Hove in the Past: Hove Park Villas

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2021)

The road was built on land once belonging to the Stanford Estate. In January 1890 it was stated that there were now 30 new houses in Newtown Road and Hove Park Villas, and twelve more were in the course of construction. It is interesting to note the original name for Hove Park Villas was West Brighton Road. Evidently, this was not a popular choice because Charles Nye appealed to the Hove Commissioners to change the name to Hove Park Villas – this was granted on 6 February 1890.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
1909 map showing Hove Park Villas to the north of Hove Railway Station

It was fortunate that H. H. Scott, Town Surveyor, was vigilant in checking the progress of house-building to ensure builders adhered to the rules. For example, in June 1891 Scott reported that a pair of semi-detached villas on the west side were built contrary to bye-laws, and although a notice was despatched, it was not complied with. The Commissioners ordered legal proceedings to be started. Then in December 1891 it was reported that a workshop was being constructed on the west side of the road by Mr S. C. Smale but the cross-walls of the building were being ‘constructed of a less thickness than that required by bye-laws’.

In July 1890 it was decided that two hydrants should be placed in Hove Park Villas.

In October 1894 Hove Park Villas was declared a public highway.

In May 1897 estate agents Young, Henderson & Sadler advertised furnished houses in Hove Park Villas available at a cost of two guineas a week.

The Hove Gazette (13 August 1898) carried a glowing report about the ‘handsome shop properties recently erected in Hove Park Villas’. The district, which was popularly known as Hove Park Estate ‘has of late years grown with Chicago-like rapidity’. It seems that the shop development was a speculative venture on behalf of J. J. Clark, a well-known local farmer and proprietor of Clark’s Bread Company. Francis Smith’s stores at numbers 7, 9, 11, and 13 had recently opened. The shop at number 7 sold brooms, mats, china and glass, the shop at number 9 dispensed cigars, tobacco, wines, spirits, and beers would be added if a licence could be obtained. At number 11 high-class provisions could be purchased plus poultry sourced from the best-known Sussex farms. Number 13 on the corner of Wilbury Avenue sold patent medicines as well as high-class groceries. The floor of this establishment were covered with tile-patterned linoleum, and all the showcases, fittings and counters were of polished mahogany relieved with light panels made by Parnell & Sons, the old Bristol firm. The confectionery and provisions departments were decorated with handsome glazed tiles. The reporter was most impressed by a sliding seat panel behind the counter, which could be drawn out ‘occasionally to enable the assistants to sit down for a moment’s rest’. Finally, the article concluded with a delightful sentence - ‘pretty and effective electric light fittings are suspended in all directions’.

It is interesting to note the following businesses from the Directory of 1915:

2 - Standard Tablet & Pill Co. Ltd., manufacturing chemist

2 - Goldstone Chemical Works, manufacturing chemist

2A - South of England Dairies Ltd.

1 - Ellman Brown, auctioneer

1A - Ernest Ayling, confectioner

3 - Alfred Ernest Clark, butcher

5 - John Hill, fishmonger

7 - Day & Hill, fruiterer

9 - Francis Smith, wine & spirit merchants

11&13 - Warren & Sons, grocers

13a - National Telephone Co. Ltd. (call office)

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An advert for the Brighton Branch of The National Telephone Co. Ltd.

In the 1940s and 1950s the hardware shop used to sell paraffin to people who heated their rooms with portable metal stoves; these stoves had a decorative pattern on the top that cast fascinating patterns on the ceiling of a darkened room. The tiny shop near the steps sold interesting items such as unusual second-hand pieces of jewellery, while the sweetshop was where local children had their first experience of being able to buy sweets freely when sweets came off ration.

In 2020 the shops are still in use.

Dubarry House

copyright © J.Middleton
The handsome building shown here was once part of Dubarry’s Perfumery, and their name can still be seen in the iconic lettering at the top

Sound Diffusion was located in this building next to Hove Railway Station in the 1980s. Paul Stoner founded Sound Diffusion in around 1945. By 1982 shares in the company were one of the best to be found, and in 1984 reached a peak of 163p. Sound Diffusion leased fire alarms, radio systems, and kitchen equipment to hospitals, nursing homes, and hotels. Stoner had 11 million shares in the company. But in December 1987, after a bitter boardroom battle, Stoner was ousted as chairman. In December 1988 shares were suspended at 22p, said to be worthless, and in the same month the firm went into receivership. On 8 December 1988 the 350 workers at Dubarry House were made redundant without any warning. One hundred of them had only moved to the premises when the offices in Davigdor Road were sold.

(Please see separate page for Dubarry Perfumery).

House Notes and Famous Residents

Number 2

George Edward Gouraud

('Men of the Day. No. 421.')

by Carlo Pellegrini
chromolithograph, published
in Vanity Fair 13 April 1889

Ref, - NPG - D44433

Colonel George Edward Gouraud, who had French antecedents but was born at Niagara Falls in around 1842. Colonel Gouraud served in the American Civil War and was a recipient of the Medal of Honour.

He was described as ‘handsome, clever and genial … and splendidly built’ being 6 ft 1 in tall. Gouraud was associated with Thomas Edison, becoming his benefactor, promoter and publicist, and Gouraud came over to England as the London representative of the firm promoting Edison’s telegraph inventions. Gouraud gave a demonstration to the General Post Office.

Colonel Gouraud gave financial backing to Horace Short to establish Menlo Laboratories at 2 Hove Park Villas, and it seems he envisaged a factory turning out clever inventions. There were three Short brothers - Horace (1872-1917) Eustace (1875-1832) and Oswald (1883-1969) and today the brilliant brothers are celebrated as pioneering aeronautical engineers.

At first the three Short brothers lived above the workshops, although Horace must have found it too much because he later moved out to rooms of his own nearby.

While at Hove, Eustace worked on his project for a high altitude balloon and in 1904 he and Oswald gave a joint lecture on the subject to the Royal Aeronautical Society. It was stated that this balloon could attain an altitude of 15 miles, and from this splendid vantage point, scientific observations could be made. In fact, during the First World War both sides used hot-air balloons for observation purposes.

Horace’s inventions at Hove in collaboration with Gouraud, resulted in four patents. The Short brothers’ residence at Hove lasted from 1900 to 1903, but then Gouraud abruptly shut down Menlo Laboratories in 1903. He was involved in a dispute about 2 Hove Park Villas, that resulted in a case Smail v Gourard in Brighton County Court in 1900 and perhaps this was the reason. Gourard had a reputation for disagreements with tradesmen, and he would sometimes refuse payment if he were not satisfied with their work.

By 1906 the Short brothers were to be found hard at work at Battersea, in fact arches 75 and 81 of the railway arches, where a commemorative blue plaque to them was unveiled in 2013.

The Short Brothers became the first manufacturers of aircraft, and it is still a name to be conjured with to this day while Menlo Laboratories are well known in the United States.

See Aldrington Recreation Park (Wish Park) page, the location of the Short Brother's Hot Air Balloon Flight

Number 3A – This building now accommodates the Blatchington Court Trust – a registered charity that emphasises its independence and its financial security. It was established in 1995 with the aim of helping young people below 30 years of age who are blind or partially-sighted in all sorts of ways. The trust even has its own Facebook page.

Number 7

George Garnett (1845-1924) was a veterinary surgeon serving with the rank of Captain in the Cape Mounted Rifles in Natal during the Zulu War (1879) and the Basuto War (1880-1881). He was awarded a medal and clasp.

Number 14 – Charles Inwood (1851-1928) – He was a famous Victorian missionary and was born the eldest of eight children, the parents and forbears being of devout Wesleyan Methodist stock; he and his three brothers all entered the Methodist ministry. Charles Inwood pursued the most amazing itinerary, and during the course of 25 years travelled world-wide on his preaching missions. He started off with Ireland, visited countries in Europe such as Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia, and further afield to USA, Canada, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, Egypt and Palestine. Inwood married Jane Lumley and they had two sons and two daughters. He lived at Hove Park Villas in later life and died on 12 October 1928.

Charles Hawkins Inwood, the younger son, was educated at the Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School. When the Great War broke out in 1914, he was not even in Europe, but living in the USA; nevertheless he felt that honour obliged him to return to the old country and volunteer his services. He joined the Royal Fusiliers (Public School Battalion), thence to the Royal Sussex Regiment, and finally served with the Machine Gun Corps – by this time he was a 2^nd Lieutenant. He took part of the fierce fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres where he was killed on 16 August 1917. He was informed that his servant, Private Hartle, was lying injured nearby. Of course, he could have remained sheltering in his shell hole, but in the best tradition of an officer looking after the welfare of his men, he climbed out to go and see Hartle when he was hit in the head by a fragment of shell.

According to the 1938 Directory Mrs Jane Emma Inwood still lived at this address.

Number 17 - In 1905 this house was occupied by Surgeon Colonel Ranald W. E. Huntly Nicholson of the Royal Army Medical Corp who served at the Relief of Chitral on India’s North-West Frontier in 1895, the Egyptian expedition to Sudan 1896 and the South Africa War of 1899-1901, notably at the Relief of Kimberley.

Bill Pertwee (1926-2013) - The actor lived in this house from 1962 to 1967. While he was there he was broadcasting twice a week with Kenneth Horne in the popular radio programme Beyond our Ken. Later on, Bill Pertwee became nationally famous as the wonderfully grumpy ARP Warden Hodges in Dad’s Army. Bill Pertwee died at the age of 86; he was a cousin of actor Jon Pertwee, and playwright Michael Pertwee.

copyright © J.Middleton
A. S. Williams, a famous astronomer, lived in number 20, and somehow the house looks like an appropriate residence for a star-gazer

Number 20 – Arthur Stanley Williams (1861-1938) – This house was called Bella Vista, and Williams lived here from around 1900 to 1915. It was not far from his birthplace, which was Brighton. Williams was a solicitor by profession but he had two absorbing hobbies – sailing and astronomy. For the former he won the Challenge Cup in 1920, and for the latter he became such a famous amateur astronomer – the Patrick Moore of his day – that a crater on the Moon and another one on Mars were named after him. In 1884 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Williams made his observations using a 6.5-in reflector on an equatorial mount. He published two important papers:

On the Drift of Surface Material of Jupiter in Different Latitudes (1896)

Periodic Variations in the Colours of the two Equatorial Belts of Jupiter (1899)

He also observed Saturn and the variable stars.

Number 21

Public Domain
George Washington Moon (1823-1909)
frontispiece of the 1904 Bishop's English

George Washington Moon (1823-1909) author, poet and critic, lived at Number 21 in 1902. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
G. W. Moon was a prolific writer on the grammar of the English Language, publishing for over 40 years on this subject. He was a contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography. G.W. Moon was also a Christian author and a poet of note, amongst his many poems is the epic Elijah the Prophet (1866)

A small selection of G. W. Moon’s published works:-

The Dean's English (1865)

The Bad English Exposed (1868)

The monograph Gospel: Being the Four Gospels Arranged in One Continuous Narrative in the Words of Scripture (1878)
The King's English (1881)

The Revisers' English (1882)

Ecclesiastical English (1886)
Men and Women of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries (1891)

The Bishop's English (1904)

George Washington Moon possessed a fine art collection, including Titian’s Head of a Senator, he loaned his collection to Brighton’s Public Art Gallery for the 1902 season.

The 1915 resident of the house was Colonel Charles Hunter who was born in Dapoli, India and served with the Royal Bengal Artillery. He saw action at the Siege of Delhi and at the Battle of Budli-ki-Seral where he was wounded and his horse shot from under him. He served under Lord Clyde at the Relief of Lucknow. Colonel Hunter was mentioned three times in despatches and awarded a medal with three clasps. Colonel Hunter had two servants, Annie Harding from Essex and 14 year old Kate Webber from Portslade.

Number 27

Thomas Addison Hauxhall served as Deputy Conservator of Forests with the Imperial Forest Service of Burma until he retired to Hove in 1915.

Hauxhall was the grandson of Dr Thomas Addison the world renowned physician and scientist of Guy’s Hospital who first identified Addison’s disease and Addisonian anemia.

Dr Addison founded the Department of Dermatology at Guy’s . Dr Thomas Addison died in 1860 shortly after he retired to 15 Wellington Villas, Brighton.

Number 28 - Miss Wride ran her Hove Park School for boys and girls at this address in 1889 (N.B. there is no historical connection with the modern day Hove Park School in Nevill Road, Hove).

From 1905 Colonel H. C. Morse I.S.O. (Imperial Service Order) lived at number 28. He served with the 8^th Bombay Native Infantry and the Southern Afghanistan Field Force in the Afghan War of 1879-80 and was wounded at the Khojak Pass.

Number 34 - Colonel George Manners Onslow served in both the Madras and Bengal Armies from 1859-60. From 1862-1884 he served in the 20^th Hassars. On retirement from active service he was appointed Inspector of Army Gymnasia from 1885-90. Colonel Onslow was a member of the British Olympic Association and helped to organise the 1908 London Olympics. The Onslow Family were well known and popular on Hove’s amateur dramatic circuit and put on numerous shows at venues around Hove including Hove Town Hall to raise money for local and national charities. Colonel Onslow – stage manager, Mrs Louise Onslow – actor/singer and their daughter Ethel – actor/author/singer and director. Their daughter Ethel was described by the Brighton Herald as a highly talented young lady.

Number 40 - George Lumgair F.R.C.I. retired to Hove after spending 40 years in Mauritius as the Collector of Customs and Registrar of Shipping.

Number 42 - Captain William Trannack Clifford Acting Lieutenant Commander Royal Navy Reserves, was a Thames barge owner. He lived at this address in 1905 along with his wife, two children and four servants. Captain Clifford served on the committee of the Sussex County Sports Club which adjoined the Sussex County Cricket Ground.

Number 43 - If anybody has admired the amazing Hove Plinth situated in a prominent position on the sea-front at the foot of Grand Avenue, it is instructive to know that the organisation behind this project is based at this address. At the present time funds are being sought to pay for the next sculpture that will adorn the Hove Plinth; the work is entitled Flight of the Langoustines by Pierre Diamantopoulo.

Number 47 -

Number 49 – Dr Alfred William Abday – He was organist at St Andrew’s Church, Waterloo Street, Hove, for 20 years until 1946. He studied Braille so that he could teach blind students and he could also read Braille music. He died in 1952.

Number 55 – Thomas Girling (1858-1949) – He was born at King’s Lynn, but he moved to Sussex as a young man where he cashed in on the cycling craze. As a youth he had learned how to ride a ‘Boneshaker’ and later on a ‘Penny-Farthing’. By the time he was a grown man he had become a veteran cyclist with an impressive personal best of a cycle ride of 156 miles in twelve hours on a machine with solid tyres. He wrote a sixpenny booklet entitled The Cycle, Cycling, and the Cycle Trade. Not surprisingly, all this experience came at a cost in terms of numerous cuts, bruises, and a broken arm on one occasion. For example, the ‘Penny Farthing’ was such an awkward machine to ride and trying to dismount was even worse; in fact Girling found the easiest way was to launch himself at the nearest lamp-post and hope for the best.

Girling opened a cycle shop in Brighton, and he claimed to have sold 1,400 machines in one year, but then he was willing to work a 15-hour stint. He built up his business until he had three shops, at 156 Western Road, Brighton, Queen’s Road Brighton and Lower Road, Shoreham.

In 1885 his first wife died tragically giving birth to a baby boy. The following year Girling married his second wife, Elizabeth, and the couple produced an astonishing sixteen children – the youngest one still being alive in 2000. Girling claimed that Elizabeth was the first young woman to ride a cycle in southern England. But it was not all roses because he lost his savings in a bad investment, and was obliged to carry on with his working life, and business was also patchy during the First World War. Girling lived at 55 Hove Park Villas from 1899 until 1902, when he moved to 25 Carlton Terrace Portslade and lived there until 1916. The 1911 census records Thomas Girling, his wife Elizabeth and ten of his children plus one servant living in Carlton Terrace.

Hove Planning Approvals

1889 – Charles Nye for S. C. Smale, pair of semi-detached villas on the west side

1890 – S. C. Smale, pair of semi-detached villas,

1890 – S. C. Smale, two detached villas, west side

1890 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, pair of semi-detached villas, west side

1890 – Charles Nye for S. C. Smale, two detached villas, west side

1890 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, stables and conservatory at rear number 1, west side

1891 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, two semi-detached villas (numbers 6 & 8)

1891 – C. Nye for G. Kerridge, two pairs of semi-detached villas, east side

1891 – C. Nye for Mr Lewer, two detached villas, east side

1891 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, stables at rear of number 34

1891 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, dwelling house, workshop and stables, west side

1891 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, one detached villa (number 10)

1891 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, three detached villas, two pairs of semi-detached villas, east side

1892 – A. E. Lewer, three detached villas, east side

1892 – C. Nye for S. C. Smale, detached villa, east side

1892 – C. Nye for A. E. Lewer, stable and coach-house, east side

1892 – A. E Lewer, detached villa

1892 – A. E. Lewer, building at rear of number 23 for Revd Adams

1893 – G. M. Nye for A. E. Lewer, three detached villas, east side

1893 – A. E. Lewer, detached villa with stable (number 23)

1893 – S. C. Smale for Mr Stevens, stable at rear of number 51

1893 – T. H. Scutt for Mr Haycroft, one house, number 41

1895 – S. C. Smale, detached villa, number 53

1896 – T. H. Scutt for J. J. Clark, seven shops and dwelling houses, east side

1902 – J. Stringer for A. Drincobier, dairy sheds at rear of number 2

copyright © J.Middleton
Left- Hove Railway Station's footbridge from Goldstone Villas to Hove Park Villas,
Right- the view of Hove Park Villas from the footbridge

Sources

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Brighton Herald

Hove Council Minute Books

Hove Gazette (13 August 1898)

Middleton, J. Hove and Portslade in the Great War (2014)
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Street Directories

09 April 2020

Hove Park Villas