father was a colonel in the Indian Medical Service, and they had three sons and two daughters; Olave died in 1955. In 1958 he married Amy Mary Taylor. He died at the age of 80 at Eaton Gardens in September 1964.

Number 17

This house is one of the originals. An unusual detail is the imposing porch standing guard over the entrance. The pillars are of a peculiar design because they start off plain and unadorned and then halfway up they turn into Corinthian columns.

Number 20

copyright © Tackagain
The German siren whistle datiing around 1900 is engraved with the following:-
H.J.S.B. Cunliffe 20 Eaton Gardens, Hove.

In 2018 at Newcastle an interesting object with a Hove connection came to light. It was a German siren whistle, dating from around 1900, engraved with the following H.J.S.B. Cunliffe 20 Eaton Gardens, Hove. Heinrich James Saint Benno Cunliffe was born on 9 July 1864 in Munich. It would be interesting to know why he was born in Munich – his parents were obviously proud of the fact because he was named Heinrich, and St Benno is in fact the patron saint of that city. (Later on, Heinrich would find it expedient to anglicise his name to Henry). His father, also called Henry, could have been living in Germany because of his business interests, and census returns identify his profession as banker. Eventually, Henry Cunliffe, senior, settled at Hove, where he lived with his wife Annie and children at 28 Adelaide Crescent from 1871 to 1881. It is interesting to note that out of the seven servants employed there, two senior ones were of Swiss nationality.

H.J.S.B. Cunliffe was educated at Eton – by this time calling himself Henry – and then went up to Oxford as an undergraduate at Exeter College, gaining his BA in 1886, and being awarded his MA a year later. In 1889 Henry married Edith Woodhead at St Patrick’s Church, Hove, - at that time a very fashionable place of worship. His bride Edith was a resident of Hove, having been baptised at St Andrew’s Old Church in 1862. Her sister, Grace Eyre Woodhead, became famous in local annals for her philanthropic work and indeed her name is still remembered to this day through the Grace Eyre Foundation. Meanwhile, Henry and Edith’s concerns were for the plight of animals and they made several large donations to the Brighton Division of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which Henry was also a committee member.

On marriage Henry and Edith took up residence at 20 Eaton Gardens, which he continued to occupy until he died on 30 November 1930. Perhaps the couple hoped to have a large family because the spacious house was surrounded by large gardens, which by the 1950s supported a massive screen of mature trees. But sadly, no children arrived. Perhaps this led to tensions in the marriage, and it is a fact that by 1911 the couple were living apart, which was a rare step to take in those days. Edith moved away from Hove and went to live in Waldron, a village near Heathfield, and had four servants to look after her.

Henry consoled himself by concentrating on intellectual pursuits, and in 1908 he published his work Catholicism on a Philosophical Basis. It is unlikely to have been a bestseller, despite its modest price of 2/6d. Thenceforth, he described himself as an author.

It seems likely that Henry was a keen bicycle rider, hence ownership of the siren whistle. Cycling was an extremely popular sport, and Hove with its broad, uncluttered roads, was a cyclist’s paradise. At one time, bicycles at Hove far outnumbered other forms of transport. But there was one grave drawback – there was no braking system, and no warning bell. In fact, early Acme siren whistles were known as a ‘cyclist’s road clearer’. If a cyclist wanted to warn an unwary pedestrian of his presence, a good blast on his siren whistle would usually do the trick. Henry must have been fond of his whistle to take the trouble to have his name engraved upon it. The question remains – how did Henry’s whistle end up in Newcastle? A clue lies in the fact that Annie, wife of Henry Cunliffe, senior, was born in Newcastle, and because Henry Cunliffe, junior, had no children, it seems probable that relatives from Newcastle, claimed his possessions.

(Additional research by D. Sharp)

Eaton Restaurant

In around 1944 the residents of Eaton Mansions formed their own dining club and it was after the war that the landlord expanded the small restaurant. In around 1953 he sold it to Mrs Barber who ran it as a high-class restaurant. In 1960 Mrs Barber sold the enterprise to Mr Daniel and two years later John and Tony Cutress, directors of Forfars, purchased the business from Mr Daniel’s liquidators.

Photograph from the 1910 Brighton Season Magazine showing
Forfars Confectionary Department in Hova Villas

Mrs June Cutress devised the re-decorating scheme, which was carried out by Ring’s and Braybon’s. It was keeping business in the family, as it were, because John Ring was June Cutress’s father. It was John Ring who fitted the luxurious and specially designed carpet.

From Hove’s Coronation Souvenir Book
(1953)

There were 120 wines on the wine list to choose from and it was appropriate since John Cutress was a Chevalier de Tastevin. John Rowlins was the manager and the restaurant could seat 85 people while the function room could accommodate 40.

In 1980 the Eaton Restaurant won the Golden Crowns Award, the highest distinction awarded by the Automobile Association. The restaurant was run as part of the Forfar’s group initially, and then as a family company. By 1987 it was described as one of the most distinguished restaurants in the area, having also won awards from both the AA and Michelin.

In September 1987 the Cutresses sold the Eaton Restaurant for £200,000 to a company headed by Councillor Alfred Feld of the Norfolk Resort Hotel. It was re-named the Eaton Gardens Restaurant.

In November 1991 Gilles Ferrod, the French manager, declared the restaurant a Beaujolais free zone. He said the much-publicised event was nothing but hype and the quality of the wine had gone down.

In March 1992 there was a full-page in the Evening Argus celebrating the restaurant’s 25^th anniversary. By then it could seat up to 120 people and 90 wines of quality were on the wine list. However, John Cutress retorted that celebrating a 25^th anniversary was a trifle premature since Resort Hotels plc had only been there five years.

On 23 March 1997 the actor Terence Morgan and his wife Georgina celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a ball at the restaurant. Among their guests were Lord and Lady Attenborough, Donald and Diana Sinden and Judy Cornwell. Morgan met his wife at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, while working with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in The Skin of Our Teeth. They married in Caxton Hall. Morgan took a leading role in 26 films and played the part of Hamlet early in his career. The couple had lived at Hove since the late 1950s.

In 1994 Robert Feld was managing director of Resort Hotels when the company collapsed with debts of over £70 million.

In May 1998 it was revealed that Club Moor, registered in Crawley, but owned by a Brighton businessman, was the new owner of the restaurant. But staff refused to reveal his identity. The restaurant employed 17 full-time staff.

In March 1999 the council refused to grant a public entertainment licence to the management because new electrical work had not been carried out as required. The restaurant later closed and in July 1999 was put up for sale by contractual tender. The property included numbers 11 and 13 Eaton Gardens as a freehold investment beside the restaurant premises. The house contained 15 self-contained flats comprising 8 studio flats, 5 one-bedroom and 2 two-bedroom flats.

In October 1999 Bourne Property Developments put in a planning application to convert the restaurant premises into five flats and consent was granted by December.

John Cutress said he was very disappointed about the outcome. He remembered what a popular place it had been with its fine wines and traditional English cuisine; he had employed the same cook for 25 years.

Bramber Court, Steyning Court, Valentine Court

These blocks of flats were built in the 1960s

Eaton Court

copyright © J.Middleton
Eaton Court was built with red bricks, in start contrast to the pale bricks used in the Willett-built houses, known oddly enough as white bricks.

This block of flats is built on the corner of Eaton Road and Eaton Gardens.

Eaton Hall

In 1978 the sites of the old houses numbers 15 and 17 were to be numbered as 15 Eaton Gardens and the new property was to be called Eaton Hall.

Gainsborough House

This block of flats was built in around 1980.

Valverde House

It was named after the house of the same name at number 12, that once occupied the site and engineer James Bull lived there.

Vanbrugh Court

It was built in 1989 and contained 31 double-glazed apartments; there was garaging underneath the building. Prices were from £69,000 to £300,000. In July 1999 a two-bedroom flat was on sale for £105, 000.

Veric

This block of flats was built in the 1980s. A resident, Maurice Michaels, waged a long battle with the council about improving the lighting in Eaton Gardens. It began in February 1989 and some 90 letters later in February 1998 the council at last got its act together, putting up an experimental higher-powered lamp outside Veric while the rest of the lighting in the road was also to be improved.

Miscellaneous

In 1883 an orphan servant girl Mary Christmas was working in the kitchen of one of the houses in Eaton Gardens when her clothes caught fire. Her mistress, Mrs Mary Taplan, ran to the front door and called for assistance. But nothing was done until a neighbour, Mrs Isted, ran in and smothered the flames with a blanket; the unfortunate girl meanwhile cursing callous onlookers for doing nothing to help. At the inquest held the very next day the coroner remarked that apart from Mrs Isted nobody else had behaved with much credit.

In 1976 Peter Hadlow was cleaning windows at a block of flats in Eaton Gardens when he slipped and fell five floors down to the ground. He suffered multiple fractures and was blinded but he survived.

Cannabis

Sussex Police received a tip-off that there might be a cannabis factory secretly at work in well-to-do Eaton Gardens. Thus on 9 July 2024 officers paid an official visit to the premises and discovered that there were over 100 cannabis plants merrily flourishing inside. Moreover, the street value of the innocuous-looking greenery was estimated to be in the region of £50,000. The plants were destroyed and the plant infrastructure destroyed. (Argus 20/7/24)

Sources

Adland, D. Brighton’s Music Halls (1994)
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Evening Argus
Wojtczak, H. Notable Sussex Women (2008)

page layout by D.Sharp