Hove in the Past: Addison Road, Hove

Judy Middleton 2001 (revised 2021)

Background

In the late 1880s Hove Commissioners decided to celebrate important figures from the history of art, literature and science by naming newly built roads after them.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) British essayist, poet and statesman. He was widely travelled because being in the diplomatic service he spent time in Austria, Germany, Holland, France and Italy. Besides his essays, he composed an opera Rosamond, and a tragedy in blank verse. He also contributed to The Tatler and to The Spectator, which he and Richard Steele founded in 1711. Indeed, some 274 numbers of The Spectator, derived from Addison’s pen.

The road was laid out on land once part of the Wick Estate, later known as the Goldsmid Estate. Building work began in the 1890s, and in October 1899 the Borough Surveyor was able to report that the portion of the road between Julian Road and the east boundary of the borough had been built up, with the exception of the part flanking Dyke Road; out of the twelve houses, already built, eleven were occupied.

In 1902 Mr H. J. Gimblette acting for the Goldsmid Estate, received permission for the road to be extended.

In 1903 the road between Julian Road and Osmond Road was declared a public highway, and the rest followed in 1907.

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Development

Addison Road provoked something of a gold-rush mentality, and because it was near Brighton, some Brighton builders wanted to be involved. Some forty-one deeds relating to the later development of the road have survived, and from them it is possible to deduce what went on. It seems that the sellers of the land – the Goldsmid Estate – did not make as much profit as they might have done. The usual practice was for the land sale to be handled by the County Land and House Company who had offices in Union Bank Chambers at 8 North Street, Brighton. Between 1903 and 1906, all these deeds were handled by the Company. It did not always follow that the man or builder who obtained planning permission from Hove Council was the same man who actually built the property because it could pass through several hands. However, the Goldsmid Estate did not receive the money until the final transaction had taken place, no matter how many other transactions there had been from start to finish.

A standard plot of land would be sold to the Company by the Goldsmid Estate for £87; the Company would sell it on to a hopeful builder for £144, and by the time the house was built, the whole property was worth £600. Unfortunately, not all the deeds contain house numbers, which makes them difficult to identify. The favoured architects were Denman & Mathews who designed around fifty houses, and at least ten different builders were involved with the most being built by George Cook (some thirteen houses).

Each deed contained a lengthy schedule about the maintenance of the property, and how the elevation must not be altered etc. There was a delightful clause that prohibited noxious trades, thus there was to be no ‘soap boiler, soap maker, melter of tallow, currier, fell-monger, sugar baker, burning of bricks’. There was also to be no making or sale of ale, beer, wine, malt or spirituous liquor.

House Notes

Number 6 – Mary Pinero (c.1865-1944) lived in this house, and she was the sister of the celebrated Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934) who was knighted in 1909. He was one of the most important and influential playwrights of the English stage. He became popular with The Magistrate staged in 1885, being the first of the farces put on at Royal Court Theatre. Two other plays are remembered to this day – they are The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893) and Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1898). In November 1901 he stayed at 39 Fourth Avenue.

Mary Pinero was one of the founder members of The Green Room Players, an amateur theatre company that put on plays at Hove Town Hall. It seems probable that she was acquainted with fellow member Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (1863-1948) who made his stage debut at Hove Town Hall on 8 November 1888 and continued to appear in Green Room productions until 1894. Perhaps one reason why Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s success was that he spent ten years as an actor before turning to writing, thus gaining valuable experience of what was required for the theatre.

Mary Pinero acted in a couple of her brother’s plays too, and in 1893 appeared in Dandy Dick. Henry Porter, who wrote the first history of Hove, trundled along to Hove Town Hall to see the play, and reported that ‘Miss Mary Pinero was most fascinating as Salome’. Mary played the part of Gilfillian in Sweet Lavender.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Brighton Herald 30 December 1916

Mary Pinero was also a founder member of the Anon Club, the forerunner of the local Soroptomist Club, and she was president of the Sussex Women Musicians from 1939 to 1942. She died aged 79 in August 1944 at her home in Addison Road.

Number 18 – In June 1900 the Borough Surveyor reported that a bicycle house of match-boarding had been constructed at the back of this house. Hove Council served a notice for its removal.

Numbers 36 & 38

Number 42 – In this house lived Stephen Makepeace Wiens (1871-1956) an artist who when still a young man found fame as a sculptor, although he later became noted for his portraits in oils and pastels. He came of German parentage, his father having moved to England sometime in the early 1860s. Wiens was actually born in England but anti-German sentiment caused by the First World War, made him take on more English-sounding Christian names and by 1920 he had changed Siegfried to Stephen Makepeace Wiens – perhaps the choice of Makepeace indicates something of an olive branch. In 1949 he moved to Worthing where he died. Today, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery hold three of his paintings, which can be viewed on the internet; the most charming and colourful of which is his painting of Ophelia.

Number 49

Number 60

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Brighton Herald 29 October 1904
Marzials was the sister of the Hove artist Charles H. H. Burleigh

Number 62 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-4d, and the Company sold it to Mrs Dorothy Baldwin, wife of E. C. Baldwin, builder. Mr Baldwin did not built the house, and Mrs Baldwin sold the land for £182-12-6d to George Cook of Bridge House, Montefiore Road, Hove. Mr Cook built the house, and on 26 March 1926 he sold the property for £640 to Horace Chandler Hunter.

Numbers 63 & 65 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £166-3-4d, who then sold it for £272 to William Parsons of 2 Clifton Street, Brighton. When the houses were built, the property was sold to Frederick Parsons for £1,125.

Number 64 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87–11-3d who then sold it to Mrs Dorothy Baldwin for £143-15-7d. Mrs Baldwin then sold it for £180-18-8d to George Cook of Bridge House, Montefiore Road, Hove, who then built the house. On 26 January 1906 Cook sold the house for £625 to Miss Clara Cripps of 24 Buckingham Road, Brighton.

Number 70 – Mr and Mrs Frank Pennington lived in this house, and in 1953 they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. He was a former signaller in the Royal Engineers, and his moment in history came on 11 November 1918 when he signalled to the Army units in France ‘Cease Fire’.

Numbers 75, 79 and 81 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £322-11s. On 5 January 1905 the Company sold it for £528 to Ebenezer Cornwall of 43 Grove Road, Eastbourne..

Numbers 76, 78, and 80 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £263-18-2d. The Company then sold it for £432 to William Hamlet Whittier and Alfred Whillier of 7 Arthur Street, Hove. The Whilliers built the houses, and were all set to sell them for £1,900 to John Beale of 33 Stanford Avenue, Brighton, but the deal must have failed. On 9 December 1904 the houses sold for £1,630 to George Le Mesurer Spurgeon, a schoolmaster of Worthing.

Number 77 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £107-10-4d, and the Company sold it for £170 to Ebenezer Cornwall of 43 Grove Road, Eastbourne. Cornwall built the house, and on 4 May 1904 the property was sold for £710 Edwin Albert Pratt of 169 Ditchling Rise, Brighton.

Numbers 82 and 84 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for ££54-4-2d, and on 13 April 1905 the Company sold it for £584 to William Hamlett Whillier and Albert Whillier of 7 Arthur Street, Hove.

Numbers 86 and 88 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £175-18s, and on 18 May 1905 the Company sold it for £288 to William Mason of 77 Preston Road, Brighton.

Number 94 – There are two deeds relating to this house, and so presumably the earlier deal fell through. The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-5d, and the Company sold it for £144 to Richard William Mason of 77 Preston Road, Brighton. Mason then sold the land, at the same price, on 28 March 1905 to John Ball Johns of 99 Southover Street, Brighton, foreman carpenter.

But the second deed tells a different story. On 23 October 1905 the Company sold the land to Frank Reynolds, again at a price of £144, to Frank Reynolds of 6 Brooker Street, Hove. Reynolds built the house, which he sold for £590 to Thomas Harrington, hotel proprietor, of 14 Wilbury Avenue, Hove.

Number 96 – There are two deeds for this property. The first one was dated 28 March 1905 when the Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-5d, the same price as land sold on which number 84 was built. The Company sold the land for £144, also the same price as number 94, to Richard William Mason of 77 Preston Road, Brighton of 58 . Mason sold it for £144 to Richard Akehurst of 58 Shaftesbury Road, Brighton.

The second deed, dated 4 May 1905, records that the Company sold the land for £144 to Frank Reynolds of 6 Brooker Street, Hove. Reynolds built the house and sold the property for £625 to Adolph George Schwartz of 82 Upper North Street, Brighton.

Number 98 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-4d. In 1905 the Company sold it for £144 to Lydia Mary Cruttenden, wife of Arthur Cruttenden, of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, and he built the house.

Number 100 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-4d, and the Company sold it for £144 to Arthur Cruttenden of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, who built the house. On 20 May 1905 the property was sold for £620 to Mary Ann Richardson of 18 Chanctonbury Road, Hove.

Number 102 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-5d, and on 24 July 1904 the Company sold it for £144 to Arthur Cruttenden of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton.

Number 104 – The Goldsmid Estate sold and to the Company for £87-15-5d, and sold it for £144 to Arthur Cruttenden of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton. He built the property and on 1 May 1905 he sold it for £630 to Mrs Ellen Brill, wife of James Brill, of 17 Carlton Terrace, Portslade.

Numbers 195, 107 and 109 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company and a property in Montefiore Road to George Cook of Bridge House, Montefiore Road, Hove. Cook built four houses, and sold them for £2,270 to Thomas Cowley, gentleman, of Eastbourne; from this transaction Cook received £2,100-5s.

Number 106 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £88-6-7d, and on 31 March 1905 the Company sold it to Arthur Cruttenden of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton.

Number 108 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £88-6-7d, and sold it for £144 to Arthur Cruttenden of 58A Beaconsfield Road, Brighton. Cruttenden built the house and sold it for £620 to Richard Cox of 88 Preston Road, Brighton.

Number 109

Number 110 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £87-19-5d, and sold it for £144 to Arthur Dean of 25 Ditchling Rise, Brighton. Arthur Dean built the house and on 7 March 1905 sold the property for £525 to Gerorge Dean, umbrella maker, of 4A London Road, Brighton.

Number 112 – The Goldsmid Estate sold land to the Company for £107-10-3d, and on 11 January 1906 the Company sold it for £176 to Arthur Dean of 25 Ditchling Rise, Brighton.

Number 113 – The Goldsmid estate sold land to the Company for £77-9-2d, who then sold it on for £145-13-4d to George Cook of Bridge House, Montefiore Road, Hove. Mr Cook built the house, and on 28 July 1904 sold the property for £600 to Augustus Ambrose Crowley of Brighton.

Number 114 – The Goldsmid Estate sold some land to the Company for £87-19-5d, and the Company sold it for £144 to Arthur Dean of 22 Ditchling Rise, Brighton. After the house was built, the property was sold on 3 February 1906 for £630 to Richard Cox, builder, of 8 Springfield Road, Brighton.

Hove Planning Approvals

1898 – T. Simpson & Sons for Beves & Co, new street

1898 – W. C. F. Gillam for Smart & Wilson, six terraced houses, east side

1898 – W. C. F. Gillam for Hudson & Tottenham, four houses, south side

1898 – W. C. F. Gillam for B. Marston, four villas, south side

1898 – T. Simpson & Sons for C. J. Tottenham, five houses, north side, plans amended in 1899

1899 – T. Simpson & Sons for B. Marston, twelve houses, south side

1899 – T. Simpson & Sons for A. Chadwell, twelve houses, north side, plans amended to eleven houses 1ater in the same year

1899 – T. Simpson & Sons for J. Nye, twelve houses, north side, plans amended later in the same year

1899 – T. Simpson & Sons for C. Chadwell, six houses, south side

1899 – T. Simpson for T. Taverner, six houses, south side, plans amended in 1900

1900 – C. J. Tottenham, three houses, north side

1903 – Denham & Mathews for Mr Tidey, four houses, north side

1903 – S. Mathews for W. Parsons, two houses, and one house and shop, north side

1903 – S. Mathews for E. C. Baldwin, six houses, south side

1903 – S. Mathews for Mr Cornwall, four houses, north side

1903 – Denman & Mathews for C. H.H. Burleigh, one house, south side (C.H.H. Burleigh (1869-1956) was a prominent artist who lived with his family at 7 Wilbury Crescent for many years

1903 – Denman & Mathews for A. Smart, two houses, north side

1903 – Denman & Mathews for F. Parsons, nine houses, north side

1903 – Denman & Mathews for G. Cook, six houses, north side

1903 – Denman & Mathews for A. Dean, two houses, south side

1904 – Denman & Mathews for W. Parsons, two houses, north side

1904 – W. H. Overton for Whillier & Son, three terraced houses, south side

1904 – J. H. Hackman, one house, one shop

1905 – Denman & Mathews for A. Dean, two houses, south side

1905 – Denman & Mathews for Mr Cruttenden, six houses, south side

1905 – Denman & Mathews for F. Reynolds, two houses, south side

1905 – Denman & Matthews for W. H. & A. Whillier, four houses, south side

1905 – Denham & Mathews for G. Cook, three houses

Sources

Brighton Herald

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

National Library of Scotland

Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

The Keep

ACC 4982/68/4 – Deeds relating to Addison Road, Osmond Road and Montefiore Road

01 March 2022

Addison Road, Hove