Hove in the Past: Osborne Villas, Hove

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2020)

Development

Osborne Villas formed part of what came to be known as the Cliftonville Estate (see also Albany Villas and Medina Villas). However, before this estate was built it is interesting to note that some houses in Osborne Villas have deeds going back to the 18^th century. In those days property transactions were recorded in the Court Books of the Manor of Hova Villa and Hova Ecclesia. On 27 April 1797 Matthew Martin of Burghill, Chiddingly, was acknowledged as owner of eleven copyhold tenements.

On 14 January 1802 Matthew Martin surrendered four of these tenements (consisting of 16 acres, 3 rods and 20 poles) to Richard Lashmar, Brighton coal merchant. On 31 May 1826 Richard Lashmar was declared bankrupt and consequently his land holdings went to his creditors, including Philip Mighel and Nathaniel Hall. By 1829 the debts had been cleared, and a parcel of copyhold land was released to Lashmar. But perhaps Lashmar was not out of the financial woods because in the same year he mortgaged the property for £3,000 to Philip Mighell, increasing the sum by £1,000 in 1833. On 11 February 1843 the Chancery Court ordered the mortgage to be foreclosed – both Lashmar and Mighell being dead by that time. William Mighell, nephew and heir, became the next owner in 1851.

Land also went to George Hall, Brighton upholsterer and developer, on behalf of William Kirkpatrick. On 8 May 1852 Richard Webb Mighell and George Gallard agreed to divide the land holdings between them. The plot on which numbers 27 and 28 Osborne Street (the original name of part of today’s Osborne Villas) were later built, was sold to Kirkpatrick and Gallard, who sold plots on the east side to Charles Smart of Houghton, shipowner. On 5 August 1871 the property was sold to Samuel Isger.

The development of Osborne Villas is somewhat complicated because prior to 1852 the land was jointly owned by George Gallard, William Kirkpatrick, Richard Webb Mighell, and George Hall. Then they split up and the various plots went to different owners.

Land speculation was always risky, and George Hall went bankrupt. In 1852 he had used four plots in Osborne Villas as security to raise £3,000 from W. G. Bolton and J. Christian, but by 1855 he was bankrupt.

On 8 October 1852 Gallard and Kirkpatrick took out a loan of £7,000 with Sir Frederick Hartwell & Partners, using the brewery at the top of the street as security. Apparently, this transaction also involved St Catherine’s Lodge.

In December 1852 Messrs R. & J. Tooth, timber merchants, purchased seven plots in Osborne Villas and Medina Villas for £830, and in February 1853 re-sold two of the plots in Osborne Villas to J. Grindell, builder.

Also in February 1853 another timber merchant, T. Peerless, purchased two Osborne plots for £500, and re-sold them immediately for £640 to Messrs Llewllyn, Scawgood & Muggeridge.

By the close of 1853 most of the Osborne plots had been sold, and Gallard and Kirkpatrick had dissolved their partnership.

On 4 August 1853 George Head (described as a Brighton upholsterer, formerly a gentleman) was recognised as tenant of a piece of land on the west side of Osborne Villas, bordered on the south by Hove Place and numbers 14, 15, and 16 St Catherine’s Terrace – Richard Peters Rickman, Burwood Godlee and William Jenner being the previous owners. On 29 January 1858 George Head was admitted as tenant of copyhold land on the east side of Osborne Villas. By 1864 Head was in financial difficulties, and on 21 July he took out a mortgage of £22,000 with the London & County Banking Company. Head owned a considerable amount of land that was itemised in the deed and included the following:

3 lots of land in Brighton

2 lots of land in Guildford

5 lots of land in Haywards Heath

Copyhold land in Osborne Villas, occupied by numbers 22 and 23

Other land in Osborne Villas

St Catherine’s Terrace, numbers 14, 15 and 15

Cliftonville

Osborne Villas formed part of lower Cliftonville – upper Cliftonville being north of Church Road. But Osborne had relatively small plots of land when compared to others in Cliftonville. There were some larger plots at the brewery end, and at the south, but most of them had a 25-ft frontage with a depth of 55-ft.

However, Osborne Villas was the first street in lower Cliftonville to be completed. Professor Lowerson was of the opinion that the road appeared ‘as a rather less grand version of Brighton’s Montpelier Villas’.

Much of Osborne Villas was built as a terrace of plain, stuccoed housing with roofs that are not visible from street level, although chimney pots can be seen. Numbers 7 and 9, built in around 1855 have a large overhang between the top of the walls and the roof, and there are canopies. Number 55 on the east side is completely different, and was built later on. In fact, the house displays the Victorian passion for decorative plasterwork, and the barge boards above the attic windows are unusual. (See also under ‘House Notes’). Number 63 is also a pleasing structure, obviously once a coach-house. It has kept its grey tiles and terracotta ridge tiles in a fleur-de-lys style.

In July 2007 there was considerable concern about a decorative feature found at the top of some houses in Osborne Villas; in particular there was one house where the turret was jutting forward after a large crack appeared, threatening to send loose masonry crashing to the ground. Residents were evacuated, and scaffolding erected. Apparently, 2½ tons of masonry was being held up by a little piece of asphalt. An architectural builder explained that the trouble arose because of the weight involved, and several residents in the road had solved the problematic turret by having it removed completely, and replacing it with a much lighter wooden structure; at a stroke the weight load was reduced by some 90%. It was a problem that happened in older properties where the maintenance of the bays had often been ignored. (Argus 18/7/08)

The name Osborne was right up-to-date because in the 1840s Queen Victoria had purchased ‘Dear Osborne’ in the Isle of Wight as a family retreat, and Prince Albert designed Osborne House in the Italianate style. Indeed, the naming of Osborne for a road in Hove may have set the style for others in Cliftonville such as Medina Villas and Ventnor Villas because both Medina and Ventnor are to be found in the Isle of Wight. It may be that Albany derives from the name of Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884).

Re-numbering

The road was originally built as two distinct parts with villas built in Osborne Villas, and terraced housing in Osborne Street. In 1903 the whole road became Osborne Villas, and consequently the houses had to be re-numbered.

Pavements

Originally, the Osborne pavements were composed of red bricks, but in the late 1870s flagstones replaced them.

In January 1925 it was stated that the York stone foot-way on the west side was worn and uneven, while the Purbeck stone channel was defective. The Borough Surveyor suggested that artificial stone slabs should be used, together with a granite kerb. The estimated cost of this improvement was £774. But if the kerb already in stock were used, the cost could be reduced to £581.

Advertisement

The Brighton Guardian (16 September 1852) carried an advertisement for four substantially-built dwelling houses containing the following:

Two parlours with folding doors

Four bedrooms

Housekeeper’s room

Kitchen

Scullery, etc

The houses were let to ‘respectable tenants’ for £35 a year. But old customs remained and because the houses were ‘held’ of the Manor of Hova Villa and Hova Ecclesia, there was still a small fee to pay.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Brighton Herald's 1853 advert for the sale of properties in Osborne Villas

Shocking Case of Child Neglect

According to the 1854 Directory Mrs Emma Smythe kept a small, boarding school at number 10. In 1854 Mrs Smythe was described as a respectably-attired widow between the ages of 50 and 60 who came originally from Yorkshire. There were around twelve children in her care, of both sexes, with the eldest child being twelve years of age. But all was not well at the establishment.

In July 1854 Mrs Smythe was up before the magistrates, and she was found guilty of aggravated assault on one of her charges. Mrs Smythe could have been jailed for a maximum of six months, but the magistrates thought two months would suffice because the prospect of continuing to run a school were ruined.

The unfortunate child in the case was three-year old Elizabeth Browne whose parents lived in a distant part of the kingdom. The child slept on a mat in the kitchen, with some loose rags as a pillow, and an old blanket and part of a skirt to cover her. On one occasion when the unhappy child soiled herself, Mrs Smythe rubbed the dirty blanket on Elizabeth’s face until her lips bled. Then the child was locked in the cellar, naked, until 3 p.m. Another witness spoke of Elizabeth as being kept without food for eight-and-a-half hours.

Osborne Street

In the 1861 census the occupations of some of the inhabitants were listed as follows:

3 policemen

Blind-maker

Boot-maker

Brick-maker

Carpenter

Conductor

Dressmaker

Fencing master

Fly driver

Laundress

Milliner

Omnibus conductor

Porter

There was a small, private school at number 29 Osborne Villas.

A Bakery

In 1890 Weekes’ Bakery was operating in Osborne Street, and in August of that year it was reported that the establishment was emitting a great deal of black smoke. Hove Commissioners gave the owner 24 hours in which to amend the situation. The same people running the bakery, also ran the brewery.

A Brewery

Two remnants of old Hove – The Osborne Villas brewery jutting out into Church Road, and the gasometer in the backgound

The brewery was situated at the top of Osborne Villas on the west side – the site now occupied by Grosvenor Mansions, a shop and part of the road. In the early days it was numbered at 26A Osborne Street. George Gallard was responsible for the building of the steam brewery in 1852 – another of his enterprises was being ‘the proprietor of the horse water-works for Hove and Cliftonville’.

The Osborne brewery was known as Brighton Steam Brewery until 1869, then just as Brighton Brewery, although the locals tended to call it Weekes’ Brewery because in 1870 R. C. Weekes purchased it.

The brewery was a source of frustration to town planners because the north part jutted right out into Church Road causing an obstruction known locally as The Bunion. Both officials and residents wanted something done about it. In 1880 a petition signed by 235 people was despatched to Hove Commissioners with a request for its removal. Nothing happened and a similar petition produced in 1895 garnered 1,019 signatures.

Mr Weekes had a simple solution to the situation – he just ignored the letters. In 1899 Hove Council wrote to Mr Weekes asking him to receive a deputation about removing part of his brewery. Once again, the letter was ignored. Then councillors had to consider taking action under the Land Clauses Consolidation Acts in order to acquire a portion of the property for road widening.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums,
Brighton & Hove
The Carter Bros Stationers & Book Shop was
built on the site of the Osborne Villas brewery

However, before anything could be done, Tamplin’s took over the brewery premises in March 1900. The transaction cost in the region of £40,000 because it included twelve tied-houses. Hove Council began negotiations with Tamplin’s but the matter dragged on into 1902. It seems Tamplin’s hoped the council would purchase the whole brewery from them at a cost of £16,000. But the council did not want or need the whole site, and the price was too expensive anyway.

At length Tamplin’s managed to find a buyer for the site, and Hove Council offered £4,150 for the north portion they needed for road-widening. Even this transaction was not without difficulty because it turned out the land was still held under the old copyhold system – thus it was not a freehold property, and needed to be enfranchised.

The brewery site was finally sold on 21 August 1902 – demolition swiftly followed – and Hove rid itself of The Bunion, no doubt to public rejoicing.

Apparently, the demolition only covered the structures on ground level, and the original vaults remained intact underneath. These proved to be useful for air-raid shelters during the Second World War.

House Notes

Number 17 – Alfred Daniel Taylor (1872-1928) lived in this house. He was born in the King’s Cross area of London where his father, William Taylor, earned a living as a bookbinder – this may account for Alfred’s love of books. Then William decided on a change of direction and in 1883 he and his family moved to Brighton where he became the landlord of a pub or two. By 1894 William had moved to the Cliftonville Inn, Hove Place. Two years later William handed over the running of the business to his sons Alfred Daniel and Albert.

copyright © J.Middleton
Alfred Daniel Taylor, a publican, who was also a dedicated enthusiast of cricket and music, lived in this house

Alfred married Ellen Louise Dench in 1902 and in 1904 they became the proud parents of a son called Alfred Daniel too. They only had the one child and this was in contrast to Alfred senior’s parents whose brood numbered seven children. It is interesting to note that Ellen’s address before marriage was Osborne Street because by 1917 she and her family were living at 17 Osborne Villas.

Music was a passion with Alfred and he even claimed to be able to play any musical instrument. When he was young he often appeared in concerts held on the West Pier playing the piccolo. He was also an adept flautist and some of the bookplates in his collection carry an illustration of a flute. During the First World War, Alfred helped to form the Sussex Volunteers Regiment’s Band and became the bandmaster. There is a splendid photograph of him in his military uniform looking somewhat pompous.

Alfred had other strings to his bow and was an expert on cricket, writing for local publications under the pseudonym of Willow Wielder. Alfred kept his extensive collection of cricket books and memorabilia in a large room upstairs in the Cliftonville Inn. In 1903 there was nearly a disaster when a fire broke out in this library. Fearing the worst, some priceless items were removed in haste and handed out of the window to safety. Thankfully, although the room was badly damaged, the only items destroyed were a few manuscripts. Some idea of the size of his collection can be gauged from the fact that in 1908 he possessed 1,700 separate publications on cricket. Indeed, at his death it was claimed to be the largest collection of books on cricket ever amassed.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
A. D. Taylor wrote a book about this famous painting of a cricket match at Brighton between Sussex & Kent in 1849

Alfred did extensive research before he put together his monograph concerning the celebrated cricket match on The Level between Sussex and Kent. He demonstrated that it was not an actual event but a fictional occasion that enabled the artist to paint some 60 people, famous in the 1840s. It is a sad fact that on the same day as the first instalment of this work was being published, Alfred died in his 51^st year at 17 Osborne Villas. He had been ill for a while, and did not have time to correct the proofs of the final two parts. His work was entitled The Story of a Cricket Picture and was published by Emery & Son of 170 Church Road, Hove.

Number 22 – (old numbering) In January 1894 it was reported to the authorities that fowls were being kept in the back yard of this house. The occupant was given seven days notice in which to remove them, and thoroughly cleanse the yard.

Number 23

Clyde Christie was an artist, playwright, and poet who lived in this house in the 1930s. He painted two portraits of Viscountess Wolseley, one in oils, the other in pencil and pastel, which today are to be found in the Wolseley Room at Hove Library.

Numbers 30-31

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove (from the Brighton Herald)
An annual Christmas Bazaar was held at numbers 30 & 31 Osborne Villas in the 1870s

Number 49

Two remarkable sisters lived in this house from 1986 until 1992. Una Dillon (1903-1993) was the founder of Dillon’s bookshops, which by the time she died had a turnover of £145 million. Carmen Dillon (1908-2000) was a trained architect who became a very successful art director for the film industry at a time when a woman in such a role was unusual. Their eldest sister Tess lectured in science at London University, and they shared a large Kensington flat. Una continued to live in Osborne Villas until 1992 when she moved into the Victoria Nursing Home, followed by Carmen in 1994.

Number 55 – In 1996 Paul Bouch and Nichola Guest purchased the property. But before they moved in, they expended the sum of £30,000 on a thorough programme of refurbishment, and continued to spend more each year to complete the task. Part of the work entailed bringing the frontage up to scratch and this meant it had to be shot-blasted clean. The house was built in 1875, and remarkably, has had only four previous owners. It is believed the property was once home to a boys’ school, and later became a boarding house. It was still possible to see the room numbers on the doors from its latter use. In May 2002 the house was put on the market at £700,000.

Number 57 – In 1954 Captain Ralph de Basso was responsible for building Valentine Cottage, the first Regency-style cottage to be erected in one hundred years. At the time he was a 59-year old ex-cavalry officer, artist and photographer.

Number 74 – In the 1990s this house was occupied by two best-selling authors – Eric Clark and Marcelle Bernstein.

Eric Clark was born on 29 July 1937 in Birmingham. He became a successful investigative journalist, and was a Home Affairs correspondent on the Observer, Daily Mail, and Guardian. On 12 April 1972 he married Marcelle Bernstein and the couple went on to have one son and two daughters. In 1980 they moved to Hove. In his journalist days, Clark travelled throughout Europe, and the United States. He worked on articles about Simon Wiesenthal, and war criminals, trans-national crime, and espionage, the CIA, the Mafia and drugs. Clark’s series of articles on gambling in the Observer were cited by the then Home Secretary as pivotal in his decision to change Britain’s gaming laws. Clark has always strenuously denied claims, first mooted in Private Eye, that concurrent with his journalistic work, he also worked for British and American intelligent services. However, he has admitted to having long-standing and close contacts with the intelligence and diplomatic services, as well as numerous law enforcement agencies. Soon after Clark moved to Sussex he made the intriguing remark, ‘There are probably more retired spies to the acre in Brighton than in any town of its size in the world.’

In the 1970s Clark turned to writing books – his first novel being Black Gambit, which was published in seventeen countries. Jack Higgins commented on the book that ‘it could only be compared to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.’ Among subsequent novels are the following:

The Sleeper (1979)

Send in the Lions (1981)

Chinese Burn (1984)

Hide and Seek (1994)

Clark also wrote two highly acclaimed non-fiction works – Corps Diplomatique (on diplomats) and The Want Makers (about the world-wide advertising industry. In 2001 Clark and his family moved to London.

Marcelle Bernstein has been a professional writer all her working life, starting off at the age of nineteen working for the Guardian’s women’s page. Then she became news-desk assistant on the Daily Mirror, and by the time she was aged 24, she was a staff feature writer on the Observer.

During her career she met all sorts of interesting people. On one occasion, against official advice, she went to Harlem at the time of the race riots in the United States. Another time she horrified the Israeli Government by visiting an Arab family in the Arab zone just after the Six Days War. For a travel article on Canada she went to Hudson Bay where she could see Polar bears from her window, and another article meant she rode with professional rodeo cowboys. She once interviewed Agatha Christie, and wrote profiles on other writers including Jean Rhys, Roald Dahl, and Paul Gallico. She spent an uproarious time in Austria filming with the Monty Python team, toured Northern working men’s clubs in the company of Dusty Springfield, and nightspots in Las Vegas with Liza Minelli.

Bernstein’s first book was a non-fiction work entitled Nuns (1976). In order to gather first-hand accounts she travelled all over the world to interview nuns – from the jungles of Borneo to the United States, and from France to visit some Carmelites in Wales. The book was well received and described as ‘probably the finest book that will ever be written on the religious life.’ It is amusing to note that it was while she was engaged on writing the chapter about celibacy that she gave birth to her eldest daughter.

Bernstein then turned to fiction and Sadie was published in 1983. It was based on her grandmother’s experiences and tells the story of a Jewish woman living through two world wars and three marriages. The book was an immediate success. Then came Salka (1986) inspired by the diary of a young Jewish immigrant who travelled from Russia to Vienna, and then to England. Lili (1988) was about a dancer and her scandalous life at the turn of the 20^th century. In 1991 Bernstein published Body and Soul and it was made into an award-winning ITV series broadcast in 1993 starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Anthony Valentine, Amanda Redman, and Dorothy Tutin. It tells the story of an enclosed nun who leaves her convent for family reasons, and then falls in love. Bernstein’s later books include Sacred and Profane (1995) and Saints and Sinners (1998). Bernstein’s books have been translated into sixteen languages. In 2001 she moved to London with her family.

Miscellaneous

Sam Fenton – He is an artist who lived in Osborne Villas, and in 1999 was described as being 76 years old. Examples of his work were exhibited at the Royal Academy six times between the years 1943 and 1980. The Prince of Wales admires his work, and particularly requested that Fenton’s watercolours should be included in an exhibition held in London in 1997 called The Discerning Eye. Lionel Blair, who is also a Fenton fan, made a similar request for another exhibition of the same name held in November 1999.

Reginald Pepper of Swindon – This is the name Joanna Carrington used when she began to paint in a more primitive style in 1974 as an alternative from her usual mode. However, interest in Reg Pepper’s work grew apace, and in 1981 the Portal Gallery, specializing in primitive-style work, asked for full biographical details. Joanna Carrington then felt obliged to own up to her alias. In 1984 she wrote a children’s book Papper and Jam with illustrations by Reg Pepper. Joanna Carrington is the niece of Dora Carrington of Bloomsbury set fame. Joanna lived in Osborne Villas in the 1980s.

Sources

Brighton & Hove City Libraries
Census Returns

Directories

Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Evening Argus

Hove Council Minute Books

Laughton, To, A. D. Taylor, the Cricketologist (2002)

Lowerson, J. editor Cliftonville, Hove, A Victorian Suburb (1977)

Old newspapers
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

The Keep

AMS 5776/2/2 – Re 27/28 Osborne Street

AMS 5776/2/8-9 – Re 27/28 Osborne Street

02 November 2018

Osborne Villas, Hove