Hove in the Past: Brunswick Road, Hove

Judy Middleton (2001 revised 2024)

Brunswick Road looking north

Originally, the land on which this road was laid out did not come under the jurisdiction of the Brunswick Square Commissioners. But this was rectified on 7^th August 1851 when the Brunswick Square Improvement Extension Act received the Royal Assent. The 1851 census noted there were 20 houses in the process of being built and by the time the road was completed there were 60 houses. It is possible to know the building date of a few by the survival of leases; thus numbers 31 and 35 were built in 1854 while number 33 was built in 1855. The land was part of the Goldsmid Estate (formerly Wick Farm) and the Goldsmids continued to retain an interest in the properties; for instance in 1907 the Goldsmid Estate was still collecting rent from the residents of numbers 31, 33, 34, 35, 37 and 38.

It is interesting to note the change of character of the road. In 1861 there were seven private schools involving eleven houses and 113 children (84 boys and 29 girls) but the height of its scholastic status was in 1871 when there were eight schools occupying thirteen houses with 158 pupils (95 girls and 63 boys). By 1881 there were five schools located in ten houses with 93 children (53 boys and 40 girls) while by 1891 the number had dwindled to three schools and 40 children. Of course the road will always be famous because Sir Winston Churchill was a schoolboy at the Misses Thomson’s establishment at numbers 29 and 30 from 1884 to 1888.

The road was also a popular location for private boarding houses or lodging houses. There were five in 1871, nine in 1881 and the same number in 1891. While one house sheltered a few elderly ladies, other houses provided a roof for professional people such as a surgeon. Doctors too thought Brunswick Road was a good address at which to put up their brass plates with Dr Frederick Wildbore at number 2 being the first. By 1891 there were three doctors and three clergymen living in the road. Mention must also be made of number 59, which was the home of the artistic Scott family for many years.

Famous Residents

3, 4, 5 and 6 Brunswick Road

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums,
Brighton & Hove.
William Olding
Image from the Brighton Times Album,
the suppliment
to the Brighton Times (1878-1883)

The Revd Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Sons. In 1861 William Olding, 33, ran Camden House School in 4, 5 and 6 Brunswick Road. He lived with his wife, their three sons, a lady superintendent, three teachers (including a French pastor) and seven servants. There were 41 boys in the establishment. By 1871 the school had added another house (number 3) and William Olding was assisted by his unmarried sister Sarah Olding. There were now 56 boys including the twin Spurgeon boys, Charles and Thomas aged fourteen, whose father was a celebrated preacher, the Revd Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). Both boys went on to become pastors too but while Thomas went to New Zealand, Charles became pastor of Holland Road Baptist Church, Hove, from 1908-1917.

The Spurgeons had Dutch origins, having been forced to flee the country to escape religious persecution. They settled in East Anglia and were known for their piety and industry. CH Spurgeon was the eldest of seventeen children and both his father and grandfather were pastors. All the same it was no easy task for Charles to follow in the footsteps of his famous father. As he himself admitted he was happy to learn at his father’s feet but he could never preach in his presence and he was reluctant even to reveal the text he was using in his sermon. The Revd R Schindler neatly summed up the situation. ‘Pastor Charles Spurgeon has the advantage of his father’s name and fame, which may not always be an advantage, however, for the public are not always just in their expectations. He enjoyed, nevertheless, considerable popularity; and what is far better … he fulfils his ministry with growing acceptance and usefulness’.

William Olding was still running the school in 1881 but it had closed by the 1890s.

29 & 30 Brunswick Road
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) In 1861 there was already a school at number 29 where Miss Eliza Burrell, 52, in conjunction with Miss Helen Mounsey, educated young ladies. There were five teachers, five servants and nineteen girls including Rosamund Churchill aged nine, third daughter of the Duke of Marlborough. (It is perhaps a coincidence that there was one Churchill here in 1861 and another Churchill present in the 1880s). The same partners continued to run the school in 1871, by which time there were four governesses (one French) and 24 girls of whom one was born in India and five were Sussex-born. Perhaps as Miss Burrell was aged 63 and Miss Mounsey was aged 56 in 1871, they felt retirement approaching; at any rate they had gone by 1878 when Miss Young and Miss Hoggins were running the establishment.

The next year Miss Young was in charge on her own and she continued to do so until 1880 when Marylebone-born spinsters and sisters Charlotte Thomson, 37, and Catherine (Kate) Thomson, 34, took over the school. In 1881 there were two female governesses, one male classical tutor, three female servants, a matron and sixteen boys, five of them born in India.

In 1884 young Winston Churchill arrived at the school with a mop of red hair and a reputation for being naughty. But he also suffered from a weak constitution and the school was probably selected for the benefit he might obtain from the sea air and the presence of the family physician, Dr Robson Roose, in Brighton. Another reason was that Winston had been deeply unhappy at his former prep school, St George’s at Ascot, which he described as horrible. The Misses Thomson ran a more kindly regime and indeed Winston was very happy at their school. He later commented that he was allowed to pursue subjects that interested him and he enjoyed learning reams of poetry by heart as well as physical activities such as swimming and riding. However, his health remained a worry and when his mother Lady Randolph Churchill visited him at school in February 1885 she found him very pale and delicate. Apparently the food also left something to be desired with Winston grumbling that on one occasion he only had half a sausage for breakfast. But perhaps it was poetic licence in comparing more Spartan fare with the lavish meals served in the Churchill household.

Winston wrote many letters home during his four years at the school and he always wrote ‘Brighton’ under the heading ’29 & 30 Brunswick Road’.

On 17^th December 1884 Charlotte Thomson had the unenviable task of writing to Lady Churchill to inform her that a fellow pupil had stabbed Winston with a penknife in an argument during a drawing examination. Winston received a slight chest wound but of course it could have been much more serious. Lady Randolph was not surprised to hear that Winston had pulled the other boy’s ear first. There was a closer brush with death in 1886 when Winston became ill with pneumonia. On 15^th March 1886 Dr Roose wrote to Lady Randolph telling her he was fighting the battle for her boy. Although Winston’s temperature shot up to 103, Dr Roose refused to feel anxious so long as he could keep it below 105.

It appears Charlotte Thomson made the most impression on Winston. On one of his reports she wrote ‘decided improvement in attention’ and when Winston wrote home he would mention her health or how she had been given a fox-terrier puppy. One early battle of wills resulted in a victory for Charlotte. On Sundays Winston attended the Chapel Royal, Brighton, with the other boys but his Protestant soul was horrified when during the recital of the Creed, everyone turned towards the east. Winston felt sure that his beloved old nurse, Mrs Everest, would disapprove of such a Popish practice and so he refused to turn with the rest of them. He prepared himself to be a martyr. But next time the boys attended the Chapel Royal, they found themselves placed in pews that already faced east.

It was Charlotte who accompanied Winston to Harrow in March 1888 when he sat the entrance exam. She was almost as nervous as he was and he was violently sick afterwards. According to Charlotte he just scraped through but his arithmetic papers scored top marks and unfortunately no papers were set in his best subjects of English, French, history and geography. Instead there were papers on Latin, Greek, Euclid and algebra. Winston said it was far harder than he expected and there was some very difficult Latin and Greek translations.

copyright © J.Middleton
The first thing to note about the blue plaque is that the dates are wrong.
Churchill was actually at this Hove school from 1884-1888.
The second point is that the Misses Thomson surname did not have a ‘p’ in it.

Winston Churchill left Hove in 1888 and the school left Hove in around 1898 and moved to Oathall Road, Haywards Heath, where it was known as Brunswick Prep School. There was a stone plaque on the Brunswick Road building to commemorate Winston’s stay. The original rectangular one was unveiled on 17^th July 1953 by Councillor AE Brock, Mayor of Hove, but Mrs Nellie Cushman (who had sponsored the tablet) was unable to be present.

Unfortunately the dates were wrong with 1883-1885 being inscribed instead of the correct 1884-1888. When a round blue plaque replaced the tablet, the same wrong dates re-appeared but as both plaques were privately sponsored, there was nothing Hove Council could do about it. Every so often the Council receives an irate letter from people who discover the discrepancy but to no effect. One such correspondent was Celia Sandys (nee Churchill) Winston Churchill’s grand-daughter.

Number 47
Lady Rebecca Waller (1814-1890) lived in this house in 1861. In 1844 she had married Sir Edmund Waller (1797-1851) but by the time of the 1861 census she had been widowed for around ten years. Their son Sir Edmund Waller (1846-1888) lived in the house too.

Lady Rebecca came from an interesting family and her maiden name was Guinness. Her grandfather Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) founded Guinness’s Brewery in Dublin in 1759. Lady Rebecca’s brother, Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, became the sole owner of the brewery business when their father (another Arthur Guinness) died in 1855. He built up the firm and it exported their famous product throughout the world. He was able to use his wealth to restore St Patrick’s Cathedral to its former splendour and it took five years.

59 Brunswick Road

John Henderson Scott (1829-1886) He was described as a landscape painter in 1861 and he was the son of William Henry Stothard Scott (1783-1850) and the grandson of Edmund Scott (1758-1815). They were all artists and so was their extended family. This included two brothers and two sisters of JH Scott, a cousin Edmund Evan Scott (an architect) and Scott’s daughter Amy (1862-1950) who was the last survivor of the artistic Scotts.

Grandfather Edmund Scott was a society portrait painter and he became portrait engraver to the Prince of Wales while his son WHS Stothard was a friend of the artist John Sell Cotman and they used to go on painting expeditions together.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
John H. Scott
Image from the Brighton Times Album, the suppliment
to the Brighton Times (1878-1883)

In 1871 J H Scott was living in this house with his wife Maria, 44, his daughters Mary, 18, Elizabeth 15, Isabel 14 and Amy 10, and three female servants. In fact the family occupied the house for over 30 years. Mrs JH Scott was artistic too but in a different field; she was a professor of singing and gave singing lessons. By 1890 Miss Amy Scott was giving art classes and she had her own studio at 1 Sillwood Terrace, Brighton. She was a National Gold medallist and when she died in 1950 she bequeathed the family archive to Hove Museum. In 1988 Hove Museum mounted a a very successful exhibition devoted to the Scott family set in a replica drawing room and one of the exhibits was a painting signed by ‘Miss Amy Scott 59 Brunswick Road,

The widowed Mrs Mary Scott and her family continued to live in the house until around 1892. Today, the house is no longer to be seen, having been demolished to make way for a new building flanking Western Road.

House Notes

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
The Brighton Herald, 8 October 1853
Number 1 was available to rent for 80 guineas a year in 1853, it seems the residents of Brunswick Road did not want another school in their road.

Number 1 – In 1851 the house was occupied by Julia Bazalgette, a 37-year old fund-holder who lived with her unmarried sisters, Cecilia 34, Matilda, 27, and Laura 23, two nieces, and three female servants, which makes an all-female household of nine souls. Perhaps they were related to Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1890) the eminent engineer who designed the Thames Embankments and the London Sewage system. In the 1860s Bazalgette was himself at Hove to advise the Commissioners about the drainage problem in Brunswick Terrace. He was knighted in 1874.

In 1871 Wiltshire-born William Alford lived here with his wife four daughters, a son, a boarder, and two female servants. He earned his living as a fencing master.

In 1881 the house was occupied by Richard Lepage, a 64-year old East India agent, his wife and daughter, and two female servants.

In 1891 Dr Edward Mackay aged 40 was the occupant, and he was a practising physician.

In the 1990s, this house, which overlooks Western Road, was used as an illegal gambling den involving racing and cards, and also a place where stolen goods were stored and sold on, as well as being a headquarters for cocaine dealing. The 39-year old ring-leader had the nerve to live in luxury elsewhere in Hove at the same time as collecting state benefits. This came to a sudden end when the police caught up with them. It is amazing to record that the court case dragged on for over a year before ending on 4 February 2000 when the gang were handed down sentences totalling 34 years.

Number 2 – In 1871 Lincolnshire-born Frederick Wildbore, a practising surgeon, was in residence, and he was still there twenty years later. Perhaps he started a trend because by 1891 there were two other medical gentlemen in the road at numbers 1 and 18.

In 1916 planning permission was granted to convert the building into two maisonettes.

A close-up of numbers 9 and 10 showing some intricate details

Number 15 – In 1871 Ebenezer Robins, aged 51, lived in this house with his wife Ellen, 41, and three female servants. He was a merchant and brewer, and he was connected with Robbins Brewery, also known as the Anchor Brewery.

Numbers 15 and 16 Brunswick Road

Number 17 – In 1871 Miss Louisa Hughes ran a private boarding house with the help of three female servants. She had four ladies in residence aged 76, 68, 63, and 44. In 1881 it was still under the same management with four elderly ladies. In 1891 Miss Hughes was still in charge.

Number 20 – In 1871 Thomas Dunhill, aged 48, lived here with his wife Hannah, a niece, a visitor and one female servant. He was agent to Sir Francis Goldsmid. Ten years later he was still at the same address but was now described as an estate agent. He died on 9 June1890.

Number 22 – In 1881 Indian-born Archibald Campbell, aged 76, lived in this house with his wife, daughter and one female servant. He was a retired Army officer. This information comes from the census, but previously, according to the Street Directory, Admiral Schomberg’s wife occupied the premises.

Numbers 23 & 24 – In 1851 Edward Whately purchased or leased these two houses. He earned his living as a surgeon in Brighton but had some property interests in Hove. For example, in 1865 he bought numbers 17, 19, and 21 York Road, and three years later he leased 38 Brunswick Road.

In 1861 Mark Harris, aged 52, ran a small school in these two houses. There was a resident matron to supervise the welfare of the eight pupils.

However, by 1881 number 23 was being run as a boarding house.

Number 27 – In 1871 French-born Lieutenant Colonel Francis Ross of the Indian Army lived in this house with his wife and four daughters, a governess and three female servants. The daughters were Edith, 13, Annie, 12 (both born in India) and Susan, 4, and Ellen, 4, (born in Brighton.

Number 31 – This property was the subject of a lease dated 30 July 1880 between Sir Julian Goldsmid and Nathaniel Montefiore; the lessee was to be the latter’s wife, Emma Montefiore (see also number 33). She was to pay an annual rent of £43-6s-0d on the unexpired lease of 99 years that dated back to 24 June 1854. The house was bounded on the east by a garden at the rear of 59 York Road.

In 1871 Emma Gilliat, aged 33, ran a girls’ school in partnership with Marianne Cooke. There were two governesses, seventeen girls, and six female servants. This school had gone by 1881, and in around 1890 another school took up residence.

This school was called Tregarthyn and was described as a gentleman’s boarding school; spinster sisters Fanny Jane and Laura Tanner ran it. There was a governess, a matron, and fifteen boys, two of whom had been born in India.

In 1907 the house was still the property of the Goldsmid Estate. On 5 March 1914 Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore of 8 Palace Green, London, and Coldeast in the City of Southampton, sold the lease to Ada Marian Jacobs, spinster, for £3,350, but there was still the same ground rent to pay annually.

Number 32 – In 1861 Elizabeth Ashby, still a schoolmistress at the age of 69, ran a school in this house with the assistance of her three schoolmistress daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah. There were thirteen boy pupils, and three servants.

Number 33 – In 1871 Miss Howard Collins ran a boarding house on the premises.

On 30 July 1880 a deed was drawn up between Sir Julian Goldsmid and Nathaniel Montefiore; the lessee was to be the latter’s wife, Emma Montefiore (see also number 31). Mrs Montefiore was to pay an annual rent of £31-10-0d on the residue of a lease of 98 years dating back to 25 December 1855.

Nathaniel Montefiore died in 1883, having appointed his wife Emma and Alfred Goldsmith as executors. Alfred died in 1891, and Emma died in 1902. In 1907 the property was still the property of the Goldsmith Estate.

On 24 June 1912 Claude Joseph Goldsmith Montefiore sold the lease for £275 (ground rent still payable) to Emily Alexandra Clark, spinster of 5 Waterloo Street, Hove. Miss Clark died in 31 January 1917, having appointed the Public Trustee as sole executor. The lease was then sold on to Ada Marian Jacobs for £225; Miss Jacobs also owned number 31 in Brunswick Road.

Number 35 – On 30 June 1880 Sir Julian Goldsmid leased the house to Thomas Dunhill of 20 Brunswick Road. He was to have the unexpired lease of 99 years dating back to 24 June 1854, and the annual ground rent was £25-18-0d. Dunhill died on 9 June 1899, and his trustees sold the lease to Henry John Gimblette.

Sir Julian Goldsmid died in 1896, having appointed as trustees Frederic David Mocatta, Sir C. J. Jessel, Sir Arthur Charles, Stanley Philip Phillips, and Richard Lake Harrison. The property formed part of the marriage settlement drawn up when Osmond Elim d’Avigdor married Rose Anne Alice Landau on 22 June 1907.

Mocatta died in 1905, and Sir Arthur and Phillips wished to be discharged from their duty.

On 9 September 1912 Sir Charles James Jessel of Ludham House, Goudhurst, Kent; Richard Lake Harrison of 1 New Court, Lincoln’s Field, and Sidney Benjamin Hoffnung-Goldsmid of 35 Chesham Place, London, sold the lease for £300 (annual ground rent still continuing) to Sarah Wormald Hodson, wife of Henry Algeron Hodson of 23 Brunswick Square.

On 26 February 1914 Mrs Hodson sold the lease for £175 to Ada Maria Jacobs, who also owned Number 31, and 33 in the same road.

On 26 June 1925 a licence was signed by Leonard Nathaniel Goldsmid Montefiore of 37 Weymouth, London, mortgagee, Osmond Elim d’Avigdor Goldsmith of 37 Weymouth Street, London, lessor, Charles John Stewart Harper of 10 & 12 Bishopsgate, London, solicitor, and Montague Wheeler of 5 Pembridge Crescent, Bayswater. They were trustees to Ada Maria Jacobs and the licence was permission to carry on using the houses as a private nursing home provided that there were no infectious or contagious diseases or ‘lunatics, idiots and ‘inebriates’.

Miss Jacobs was allowed to retain the three doorways between numbers 31 and 33 but they must be bricked up at her expense no later than 24 June 1953 when the 99-year lease expired. Miss Jacobs was also permitted to display a brass plate not exceeding 12-in x 8-in. Ada Jacobs sold the lease just a few months before the lease expired to Jessie Spurn, widow, and Margaret Helen Crofts Hubbard, spinster, both of 12 Dyke Road, Brighton. By this time Ada Jacobs was ensconced in the Palmeira Nursing Home, Palmeira Mansions. When the lease of number 35 expired, the two ladies had to sign a new lease with Sir Henry Joseph d’Avigdor Goldsmith of Somerhill, Kent, and the trustees including James Liddell-Simpson of 27 Wilton Place, London, bill-broker, Henry Alistair Fergusson Crewdson of 1 New Court, Lincoln’s Inn, and Edward Elkin Mocatta of 7 Throgmorton Avenue, London, billion-broker.

Looking south down Brunswick Road, which is well endowed with mature trees

Number 36 – In 1871 Robert Wallis, aged 76, and his spinster daughters, Fanny aged 35, and Mary aged 31, ran a ladies’ school on the premises. The establishment included two boarders in their twenties, an assistant teacher, three female servants, and twelve girls, of whom one had been born in Edinburgh, and another in Russia. By 1881 Mary Wallis was running the school on her own, and she had taken over number 35 as well. There were four governesses (one French and one German) five female servants, and eighteen girls, one of whom had been born in India, another in Costa Rica.

By 1890 the school was run by Miss D. Jones, but it had gone by 1891. In 1880 Thomas Dunhill agreed to take on the residue of the 99-year lease dating back to 24 June 1854, and the annual ground rent of £25-18-0d. Thomas Dunhill was agent to Sir Francis Goldsmid, and the censuses of 1871 and 1881 show that Dunhill was living at 20 Brunswick Road. Number 35 still belonged to the Goldsmid Estate, and it formed part of the marriage settlement drawn up when Osmond Elim d’Avigdor Goldsmid married Rose Anne Alice Landau on 22 October 1907. Other properties in Palmeira Square and Palmeira Avenue were also involved in the marriage settlement.

Number 37 – The 1861 census records that the house was used as a small private girls’ school by William Miller, aged 45, schoolmaster. He lived with his wife Mary, daughter Clara, two servants and ten female pupils. William Miller was still there ten years later with seventeen girls, two governesses, and three female servants.

By 1881 the school was bring run by 25-year old Miss Gorbell, and she employed an English governess, a French governess, and three female servants; there were twelve girls, two of them born in India. Miss Gorbell was still in charge in 1891 and the school was now known as Belvedere House. There were three governesses, six girls plus three female servants.

It is interesting to note that on 25 March 1867 Edward Whately, a Brighton surgeon, leased this house and number 38. He also owned the leases of 23 and 24 Brunswick Road while he purchased outright numbers 17, 19, and 21 York Road. Edward Whately died at Torquay on 24 March 1881, and his widow Emily died on 28 January 1911.

Number 38 – On 25 March 1868 Edward Whately, a Brighton surgeon, purchased the lease on this house and number 37. In 1871 Miss Georgina Smith, aged 37, ran a ladies’ school on the premises. There were two English governesses, and one French one, fourteen girls, and three female servants. By 1881 the school had gone and instead Lucy Russell, aged 41, ran a lodging house here. Also in the house were her sister, a governess, her brother, two visitors, and three female servants. Ten years later Miss Russell was still in charge but now it was a school called Clifton House.

Edward Whately died in 1881, and his widow died in 1911, but at some stage the lease was sold to Alfred Bodistone, a ladies tailor of 23 Western Road, Hove.

On 27 June 1911 Mr Bodistone sold the lease to Miss Emily Alexandra Clark of 80 Holland Park Avenue for £375, the annual ground rent remaining at £30. The very next day Miss Clark took out a mortgage of £150 with three Plymouth sisters – Ellen Collins Gray, Bessie Gray, and Mary Gray. Miss Clark died in Boscombe, Hampshire, on 31 January 1917, and her executor, the Public Trustee, paid off the mortgage.

In 13 November 1917 the lease was sold for £275 to Mrs Margaret Anne Goff who ran a boarding house on the premises. It is interesting to note that the annual ground rent had been reduced to £15. On 23 April 1937 Mrs Goff assigned the goodwill of the boarding house to her unmarried daughter Margaret Alice Goff. It remained a boarding house until 1947, and on 12 January 1948 Miss M. A. Goff sold the lease for £600 to Henry and Phoebe Rudman of 7 Burlington Street, Brighton, but the ground rent had gone back to £30.

Numbers 39 & 40 – The 1861 census records that William Barrymore and his wife ran a small boys’ school here. There were eight pupils, five servants, and four visitors on census night. Barrymore was still in charge of the school ten years later although it had been reduced to just number 39. There were seven boys, one being born in India, and another was born in Quebec, one tutor, a teacher of classics, one female servant, one male servant plus Mrs Barrymore and a visitor. The school had gone by 1881.

Number 45 – On 11 November 1867 James William Stride, estate agent, sold the counterpart of the lease for 21 years to Charles Warne for £90. It is fascinating to note that the lease came with a schedule of house contents as follows:

The drawing room had a register stove, a marble mantel, two Venetian window blinds, a three-light lacquered gasolier with three glass globes, eight brass curtain hooks, and four brass window lifts.

The dining room had folding doors and there were two register stoves with stone mantels, a three-light bronzed gasolier with three globes, iron flower stands to two front windows, and white china door furniture.

The housekeeper’s room had a register stove, a stone mantel, a bracket gas fitting, a large linen press or store cupboard with four doors enclosing nine shelves, and six drawers below with black knobs,.

The kitchen had a wood mantel, a range with an oven, trivet winder, smoke tin, and roasting crane. Mr Warne gave up the lease in 1902 and the house was purchased by Charles Henry Taylor.

Number 46 – On 11 September 1878 James William Stride, estate agent, sold the lease to Miss Ann Evans for £94-10s. The schedule of fittings reveal that there were register stoves in various rooms, and stone mantels; the first floor drawing room had a marble mantel and white china door furniture; the double dining room was on the ground floor and it had folding doors – this was in the tradition of Brunswick Square that also possessed folding doors to provide more entertainment space but they were situated in the drawing room on the first floor. In this house there was an enamelled stone mantel, and two white china knobs to the imitation folding shutters.

In the kitchen there was a stone mantel, a 4-ft range with oven trivet, a winder, a boiler with a tap over it for supplying the same, a smoke tin and brass roasting crane. The larder contained four wooden shelves plus one made of slate and eight meat hooks.

Miss Evans gave up the lease from 29 September 1902 because as she explained, ‘I find letting is so bad and the expense of the house … so great I really cannot meet my payment.’ The house was purchased almost at once by Charles Henry Taylor.

These houses have plain pillars and less intricate ironwork

Number 54 – In 1871 John Rylands aged 68 lived in this house with his wife and one female servant. He earned his living as a private tutor, and since he only had one boarding pupil at a time, he must have been able to give him a great deal of undidvided attention.

By 1881 the premises had become a lodging house run by 40-year old Robert Shaw. It must have been a respectable establishment, and Benjamin Maurice, a surgeon, lodged there. Indeed, the man tasked with taking down the census details must have been a little confused about their respective status because he put Maurice’s name in the slot usually occupied by the head of household.

Number 57 – In 1871 46-year old Thomas Wicksey ran a lodging house here with his wife and the help of one servant – a girl aged twelve. By 1881 it was Susan Wicksey who was running the business, and her sister had come to live with her. There were two boarders and two female servants.

In 1891 it was still a lodging house but Mr Trayton Delves ran it. On 21 June 1892 John William Stride, estate agent, sold the house to Charles Henry Taylor for £2,400. The sum included the freehold and so the property passed out of the control of the Goldsmid Estate. By 1902 Taylor also owned numbers 45, 46, 51, and 52 Brunswick Road as well.

In 1950 the artist H. W. Padgett lived in the house. He regarded himself principally as a painter of murals, and he painted the murals that once formed the background for some of the cages in Brighton Aquarian. But he also painted portraits including one of Ohan Akenzua, the eighth wife of the Oba of Benin, the ruler of a million Nigerians.

Number 58 – In 1861 John Briggs, aged 75, a retired major in the Indian Army, lived in this house.

In 1881 Rachael Standing and her sister kept a lodging house here, and their brother 38-year old George Standing also lived with them. He was a farmer of 24 acres and employed one man. Among the lodgers was a solicitor and his wife, and there was one female servant. By 1881 the lodging house was being run by Miss Charlotte Hack and her partner Miss Clara Knight. Ten years later Miss Knight was managing on her own.

Number 60 – Like number 59, this house is no longer in existence. But in 1871 Miss Ledger ran a small girls’ school in the premises. There were eleven girls, one born in India, two governesses, four boarders, and three female servants.

By 1881 the school was run by widowed Elizabeth McIntyre, aged 42, who lived with her two sons, and two daughters, the youngest being four-year old Bella, a governess, and three female servants. By 1891 the school had gone and in its place was a lodging house called Clovelly House run by Mrs M. Brine.

These houses are now the last ones on the south east side of Brunswick Road

Sources

Census Returns
Churchill, Randolph Winston Churchill Volume I 1874-1900 (1967
Directories
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Middleton, J A History of Hove (1979)
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Hove in the Past

Pages

20 July 2024

Brunswick Road, Hove