Hove in the Past: Tisbury Road, Hove

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2023)

copyright © J.Middleton
The houses in Tisbury Road were built in different styles. This photograph shows the east side of more modest three-storey, terraced housing

Background

The road was named after Tisbury, Wiltshire, which was adjacent to part of the Stanford Estate land holdings in that county. The Stanford family lived in Preston Manor and at one time their land in Sussex extended from Preston to the seafront at Hove. Much of Hove, including the Avenues, Grand Avenue, and Tisbury Road, was built on former Stanford land (see also First Avenue).

Building work started in the late 1870s and Tisbury Road made its first appearance in the Directories in 1879 when there were just two occupied houses with others built but empty. It is interesting to note that Tisbury Road was identified as a continuation of Third Avenue. In fact, it is nothing like Third Avenue because the width of the road is narrower and does not allow for a double row of parked cars in the centre – it is also a bus route.

The architecture is different on the two sides of the road. Whereas the houses on the west side are rather grand 4-storey, semi-detached residences (with basement) plus some lovely details on their facades, the ones on the east side are a more modest terrace of 3-storey dwellings, also with basement.

Tisbury Road was declared a public highway in 1884 and in September 1888 Hove Commissioners decided to spend £30 on planting trees in the road.

In July 2018 some of the trees in Tisbury Road were visibly distressed by the drought caused by the long, hot summer. Leaves exuded a substance that fell to the pavement beneath and created a sticky, shiny mess. Fortunately, a downpour on the last weekend in July cured the problem.

Urinal Controversy

Mr Hill wrote a letter to Hove Commissioners dated 4 December 1889 enquiring why the place constructed under the footway leading from Tisbury Road to the north east entrance of the Great Hall in Hove Town Hall had not been made into a public urinal, as originally intended.

On 17 December 1889 Mr Barnes replied to Mr Hill’s letters stating that if the place mentioned were to be used as a urinal, it would seriously devalue his property in Tisbury Road.

The Hove Commissioners stated they had been threatened with litigation, and had been served with an injunction restraining them from going ahead with any scheme that might prove detrimental or a nuisance to neighbours. (A public convenience was later constructed at the Norton Road side of Hove Town Hall).

Hackney Stand

In February 1893 it was decided that one hackney carriage stand would be established at the south end of Tisbury Road.

Exploding Gas Pillar

In December 1893 it was reported that Captain Dowell had received the sum of £75 as compensation for ‘personal injuries sustained through the explosion of a gas pillar in Tisbury Road'.

Pavements

In April 1889 it was reported that asphalt paving on the west side between numbers 1 and 23 was worn and defective. It was decided to lay artificial stone slabs instead; the cost was estimated at £130 but this sum also covered the relaying of the curb and channel.

Fires

The drastic fire that engulfed Hove Town Hall in 1966 had a direct effect on the houses on the west side at the south end. This was not because of the fire, but because of the grandiose plans for a brand new town hall built in a modern, 'brutalist' style that required additional land on the north side. This meant that some houses had to be demolished. In the 1960s Victorian houses were not esteemed and not many people mourned the loss of perfectly good housing, but today such an action would have met with fierce resistance

On 1 August 1990 a fire broke out in a house in Tisbury Road, and a man had to be rescued from the third floor by means of a fireman’s ladder.

In August 1992 a blaze badly damaged a flat at the top of a building in Tisbury Road. Twenty fire-fighters attended the incident and helped people to escape.

In July 1999 a fire broke out just after midnight in a house in Tisbury Road. When fire-fighters arrived at the scene they were furious to find they were prevented from getting close to the fire because of double parking. They were obliged to manoeuvre their turntable ladder over the top of a Ford transit van plus the vehicle parked next to the pavement. Fortunately, neighbours had already kicked in the door of a second-floor flat and dragged out a man suffering from serious burns to his face and hands.

In July 2019 Firemen had to block off Tisbury Road at both ends while they sought to douse a severe fire in a ground-floor flat, the alarm having been raised at 3. 55 p.m. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Mr Dan Anderson, aged 26, was visiting a friend, and heard that there might be a baby girl inside the blazing flat. He braved thick smoke, and broke down the door, shouting to find out if anybody was inside, but the flat was empty. (Argus 8 July 2019)

House Notes

Number 12

Colonel James Ord Goldie lived in this house. Colonel Goldie spent the whole of his active career serving in India, and he retired to Hove, like so many ex-India hands, where he lived for a quarter of a century. He was an enthusiastic member of Sussex County Cricket Club, and spent many days happily watching cricket at the county ground. He died at 12 Tisbury Road in July 1919. His elder brother, Colonel Barré Goldie, also saw service in India with the Royal Engineers and retired to Hove where he lived at 46 Selborne Road for 30 years. He was a churchwarden at St John the Baptist’s Church for many years. He died in November 1922. Their father had been in India too.

Colonel J.O. Goldie’s son, Major Kenneth Oswald Barré Goldie of the Lancers (Indian Army), became military secretary to Lord Willingdon, Governor of Bombay at Madras, a post he held until 1919.

Colonel J.O. Goldie’s other son, 2nd Lieutenant Barré Herbert Goldie, served with the Indian Army in Egypt, where he died in April 1915.

Colonel J.O. Goldie’s daughter was the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Knowles.

Number 31 – Rear Admiral J.E. Stokes lived in this house in 1908.

Number 33

Barnett Marks (1863-1944) lived in this house in the 1930s. He was born in London, son of Elias Marks. At the age of sixteen he went to South Africa to work in the ostrich feather trade, but he soon graduated to trading in jewellery. A treasured memento was a gold locket given to him by a grateful father whose son he had saved from drowning. This was no mean feat because the panicking man pulled him under the water three times.

When the Boer War broke out in 1881, the luxury trade dried up and so Marks decided to try his luck elsewhere. He went to the Kimberley diamond fields where he managed to make some money. However, he caught enteric fever and the doctor told him his only chance of a complete recovery was to leave Africa and return home to England.

In 1882 he purchased a jewellery business in Church Road, Hove, which he carried on for a period of 25 years. In 1882 he married Pauline Robinson and there were two sons of the marriage and a daughter called Vera - both sons served in the Sussex Imperial Yeomanry.

In 1902 he was elected a Hove councillor, and such was his energy and commitment that he served as Mayor of Hove from 1910 to 1913. The Brighton Herald (24 August 1910) had this to say about him: 'If any man has earned the distinction, Councillor Barnett Marks has done so. Nothing goes on in Hove without him. Has a Mayor to receive a presentation; has a regatta to be arranged; have entertainments for the poor to be worked up; has a subscription to be helped along – there is Councillor Marks in the thick of things, with energy of working and shrewdness of advice'.

Marks’ pet project was the Hove Soup Kitchen for the benefit of poor, or unemployed people, but he was also active on a number of committees and organisations:

Alderman Barnett Marks
Mayor of Hove
illustration from the
Brighton Season Magazine of 1911

Hove Conservative Club, chairman

Hove Tradesmen’s Football Club, president

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, one of the original directors

Hove Cricket Club, president

Hove Bowling Club, captain

Hove Swimming Club, committee member

Hove Education Committee, served for 26 years

Brighton Eye Hospital, chairman for 20 years

Hospitals in Brighton and Hove, life governor

Overseer of the Poor

Freemason, Worshipful Master of Atlingworth Lodge

Middle Street Synagogue, trustee

Brighton Hebrew Congregation, councillor

Brighton Hebrew Congregation, honorary auditor

But Barnett Marks was not afraid to rock the boat either. This was evident in 1935 when a party of German officials visited Hove and were entertained in some style at Hove Town Hall. It was a time when many people thought highly of German efficiency and progress. In fact, there was active cooperation between youth movements in the two countries. At Hove there was a group called Britannia Youth, and it was a party of Hitler Youth who came to visit them.

Alderman Marks publicly refused to attend a civic function given in honour of the visit. Perhaps he was more perceptive than most Hove residents as to what was really happening in Germany – particularly with regard to the Jewish population.

There was also the memory of his son Arthur Sampson Marks who was born in Hove in 1885 and attended Brighton Grammar School. He enlisted in the 9^th Royal Sussex Regiment in October 1914 and was sent to France the following year. ‘For a year or so he served with a trench mortar battery until invalided home with severe shell shock.’ He was treated in various hospitals for another twelve months when he was finally discharged from the Army with the honorary rank of lieutenant. He was given a job on the War Savings Committee in London. However, after a short illness lasting two days he died of pneumonia on 25 October 1918. His name is engraved on the brass war memorial tablets in the vestibule of Hove Library.

Alderman Marks celebrated his 70^th birthday in typical style by throwing a party for several hundred old age pensioners. He died on 31 May 1944.

Number 37 – Lady Napier lived in this house in 1908.

Number 39 & 41

Addiscombe College, a school for the daughters of gentlemen, was located here from 1889 to 1909 before moving to Wilbury Road. The most famous student was the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) and she attended Addiscombe College from 1898-1901. It is thanks to her that we know some interesting details about the school.

The three Cadwallader sisters, proud descendants of the Welsh royal line, founded the school. Laura was held in some awe because of her BA and taught the top classes while Catherine had attended Cheltenham Ladies College, and taught scripture and poetry. The youngest sister, Frances, supervised the domestic side.

The girls received a serious education and their teachers were properly qualified. They were taught Latin, French and German, and nearly all of them were expected to sit the Cambridge Local Board exams. The curriculum also included riding, elocution and music – the school being endowed with no less than seven pianos, including a Steinway grand piano.

There were 25 boarders and on Sundays they attended St Barnabas Church in Sackville Road. Religion was a serious matter and the Cadwallader sisters decked themselves out in black during the solemn season of Lent. By contrast, Ascension Day was celebrated with a school picnic on the Downs.

Prize Day was held at Hove Town Hall and was considered to be a very important occasion. The girls wore their best party dresses, while the school staff and the parents were attired in evening dress.

Number 42 – Colonel Edmund Grey Skinner was living in this house in 1908. He was born in 1850, son of Russell Morland Skinner, Bengal Civil Service, sometime judge of Kishnagur. Colonel Skinner joined the Army Ordnance Corps in 1867 after Sandhurst, and saw service in Egypt. He retired in 1901.

Number 47

copyright © J.Middleton
M.D. Ezekiel lived at number 47. Since he was an art connoisseur and a collector of porcelain,
perhaps he appreciated these decorative details on numbers 47/49

Mr M.D. Ezekiel lived in this house in the 1920s. He donated several pieces of porcelain to Hove Museum.

Number 61 – This house was apparently called Leck House when Lady Sydney Dacre lived there in 1908. Her late husband was Admiral Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacre (1805-1884) who joined the Navy at the tender age of twelve. In 1840 he married Emma Lambert at St Pancras New Church and there were two children of the marriage – a son born in 1845 and a daughter born in 1849. He fought in the Crimean War and in 1857 was one of the British officers to become an officer of the Légion d'Honneur, although they needed the permission of Queen Victoria to accept a foreign honour.

The Dacres had a long history of Naval service – Sir Sydney's father and uncle both attained the rank of vice admiral.

Number 62

Captain H.A. Aguiller RN (1828-1904) lived in this house. He was a brother of Grace d'Aguiller, the famous Jewish novelist of the 19^th century. The d'Aguiller family were an Anglo-Jewish service family with notable members including Sir George Charles d'Aguiller (1784-1855) who rose to the rank of lieutenant general, and his son General Sir Charles Laurence d'Aguiller (1821-1912).

A niece of Grace d’Aguiller lived at 12 Salisbury Road until her death on 11 July 1976. She was Mrs Inez Frances Wallace and she was the youngest daughter of Grace’s brother Henry. She married Lieutenant Colonel E.C. Wallace.

Number 66 – Major General John Roberts lived in this house in 1908.

D. L. Hobman (Daisy Lucie Hobman) was educated at Roedean and St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She was an author who wrote a biography of the feminist Olive Schreiner, and a history of women’s emancipation called Go Spin, You Jade! In 1961 she published Cromwell’s Master Spy; a study of John Thurloe. This project was undertaken on the advice of Ken Lane who ran Combridge’s Second-hand Bookshop at 70 Church Road, and later his own bookshop in Blatchington Road. D. L. Hobman died on 24 December 1961.

Number 66A – It was reported that Captain H.J.H. Newton had heard from the War Office regarding the grave of his son Captain H.R. Newton of the 5^th/7^th Rajputs who was killed in Hong Kong in 1941. The grave had been located and moved to Hong Kong (Sai Wen) Military Cemetery.

Artists

In the 1950s brother and sister artists Felicity and Michael Evershed shared a studio in Tisbury Road.

Michael Blaker also had a studio for a short time in Tisbury Road in the 1950s that he rented from an old woman who mended umbrellas. In 1950 he executed a painting called Tisbury Road peopled entirely by senior citizens. Michael Blaker was born in 1928 at 99 Western Road, Hove, where his father ran a newsagent's shop. He was educated at Brighton- Hove and Sussex Grammar School, where his uncle, Fred Blaker, was one of the names on the Roll of Honour - Fred was killed at the Somme in 1916.

Michael’s grandfather Alderman Frederick Blaker, and his grand-uncle John Blaker, had both been mayors of Brighton. But Michael's artistic ability derived from his mother's side of the family, and in particular from Pietro Longhi who was a famous artist. Blaker has written a very entertaining account of his life.

Anthony Burgess (1917-1993

His most famous novels are A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers. He earned a living as an education officer in Malaya and Borneo, but returned home in poor health. He was referred to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases where all sorts of tests were carried out. His first wife, Lynne, was told that he had an inoperable cerebral tumour. He was discharged.

The next day they spread out a map of the south of England, and blindly stuck a pin in it. The pin landed in Hove, and so to Hove they came, staying in a furnished flat in Tisbury Road, where they lived for a brief period from 1959 to 1960. They arrived at Hove in the middle of an autumnal gale, and stocked up on cheap wine and gin. Burgess also purchased a typewriter to see if he could earn some money by writing short stories and articles. In his autobiography Little Wilson and Big God (1987) he did not specify where he stayed at Hove, but then unfortunately he did not have a high opinion of Hove, which he described as full of ancient people waiting to die.

Sources

Blaker, Michael Autobiography of a Painter-Sketcher (1986)

Brighton Herald (24 August 1910)

Directories

Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Internet

Hove Council Minute Books

Middleton, J. Hove and Portslade in the Great War (2014)

Research by the later David Spector

Spurling, Hilary Ivy When Young 1884-1919 (1993 revised edition)

02 September 2018

Tisbury Road, Hove