Hove in the Past: 2019

Hove Railway Station

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2019)

Holland Road Halt

It may surprise some people to learn that the original railway station serving the Hove area was not at Goldstone Villas but further east, situated north of what was later called Holland Road. It was a sensible decision at that time because whereas Hove village was a small settlement amidst rural surroundings, Brunswick Town was new and fashionable.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
The original Hove Railway Station (Holland Road Halt) can be seen in this early Hove map, to the left is Cliftonville Railway Station (the present day Hove Railway Station)

According to Henry Porter in The History of Hove (1897) the original station opened on 14 November 1845, although other sources state that it had been in operation since 1840.

It was later known as Holland Road Halt, and closed for good on 1 March 1880.

The Second Railway Station

The next station was east of the present-day railway foot-bridge. It became operational on 1 October 1865. Rather confusingly, it was known by different names, as set out below:

Cliftonville Station from1865 until 30 June 1879

West Brighton Station from 1 July 1879 until 1 October 1894

Hove and West Brighton Station from 1894 to 1 July 1895

Hove Station thereafter

The changing names reflect the tremendous growth of Hove in Victorian times. After Brunswick Town, the next big development was the Cliftonville area, followed later on by The Avenues, which was popularly known as West Brighton. In 1894 Hove received the status of an Urban District Council, and so naturally the councillors wished this to be reflected in the name of the station. The request to the railway authorities to change the name to just ‘Hove’ was made on 14 June 1894 but obviously it took a few months before it happened.

Thirteen years later improvements were made to the station. The Cliftonville & Hove Mercury (25 October 1878) announced that in around three weeks time the platform would be covered and the extensive alterations finished. The reporter wrote that it would be a great improvement on the ‘inconvenient structure, which has hitherto done duty for passengers’.

F. D. Banister (1823-1897)

copyright © J.Middleton
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
monogram can still be seen here on a tall pillar
beside the Station's entrance.

Banister was the resident engineer to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1860 to 1896. He was also an architect and surveyor: most probably he designed the second Hove Station, which was built in the Italianate style and is remarkably similar to Portslade Railway Station, constructed in 1881. Banister was also busy with alterations to Brighton Railway Station in the 1880s. In 1889 / 1890 Banister designed and oversaw the construction of the foot-bridge at Hove Station.

It is interesting to note that Banister lived locally – in 1850 he was to be found in Queen’s Road, Brighton, while in 1854 he was at Medina Villas, Hove, and in 1861 he resided in Ivy Lodge, near Hove Street (since demolished). It must have been a busy household and there were just two live-in servants to look after things. Mr Banister’s parents lived in Ivy Lodge together with Mr Banister and his wife Nancy and their children – daughters Catherine, 12, Eleanor, 11, Emily, 7, Alice, 5, and sons Frederick, 8, Edward, 3, and Frank aged one.

It seems that Banister’s influence on Hove covered more than the railway station because Henry Porter, author of The History of Hove (1897), credits him with having designed the lay-out of the Cliftonville area.

Brighton Herald 13 October 1849

Enlargement

In 1893 Hove Commissioners and J. D. Banister were in communication with each other regarding the proposed plans for alterations to Hove Station. It was hoped to enlarge the booking office from 29-ft by 15-ft to 41-ft by 20-ft; there would also be two flights of steps and entrances, plus two doorways leading from the booking office to the platform instead of the single one. The existing verandah roof at the entrance was to be enlarged from 42-ft by 23-ft to 65-ft by 35-ft. The north platform would also be enlarged by doing away with one set of rails, and moving the waiting room and offices to the centre. The north platform would then be 15-ft instead of 11-ft.

As for the new approach to the station, negotiations were still on-going with the landowners involved. Mr J. G. Blaker offered to give up a 15-ft strip of land in front of the station on condition that Hove Commissioners would pay for the construction of a footpath and maintain it, as well as lighting the area and looking after the lamps. The addition of this piece of land meant that the approach road would be 94-ft, of which the railway company proposed to retain 35-ft in its ownership.

A formal agreement concerning the approach road was signed in July 1893 between the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the Hove Commissioners, Mrs Ellen Benett-Stanford on behalf of the Stanford Estate, and Mr John George Blaker. Meanwhile, railway users living north of the station grumbled that no approach road was being made for their convenience.

Historic Film

The year 1897 was a historic occasion in the history of Hove Station because it became the first in the world to be recorded in a short film entitled Passenger Train. The film provided a fascinating glimpse of a train arriving at Hove Station in a cloud of steam, followed by passengers wearing fashionable Victorian clothes dis-embarking and getting on the train. The film was shot by George Albert Smith (1864-1959) one of the brilliant Hove Film pioneers, now rated as of world-wide importance. Smith built his first movie camera in !896, and the following year produced 31 short films, one of which was Passenger Train.

1898

On 1 July 1898 the first Pullman service from the south coast to London was instituted. It seemed that the new service took some time to become popular because on that first occasion, when the train arrived at Hove from Worthing, there were no passengers aboard, but five gentlemen boarded the train at Hove. (How present-day commuters would sigh at the thought of all those lovely empty seats!).

In the Hove Gazette (3 September 1898) there was an amusing letter from a passenger about the hazards of waiting on the platform. ‘It is very pleasant to get milk free of charge providing it is put into a proper utensil. It is very unpleasant when one has to receive it in drops on one’s clothes as was recently my experience at Hove Station. While waiting on the platform for my train some officials were carrying cans of milk across the line and without any warning until too late I was favoured by a shower bath when they hurled the churns down with a bang. I unfortunately had a black coat on, the cleaning of which has cost me three and sixpence.’

The Foot-bridge

It was not until the 1880s that consideration was given to the needs of people who might wish to cross the railway line in safety. At first it seems that a subway was envisaged. But in May 1888 Mr A. Searle, secretary and general manager of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, suggested to the Hove Commissioners that a foot-bridge should be provided instead of a subway. The Hove Commissioners agreed provided that the whole project did not cost more then £1,200 and that the relevant landowners came up with two-thirds of the cost. By July 1888 it had been agreed that landowners and Hove Commissioners should advance the sum of £800 towards the cost of the foot-bridge, and this amount was deposited in the railway company’s account the following month.

F. D. Banister designed the foot-bridge. It seemed that the project was taking longer to complete than Hove Commissioners thought it should, and so the town clerk wrote to Mr Banister in June 1890 to ascertain the reason for the delay in opening the structure to the public. Mr Banister replied that the non-delivery of ironwork was the cause of the delay but he hoped the footbridge would be completed by July 1890.

The newly completed foot-bridge became a magnet for local children, and in October 1894 the delightfully-named Mr Tickle complained to the authorities about children playing there. By 1895 the foot-bridge had become a favourite vantage point from which to watch the arrival and departure of trains. The Hove authorities did not like this, and asked the railway company to board up the sides. While the company were happy to comply with the request, they required £100 to be paid for the work. The Hove authorities replied rather haughtily that they could not see their way to paying the money. Furthermore, they wrote that ‘in their opinion the time has arrived when a properly covered access to Hove Railway Station from the north side should be provided by the company.’

copyright © J.Middleton
There are still interesting views to be enjoyed from the north side of
the foot-bridge – to the east you look down on Hove Park Villas

The company refused, and so Hove sent a deputation to talk to the company’s directors. Finally, on 23 September 1896 an agreement was reached whereby the company would pay half the cost of roofing and closing in the sides to a height of 5-ft, while Hove should stump up for the other half, as well as maintain the foot-bridge in the future. Sir Alan Sarle wrote to ask for confirmation of this agreement in writing. In March 1897 the surveyor, (Mr Banister was no longer working for the company) produced plans for roofing and boarding up the sides.

In October 1895 it was decided to affix notices to the side of the bridge stating ‘Persons are requested not to spit on the Bridge’.

In May 1897 the surveyor reported that there was insufficient lighting on the foot-bridge but he could nor recommend incandescent gas lighting because of the vibrations. Instead, he recommended that ten candle-power tantallum lamps should be installed at a cost of £20 with the annual expenditure expected to be £26-8s.

In 1917 it was decided that the lamps on the foot-bridge should be kept lit all night.

copyright © J.Middleton
Another interesting view to be enjoyed from the north side of the foot-bridge – to the west is the wonderful mosaic lettering still adorning the erstwhile Dubarry Perfumery

In March 1913 Hove Council decreed that new steps should be installed at both ends of the foot-bridge. It seems probable that there had been complaints about the steepness of the flight of steps because the proposal was to replace the rise of 7-in with a rise of 5½. This led to another exchange between the council and the company because Hove wanted the company to do the work for an estimated cost of £190. But the company replied that the estimate was far too low and the most likely cost would be around £322. In August 1913 Hove councillors decided not to proceed – only to change their minds two months later. The company then undertook to construct the new flights for £300. It is interesting to note that because of the slight rise in the gradient to the north, there are more steps on the south side.

The foot-bridge has not kept up with the times. The pressure group Hove Station Neighbourhood Forum thinks that with all the new housing and re-development going on in the area, something needs to be done. For example, in these days when shops and public spaces have to be disabled-access friendly by law, at the foot-bridge there is no help for disabled people, nor for that matter for mothers struggling with buggies, although there is a metal trough to enable bicyclists to wheel their machines up and down in comfort. In 2017 David Kemp, a Forum member, said he had drawn up plans for a replacement foot-bridge over three years ago: another Forum member Mike Gibson stated that the cost of installing lifts would require the expenditure of a minimum of £1 million.

Also in 2017, Councillor Gill Mitchell, transport committee chairwoman, Brighton & Hove Council City Council stated that while the foot-bridge was ‘currently structurally sound (it) was fast approaching the end of its design life’.

But there are no easy answers. The logistics of demolishing the foot-bridge and building a new one over a busy working railway are horrendous, and never mind the cost. Network Rail owns and maintains the foot-bridge while the City Council is responsible for keeping it clean and tidy. Many residents feel more should be done by the latter authority and want Cityclean to monitor it carefully. They say there is a problem with pigeon droppings, and mess from dogs and even urban foxes.

Incidents and Accidents

1843 – According to Henry Porter, on 3 January 1843 the tubes of an engine called Brighton burst while it was standing at Hove Station seriously scalding William Cavan, the engine driver.

1878 – In October 1878 Samuel Cheesman, goods guard, lost a leg while engaged in shunting and coupling trucks.

1879 – On 4 March 1879 William Harris, a 37-year old labourer at Hove Station, was completing the task of unloading coal for a Mr Bayley. Unfortunately he stepped between two trucks to retrieve some fallen coal, which he should not have done because shunting was in progress. Although he was crushed between the trucks, witnesses saw him running away from the scene. His colleagues ran after him and caught him so that he could be taken to hospital. An arm had to be amputated and he died two days later. At the inquest one of the witnesses was Jesse Jones, who had worked at Hove Station for around 30 years. He was employed at the yard as foreman to Messrs Cockerell & Co. Mr Jones stated that shunting took place every day between 12 noon and 2 p.m.

1897 – In May 1879 William Eggs, aged over 40 and a luggage porter at Hove Station, committed suicide by taking oxalic acid. He was discovered on the ground in Brunswick Street West. He had purchased the acid at Skenington’s, 6 Waterloo Street, saying he needed it in order clean copper. At the inquest, despite the facts, an open verdict was returned because the jury refused to bring a verdict of suicide in case the unfortunate William Eggs was refused a proper Christian burial.

1898 – In the summer of 1898 Barnum & Bailey’s Circus - ‘the greatest show on earth’ - arrived at Hove. The circus had 70 of its own specially constructed railway cars (each one being 60-ft in length) which made four separate trains consisting of seventeen coaches each. Two of the coaches had been loaded after the show at Hove and the drivers were given orders to start. Unfortunately, one train was going forward while the other was banking up a siding, and they met with a terrific crash – the engine of one forcing its way onto the rear of the other train. Three of the cars were telescoped and had to be left behind, together with seven show cars, the lamp van, and the band wagon. Men worked all Saturday night and Sunday night repairing the damage.

1898 – In September 1898 Henry Morris of 91 Wordsworth Street had one of his fingers so badly crushed while loading a van with timber that he was obliged to go to hospital to have the top of his finger amputated.

The Third Railway Station

copyright © D.Sharp
The view from the The Drive railway bridge looking west to Hove Station and the former Dubarry Perfumery.

This was constructed in 1905 on a site west of the second railways station, and it is in fact the same railway station that is in use to the present day. F. D. Banister was not involved in the project because he had retired from the company in 1896 and died the following year.

It is sometimes stated that the third railway station dates back to 1893. If that were the case, why were discussions going on between Hove Commissioners and F.D. Banister in 1893 regarding the enlargement of the ticket hall and canopy? Such considerations would be redundant if a new station had been built. Besides, the legal formalities about ownership of the land south of the station were still going on. (See under ‘Enlargement’.)

There is also the case that the opening of a new station in 1893 receives no mention in Henry Porter’s exhaustive list of Hove events at the end of his book. Other events – such as the opening of the Seaside Home for Police in Portland Road on 21 July 1893 – are recorded. It seems logical that such an important structure as a new station happening under his nose, so to speak, would find a place in his chronicles.

Shunting

In October 1909 a petition signed by 67 people was presented to the management complaining about the ‘great annoyance and discomfort arising fr leading toom the continual shunting of Goods Trains at Hove Station at night’.

Apparently, shunting started in the evening and continued all through the night, every weekday night, whereas in 1879 shunting took place between 12 midday and 2 p.m.

The petition must have been ignored because shunting was still taking place in the 1950s until there was a rail strike and an eerie silence fell upon the shunting yard. Near neighbours had grown so used to the noise that it constituted the backdrop to their lives. Indeed, Mrs Sharp told her family that she could not sleep a wink because it was so quiet.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Hove Station in the 1930s with the Dubarry Perfumery in the background.

Personnel

Robert Cressy – The Sussex Daily News (16 September 1937) carried a short report about Mr Cressy, who had been manager of W. H. Smith’s bookstall at Hove Station for 20 years. He died aged 57 after a long illness and was buried in the churchyard of St Helen’s, Hangleton, on 15 September. Little more than a month previously, his wife had committed suicide, her body being found in a field at Falmer – this event had upset him greatly.

John Egan – The 1851 census recorded Dublin-born John Egan living at Hove Station – he was a 41-year old station clerk. He lived with his wife, aged 40, who had been born in Liverpool, and six children – three of whom had been born in Dublin while the three youngest were born at Brighton – perhaps Catherine was his second wife. The children were as follows:

John, aged 19, railway engineer

Emily, aged 17

Edwin, aged 15, railway lamp-maker

Albert, 11

George, 5

Ernest, 2

The Egans were still there in 1861, but Edwin had become an engine-fitter while Albert was an engine cleaner.

C. Staples and F. Evans – In April 1903 Mr Staples, late goods guard at Hove Station, was presented with a handsome gladstone bag when he left to take up a position in the Cape Government Railway. Mr Evans, ticket collector, did the presentation, and Mr Evans himself was leaving shortly for Canada.

William Yeomanson – Margate-born Mr Yeomanson was stationmaster at Hove from 1885. In 1891 he was aged 45, and lived with his wife, two sons, and two daughters. He retired in 1908, having spent 44 years in the service of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. He continued to live in Hove where he died on 21 February 1935 at his home 6 Avondale Road.

The 1990s

In July 1994 Hove Station won the ‘best-kept large station’ category in the Sussex area of Network South Central.

In January 1995 it was reported that Hove had been left off the list of ‘core’ stations – this meant that after the company was privatised in 1996, travellers at Hove would probably not be able to purchase the full range of tickets to any destination in the country as they could at present.

In April 1998 it was stated that Connex South-Central closed the large yellow doors at the front of the station at 9.45 p.m. to prevent vandalism. People who were not regular customers assumed the place was shut up for the night but in fact there was still access via the foot-bridge.

In August 1999 Hove Station was nominated as one of the three finalists in the ‘most passenger-friendly’ category of a competition run by Railtrack in conjunction with Rotary International. The other finalists were Nuneaton and Oxford, out of a total of 2,500 U.K. stations. Tim Flude, Hove Station supervisor, has worked at Hove for nine years and he had no idea they had been nominated, although he did stress that the staff tried to be friendly. Asif Zaidi, who has run the newspaper kiosk for ten years, said they all worked together well, and because the station was relatively small, they could get to know the regulars. Fred Shipton was the senior staff night-worker, and he often brought in his own brushes and paint to do some voluntary decorating.

However, all was not convenient because the toilets remained closed.

Face-lift

In August 2000 the scaffolding that obscured the exterior of Hove Station for two years was at last removed. The building had been given a £1 million face-lift. The steel and glass canopy was re-built and painted, while the platform canopies and station roof were renewed. Attention was also given to the surfacing of the platform and the structural steelwork in the sub-way. There were now also automatic ticket barriers, that had been installed a few months previously.

Sources

Argus

Census Returns

Cliftonville & Hove Mercury (25 October 1878)

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Hove Council Minute Books

Hove Gazette (3 September 1898)

Hove Mercury (7 March 1879)

Porter, H. A History of Hove (1897)

Sussex Daily News (16 September 1937)

page layout by D.Sharp

Ventnor Villas, Hove.

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2021)

Background

Ventnor Villas formed part of what was later known as the Upper Cliftonville development – the Cliftonville Estate being a major enterprise in Victorian Hove – see also separate page under The Cliftonville Estate for more details.

The street was named after Ventnor in the Isle of Wight because the island had caught the public imagination ever since Queen Victoria and Prince Albert built Osborne House there as a rural retreat. Hence also other Isle of Wight place names in Cliftonville – Osborne Villas and Medina Villas.

During the 1850s building work proceeded in much of Cliftonville but Ventnor Villas was a comparatively late starter. It was also the case that Ventnor plots of land were not as valuable as other Cliftonville plots south of Church Road – and they were smaller too. For example, plots in Ventnor Villas were worth around £350, while plots in Medina Villas – the most prestigious street in the development – were worth around £1,000.

Development

copyright © J.Middleton
Most of the houses in Ventnor Villas are stuccoed – Newport Lodge on the right is the exception.

The original few houses on the east side were called Ventnor Terrace and it was not until October 1879 that Hove Commissioners decided to abolish that name and re-name the whole street Ventnor Villas. The surveyor was directed to renumber the east side in order to include these houses.

The 1861 census revealed that numbers 1 to 5 were unoccupied. There were only four households in the street, and they were headed by the deputy superintendent of the Gas Works, a wine merchant, a gentlewoman, and a retired grocer.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums
An advert from the 1925 Brighton Season
There were two popular dancing schools
in Ventnor Villas the other one was at
number 32

By the late 1860s building work in the street had been completed.

In 1868 William Burmester, Philip Patton Blyth, and William Champion Jones, all of Lombard Street, London, owned ten plots in Albany Villas, and four plots in Ventnor Villas. On 20 August 1868 they leased 1 Ventnor Terrace to the Honourable Ann Holland of Barnard’s Green, Great Malvern, for a period of 21 years at an annual rent of £100. On 3 September 1870 the Hon Ann disposed of the lease to Miss Jane Ellen Welham.

In October 1879 the cost of re-paving Ventnor Villas was stated to be £900-3-7d for a granite kerb, plus Purbeck stone and concrete channelling.

Petitions against the Buses

In August 1892 there were protests against the running of omnibuses through Ventnor Villas. One petition was signed by 34 residents who were ‘at a loss to understand why Ventnor Villas should be subject to such an annoyance’. Another petition was signed by twenty people and stated ‘it is scarcely necessary to point out to you that the value of property in Ventnor Villas will greatly depreciate unless this annoyance is stopped’.

The Commissioners listened to the objections and decided to ask the bus company to re-route some buses through George Street. But it seems that the bus company declined to co-operate, and buses continued to trundle down Ventnor Villas to the disgust of the inhabitants.

copyright © J.Middleton
George Gallard was worried about some young
trees not having guards – the trees have
flourished and are tall and straight
– they had a good pruning recently

In 1905 another petition was organised against buses using the road, only this time it was motor buses rather than the horse-drawn variety that provoked strong feelings from the residents. There must have been complaints about the vibration the motor buses caused. The bus company replied that vibration was not the fault of their motor buses and laid the blame on the bad condition of the road surface, which they understood would shortly be replaced by wood blocks. Meanwhile, the bus company received permission to run the eastern route through Norton Road, while the horse bus was relegated to Tisbury Road.

House Notes

Number 3 – George Gallard (1809-1889) lived in this house, having previously lived in Albany Villas in 1861. Gallard was born in Brighton, son of a builder and speculator. He certainly followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming the prime mover behind the development of Cliftonville. While still living in Ventnor Villas, he purchased the site on which Medina Terrace was built, plus the Medina sea wall, and in 1873 he purchased over14 acres from the Stanford Estate. He also built the Exchange pub, the brewery at the top of Osborne Villas, and the local waterworks that supplied Cliftonville. In July 1873 Gallard complained to the Hove Commissioners that a great many trees in Ventnor Villas had not been provided with supports, and he offered to pay the costs of supporting those trees opposite his house.

Number 6 - Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx the daughter of Karl Marx was a tenant in this house in 1873 while working as a teacher at Misses Hall's school in Sussex Square, Brighton.

Number 17 – Author and journalist J. A. T. Lloyd once occupied this house. He wrote fiction and critical biography, including a melodramatic study of Edgar Allen Poe in 1931, and a book on Turgenev published in 1943. He died aged 85 in September 1956.

Numbers 18 &19 – In 1875 Revd Ambrose Spong, the minister of the Cliftonville Congregational Church, and his bride set up home in number 19. The house was the gift of the bride’s father, James Ireland, who, with his brother Sam, owned five houses in Ventnor Villas (numbers 16 to 20).

James Ireland was once Mayor of Brighton, and when he died in 1877, his widow came to live next door to her daughter and son-in-law at number 18. Communication doors between the two properties were made on each floor. There was a billiard room in the basement of number 18, and the minister had his study in the front room of the ground floor. Domestic staff occupied the top floors but they had their own sitting room in the basement of number 19.

The domestic staff consisted of a cook, a nurse, and two maids. Ann Laker was the cook – she was born in 1856 and had not moved far from her birthplace, which was Beach Cottages, built on Hove beach, south of the coast road. Amy Cowdray was the nurse, and she had previously been employed in the house of the Stent family near Warminster. Lottie was the parlour maid.

The daughter of the house, Winifred Spong, married Hugh Scott, son of Hove’s Borough Surveyor, Hugh Hamilton Scott, who had an impressive 42 years of service to Hove, having started off with the Hove Commissioners in the1880s.

Revd and Mrs Spong in around 1890
(From Memoir of the Rev Ambrose D. Spong)

The Scott family attended Cliftonville Congregational Church, and Hugh Scott was captain of the Boys’ Brigade. Hugh Scott and his brother Robert attended Hove High School in Clarendon Villas. Unhappily, both brothers were killed in the First World War, with Winifred being widowed in 1917. But she continued to live in Ventnor Villas until 1960. Revd Ambrose Spong died in 1912, and his widow died in 1915, Eventually, the two properties were separated.

Number 32 – In the 1920s Gladys Toye ran a Dance School in this house.

A famous pupil was Ida Lupino (1914-1995) who lived in Hove for around five years while her father, Stanley Lupino, was in the States, and she attended a school called Clarence House at 4 Norman Road, Hove.

Ida Lupino made several films in Britain before leaving for Hollywood where she became a major star. But she is also remembered today because she became a noted film director at a time when this was a very unusual career move – indeed there had been only one female director before Ida Lupino came on the scene.

Number 39 – Keen sportsman Billy Keen lived in this house for around twenty years. Billy’s grandfather was W. Keen who played cricket for Sussex. It is claimed that from 1885 until 1927 Billy Keen rarely missed a match at the Sussex County Cricket Ground. Billy was also a fine golfer, and was honorary secretary of the Southdown Hunt.

He was a popular figure in the local community. He died at the age of 77 on 2 October 1928 and his funeral service at St Barnabas Church was well attended. There were several eminent people in the congregation including the Marquess of Abergavenny, Lady Eva de Paravicini, Alderman C. Thomas-Stanford, Major Robert Woodhouse, plus three members of the Sassoon family – David Sassoon, Mrs Hyeem, and Lady Boyle. Billy was buried in Hove Cemetery.

Number 45 – in September 1888 it was reported to the authorities that there was no proper water supply to the privy at this house.

In 1905 planning permission was given to convert the house into flats.

copyright © J.Middleton
These two houses started off as being separate
accommodation, but in 1907 planning permissions
was granted to create flats in both of them

Number 46 – From 1885 to 1888 Mrs Atkins ran Windsor College, a school for ladies, in this house.

In November 1907 A. H. Lainson on behalf of B. Marks received planning permission to convert numbers 45 and 46 into flats.

An Artist in Residence

William Howard Robinson (1864-1941) – He was a noted artist who lived in Ventnor Villas for a short while before he died in August 1941. He had previously lived in Montpelier Road, Brighton. Robinson was born in Inverness-shire. He studied at the Slade under Solomon J. Solomon, and became an official painter of royal portraits. Amongst his subjects were the following:

Duke of York

Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor)

Lord Lonsdale

Lady Curzon of Kedleston

In his painting entitled Ice Carnival he depicted no less than 114 well-known people at the Grosvenor House rink, with the Prince of Wales watching from the side. In Robinson’s painting An Evening at the National Sporting Club he set himself the incredible task of depicting even greater numbers – this time it was 329 celebrities watching the fight between Jim Driscoll and Joe Bowker. Not surprisingly, the work took him four years to complete. This celebrated event took place on 28 May 1906, and it sounds like a bruising affair as the two men battled it out for the British Featherweight Championship over fifteen rounds. In the end, Driscoll outpointed Bowker.

Clinftonville Congregational Church

In 1823 some people connected with the Union Street Chapel in Brighton, attempted to form a Sunday School at Hove. They met in an outhouse provided by John Vallance who was a deacon at the Union Street Chapel. Prayer meetings were also held there. But in 1833 the group ran into difficulties when John Vallance died. Eventually twelve people pooled their resources and purchased a piece of land for £380 in the ‘new town of Cliftonville’.

The first building to be erected was for the Sunday School, and this opened in 1861. It was also used as temporary accommodation for worship. The Cliftonville Congregational Church was officially formed on 13 August 1863.

copyright © Robert Jeeves of Step Back in Time
This marvellous photograph was taken on 14 June 1911 and shows the members of Brighton & Hove Women’s Liberal Association all ready for their outing. Note the small ladder the ladies had to clamber up in order get in the wagon. The church hall in the background has been in use since 1861 and remains to this day.

The next building to be erected was the church, which opened in 1870. It cost £2,667, and was the only non-conformist church in the area for a number of years.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An article from the Brighton Herald of 21 November 1907,
the Church's Ventnor Hall was used by a local debating
society and events such as the above were staged.
Dr Spong was an advocate for 'Votes for Women' but
disapproved of the militant methods the
Suffragettes used to achieve their aims

The large grey stones of the fabric was in complete contrast to the red-brick Gothic Holy Trinity, almost opposite, constructed three years earlier.

Architect

The architect of the Cliftonville Congregational Church is usually credited to H. N. Goulty. However, it is interesting to note that when Thomas Lainson, the well-known local architect, wrote his application to join RIBA dated 12 February 1875, he claimed to have constructed Cliftonville Congregational Church.

Whoever was responsible for the building, it seems the workmanship was not of the highest standard. As Revd A. D. Spong once remarked they had inherited a church of ‘very imperfect construction’. Indeed, just seven years after the church was opened, some £100 had to be expended on repairs and improvements.

The church re-opened on 6 November 1878. Even after that work was completed, not all the deficiencies had been met. Revd Spong also stated that every year between £30 or £40 needed to be spent on maintenance, but he hoped that the situation would improve.

Furnishings

The Old Pulpit.
(From Memoir of Rev Ambrose D. Spong)

The church was embellished with a rather grand and large pulpit, and there was a sounding board above to assist the congregation in hearing all the words of the sermon.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
The sad announcement in the Brighton Herald 26 May 1917
of the deaths in action of two of Mr H.H. Scott's sons

In addition the pulpit was decked out in red velvet and brass ornaments. The next pulpit was designed by Robert Scott, son of Hugh Hamilton Scott, Hove’s Borough Surveyor. Tragically, Robert Scott was killed in action in 1917 during the First World War.

In the early days musical accompaniment was provided by a harmonium placed next to the communion table. Then in 1874 a gallery was installed to hold an organ.

There is a stained-glass window behind the pulpit to commemorate the first minister at the church, Revd James Hill (1863-1866).

Congregation

The congregation numbers continued to flourish. In 1878 the Sunday School catered for 315 children and there were nineteen teachers; there were 150 members of the Band of Hope, a temperance organisation; Bible classes could boast of 40 young women and 36 men – naturally the sessions were held separately.

For older members there was a mothers’ meeting, and a literature circulation society. Sunday services were well attended.

Youth Organisations

In 1899 the 10^th Brighton (Hove) Company of the Boys’ Brigade was formed. In 1999 it celebrated its 100^th anniversary with an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia in Ventnor Hall.

In February 1907 the 1^st Hove Company Girls’ Brigade was formed at the Rutland Hall. In February 1987 the Girls’ Brigade celebrated its 80^th birthday, and Lady Coggan came to give a talk in the church. She was the national president of the Girls’ Brigade and the wife of the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

Extensions

More improvements were carried out in 1881 when some classrooms and the frontage to the Lecture Hall were erected at a cost of £900.

In 1928 new heating and lighting were installed and there were extensive alterations. The small hall was given a separate entrance from Ventnor Villas, and a badminton court was marked out.

In 1935 it was stated that the church could seat 500 people, the large hall could accommodate 300, while the small hall could host 80 people.

In 1953 more repairs were carried out. New floors were laid in both halls, while the organ was given a complete overhaul.

Revd Ambrose Spong (1843-1912)

A separate mention must be made of the above gentleman who was a towering figure in his time. He was also the minister of Cliftonville Congregational Church from 1872 to 1908. He was born into the church, so to speak, because his father was also a minister.

Revd Ambrose Spong was tireless in public work as well as in his ministry. When the Hove School Board was formed in 1876 he became a member, and later on became chairman of the Higher Education Committee. He always took a great interest in education, and his father-in-law, Alderman Ireland, was one of the founders of Brighton Grammar School. When Ireland died, the Spongs provided an annual scholarship to this establishment, which was known as ‘the Ireland’ in his memory.

For some years Revd Spong conducted Scripture examinations in the local schools together with Church of England clergymen. Revd Spong was chairman of the Hove Free Church Council, and was the recognised representative of the Free Churches at all local functions.

He was a great advocate of the temperance movement, and appeared regularly at the Licensing Bench to oppose the granting of new licences.

Revd Spong was one of the originators of the Hove Club, and was largely instrumental in establishing the annual Hove Flower Show and Industrial Exhibition, which started off in the church hall but became so popular that Hove Town Hall had to be hired for the occasion.

The manner of Revd Spong’s death was entirely in keeping with his lifestyle. Although retired, he preached at the Wesleyan Church in Portland Road on Christmas Day 1912, taking as his text the very same one he had used when he preached his first sermon at the age of sixteen at Shoreditch Workhouse – it was ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’. After the service he hurried to Hove Hospital where he shared dinner with the patients. Then duty done, he returned home to Christmas dinner with his family around him. Not long afterwards, he suffered a heart attack and died the same evening.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
A photograph from the Brighton Herald of 27 February 1915
The Communion Table, Table Rails and Oak Chairs were given
in memory of the Revd Ambrose Spong and Mrs Caroline Spong

His funeral took place on 30 December 1912, and there was a massive attendance. As the Brighton Herald put it ‘Rarely have the people of Hove been moved to such a touching expression of their grief as they were on this occasion – the interment of one who had lived and worked among them for 40 years, carrying the spirit of goodwill and loving service wherever he went.’

He was buried in Hove Cemetery, north of the chapels, and so was his wife Caroline (1846-1915). The memorial takes the shape of a Celtic cross.

Recent Times

During the Second World War Ventnor Hall was utilised as a Services’ Canteen.

In the 1970s the Congregational and Presbyterian churches merged, and the United Reformed Church was founded on 5 October 1972.

At Hove there were further talks of a merger when it was decided that St Cuthbert’s Church (Presbyterian) and Cliftonville Congregational Church ought to use one building for worship rather than maintain the expense of two buildings. Thus a ballot was held to decide the matter. Cliftonville was chosen by 91 votes to 51, and St Cuthbert’s was demolished. One of the reasons for retaining Cliftonville was because of its central position, as well as its strong involvement in youth work.

The money derived from the sale of the St Cuthbert’s site was intended to be sufficient to pay for all the necessary improvements to Cliftonville. Perhaps this was just a forlorn hope because in actual fact the final bill came to something like three times as much.

Since Cliftonville had a lofty ceiling, and absolutely no spare land, it was decided to install an extra floor. The first floor became the church, while the ground floor was converted into a hall, committee rooms, conveniences etc. In the church part, the windows were at floor level, and so a preventive guard was placed inside in order to prevent the possibility of an accident. There were comfortable, moveable chairs, a microphone for the pastor, a loop system for the deaf, and a carpeted sanctuary area with enough space for an electronic organ and choir. A novel innovation was the installation of a hydraulic lift that meant elderly people who could not manage steps could ascend with ease, and it was also the case that coffins could be raised to church level with dignity. The old pews were sold off. These alterations took place in 1986. Cliftonville still retained the original hall next door because of the youth organisations and Sunday School, and there were around 200 children in organisations connected to the church.

Revd Brian Stone grew up in Portslade and was pastor at the United Reformed Church for fourteen years. When he left in 1994 there was an interregnum lasting three years.

Pastors

1883-1866 - Revd J. Hill

1866-1871 - Revd S. England

1872-1908 - Revd A. D. Spong

1908-1911 - Revd W. E. Cooke

1912-1920 - Revd H. Ross Williamson

1920-1921 - Revd. A Cowe

1922-1927 - Revd H. F. Lovell Cocks

1928-1945 - Revd Stanley I. Blomfield

1946-1951 - Revd Wilson Bridge

1953-1967 - Revd T. H. Mather

1968-1979 - Revd Richard Harold Jolly

1980-1994 - Revd Brian Sadler Stone

1997 - Revd Peter J. D. Elliott
2012 ? - Revd Alex Mabbs
2015 - Revd Sue Chapman

Sources

Argus
Brighton Herald

Census Returns

Central United Reformed Church Magazines (March 1981 / April 1981)

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Hove Council Minute Books
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Scott, Tony A Century at 19 Ventnor Villas (1975) extract from a church magazine

Sussex Herald

Williamson, H. Ross Memoir of the Rev Ambrose D. Spong (1913)

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