Hove in the Past: Hove - descriptions of

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2022)

"View of Hove" by George Hilditch, a view of Hove's single street and St Andrew's Old Church. In the distance are the hills of Portslade and Lancing. c.1850.

Bishop Warburton c, 1700 (quoted in Horsfield)

‘A ruinous village, which the sea is daily eating up; it is in a fair way to being quite deserted.’

Budgen’s Survey of Sussex (1724)

‘It appears by an inscription at Hove Parsonage that in the year 1699 the sea had gained on that coast six perches.’

'Hoove' on a section of the detailed map of Sussex by John Norden (c1610), a copy of an earlier John Speed map.

Magna Britannia (1738)

‘This place was a considerable village long after Norman times, but it is now almost entirely swallowed up by the sea.’

Gentleman’s Magazine (February 1792)

‘This place was as large and considerable a village as the county could boast, but is reduced by the encroachment of the sea at different times to about a dozen dwellings … Hoove, by some spelled Hove or Hova, lies on the road between Brighthelmstone and New Shoreham.’

Gentleman’s Magazine (November 1814)

‘Crossing the fields by a trodden path … we arrived at Hoove, a small village (which) consisted of but one street having several respectable houses in it, and the ruins of a very ancient and once extensive church.’

Sicklemore’s Epitome of Brighton (1815)

‘Present appearances indicate, that at no very distant period, Hove will extend an arm of brick and mortar, to meet the advancing one from Brighton, until the two places may figuratively speaking be represented as shaking hands.’

A Brick Kiln, Hove by Richard Henry Nibbs, March 1836. This sketch shows a ruined building without a roof .

Beyond is the shell of the collapsed Anthaeum which fell in 1833. The Athaeum's dome was said to be 8000 feet in circumference, larger than the dome of St Peter's in Rome.

T. W. Horsfield Sussex (1835)

‘A mean and insignificant assemblage of huts.’

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
'Hove from the top of Holland Road' by James Bennett c1849.
St Andrew's can be seen here in a rural setting dominating the north side of the very small one street village of Hove.

Brighton Gazette (4 May 1878)

‘Old-fashioned steady going Hove has been well nigh obliterated by perky be-stuccoed Cliftonville. But this Brighton suburb is now nearly as important as Brighton itself.’

Harrison Ainsworth Old Court (1880)

‘Past Brunswick Terrace … past the ranges of houses and villas, which distaining the homely designation of Hove, have adopted the fine-sounding name of Cliftonville. Quitting this rapidly increasing suburb, which looks like St John’s Wood transported to the seaside ...’

Oil Painting by the Circle of William Parrott, view of Brunswick Square, Hove, from the sea.

Revd Thomas Peacey (1881) – He was speaking about the difficulty of trying to raise funds locally in order to build St Barnabas Church in Sackville Road.

‘A large proportion of the people who came there (to Hove) came only for pleasure. If they came after having borne the heat of the day in other places, having served in the colonies, or being engaged in mercantile pursuits, they came principally for peace and quiet … they were not disposed to take upon themselves any great burden.’

J. W. Howlett (1881)

‘He supposed there was no town of 20,000 inhabitants which had so few roots and branches arising out of the past. It was a curious thing he had lived in the town nearly 25 years, but it was a fact that at the end of that time he really had no more personal friends and intimates than he had 20 years ago.’ He surmised that it was because of the constant shifting of the population.

Brighton Gazette (8 January 1885)

‘Hove ought to be a happy place. It knows not the contention of councillors, but has its local government admirably controlled. It knows not the conflicting jealousies of tradesmen, as in Brighton, but is happily amalgamated in its aristocratic and commercial interests. In its attraction to visitors and amusements for townspeople Hove is always to the fore.’

Copyright © J.Middleton
Church Road in 1908, an example of a 'happy amalgamation of aristocratic and commercial interests'

Brighton Gazette (5 September 1885) – This piece was written after the reporter had listened to the band of the 5^th Lancers playing on the Brunswick Lawns.

‘There is no more complete pleasure than to sit under the modest rays of the Autumn sun, with the gentle refreshing breeze from the sea blowing upon the cheek, and watch the tall-masted ships moving proudly in the distance, or the pleasure boats with their happy occupants tossing gaily over the waves – to see youngsters dabbling in the water and laughing away in the highest glee at their innocent fun,, what (more) can render such sweet completeness to a scene than the pleasant strains of a good band along the breeze.’

George Augustus Sala (1828-1895) – He was a famous Victorian writer who later lived at 59 Norton Road.

‘I am very fond of Hove-by-the-Sea; its fine pure air and golden sunshine, the lovely Brunswick lawns, its lengthy promenade with the gaily dressed crowds, and the sweet strains of music, all combine to lend an indescribable charm of life and movement and witchery to the scene.’

Henry C. Porter History of Hove (1897)

‘Hove does possess some interest to have a history of its own … the town is quite as worthy of consideration as its overbearing, overcrowded and overgrown rival – Brighton.’

E. V. Lucas Highways and Byways of Sussex (1904)

‘Hove, which used to be a disreputable little smuggling village, sufficiently far from Brighton for risks to be run for safety, is now the well-ordered home of wealthy rectitude … Hove is perhaps the genteelest town in the world.’

R. N. Wilson Hove-by-the-Sea (1905) – The following is an extract from a long poem:

‘Hove! Thou loveliest neighbour of the wave

Whose shingle shore the rolling surges lave -

Where roseate HEALTH amid the breezes plays

Whose gentle breathings cool the fervid rays

Of scorching summer – pleasing gay retreat

Beauty and Fashion’s ever favourite seat.’

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
'Mixed Bathing and Swimming Taught' advertised in this Edwardian photograph of Hove Beach

Walter Cecil Macfarren Memories; an autobiography (1905)

My summer holidays this year was passed for the first time at Brighton, or, to speak more correctly at Aldrington, the extreme western part was then called West Brighton, but which denomination is now regarded as offensive by the 'Hoveites'; and there with companionship of my sister, many pupils, and friends, I had a good time at Westbourne Villas, where the house was situated, was then the extreme end of the habitable west of this locality, and at that time we could see Portslade from the windows at the back of the house. Such is the rage, however, for west-end accommodation that nearly the whole of what was then waste land is now covered by bricks and mortar.
(Walter Cecil Macfarren (28 August 1826 – 20 September 1905) was an English pianist, composer and conductor, and a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music)

Hove Year Book (1907)

‘Take away the Town Hall in Church Road, and there is not a single building worthy of note – always excepting the churches … For a town of its size Hove is remarkably free from those narrow, ill-tended courts and alleys commonly known as slums. There are such, it is true; no town is entirely without them, but they are few in number. Perhaps the newness of Hove is the cause of this very desirable condition of things; it may be that slums have not had time to make an appearance; it may be, and we are inclined to believe (this), that the authorities of this modern town are so zealous of its reputation, that a slum neighbourhood has no chance of developing. As its general appearance indicates, Hove is essentially a town for the residence of the wealthy.’

Lady Cynthia Asquith Diary 30 July 1916

I am beginning to be quite patriotic about this end of town – Kemp Town as it is called – in opposition to the parvenu Hove, which has less character and is to this rather what the Lido is to Venice. (Quoted in Brighton Diaries P. K. Lyons 2011)

copyright © J.Middleton
This marvellous old postcard gives you some idea of the appearance of Waterhouse’s Hove Town Hall
although in reality the bricks were a deeper shade of red.

Jeffrey Farnol Hove (1936)

‘Hove began to stir at last, to stretch and, fully waking, found herself almost beautiful and growing ever more so. For today where Brighton staggers, jovially genteel Hove shows graciously demure, of a spacious, somewhat conscious stateliness with her noble squares and broad sunny avenues … A truly domestic place is Hove, where the weary paterfamilias, home returning from busy London … breathes deep of a sweet and vital air and, scarce knowing why, is glad.’

Sussex Daily News (12 September 1936)

A rebuffal for the, 'has little history' statement :-
Hove Barrow's Bronze Age Amber Cup ,
a national treasure and an artefact unrivalled by any
ancient discovery in Brighton.

According to a report, Hove was the wealthiest non-county borough in the kingdom.

Brighton and Hove Searchlight (1958)

‘Of course Hove can never expect to attract as much attention as Brighton. It has little history, and what it has is mainly dull … it still preserves its air of Victorian respectability … It is a town in which little happens, so there is little traffic in the wide straight … avenues and the car parking problem, judged by Brighton standards, is practically non-existent.’

Antony Dale Fashionable Brighton 1820-1860 (1947) Antony Dale (1912-1993) spent 30 years working in the Historic Buildings Section of the Department of the Environment, and from 1969 to 1976 he was Chief Investigator of Historic Buildings for England and Wales. He was a leading light in the battle to save Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace from demolition, as well as helping to save Hangleton Manor and Stanmer House. But he was no fan of Victorian architecture.

‘Just at that period when so much of England was stifled under the heavy veneer of respectability affected by the Victorians the development of Hove began. The full force of the smothering activity of the age both in architectural and cultural sphere was absorbed by (Brighton’s) neighbouring town, unfortunately for itself, conceived, born and bred in an atmosphere of depressing suburban respectability.’

Cover of 1952-1953

Brighton and Hove guide book.

Buster Lloyd-Jones Come into my World (1972) – At the age of four he knew he wanted to work with animals and he decided to be a vegetarian. He later became a celebrated vet and possessed an almost mystical understanding of what ailed an animal. He had many famous customers, including Sir Winston Churchill, whom he tried to persuade not to give chocolate to his dog Rufus. Llyod-Jones was living at Hove when he published his book The Animals Came in One by One, which became the best-selling book of Christmas 1966.

‘I know of no finer place in which to live than Brighton and Hove. Although they are two completely separate towns, they both tend to get lumped together as Brighton, much to the chagrin of Hove Council who are always fighting stubbornly to retain the town’s identity. Brighton is gay and lively, fascinating architecturally, and with an ambience all of its own. Hove is the quieter sister and between them the towns boast more celebrities as residents than any other place I can think of. This, of course, is a large part of Brighton’s charm. And one of the main reasons for its popularity is its proximity to London. They tell me the late night train from Victoria has a passenger list, which reads like a Who’s who in the Theatre.’

Paul Theroux The Kingdom by the Sea (1983)

‘As I strolled, I could see Hove was low spirits and lawns and the monotonous frenzy of Brighton gave way to clean old houses and rather spent pensioners.’

There follows a couple of pages about the beach chalets (pronounced shalleys).

Evening Argus (25 June 1992)

‘The closure of the magistrates’ courts is just one more indication that Hove is slowly losing its identity as a separate borough. Already the status of the new general hospital has been downgraded despite promises to the contrary and now the courts are to go. No wonder the council wonders whether it will be next for the chop and with good reason.’

Frank Muir A Kentish Lad (1997)

In the 1940s Frank Muir sent his future wife a photograph of the two of them on the sea-front with the caption (fashioned on Rogers & Hammerstein)

‘Don’t laugh at my jokes too much

People will say we’re in Hove.’

Evening Argus 8 October 1998

Adam Trimingham wrote:

‘Brighton has always been a sparkling and exciting place, difficult and a bit dangerous. Hove has been smug, complacent and mean. The merger (Brighton & Hove) was intended to make one vibrant city and it’s starting to work.’

copyright © Brighton & Hove City Council
Left:- former Hove Council's Coat of Arms from 1899
right:- Brighton & Hove City Council's Coat of Arms from 1997

13 January 2020

Hove - descriptions of