James Gray: Foulser’s shop, at the corner of Westbourne Street. This was established in 1894 when this was known as Clarendon Villas Road, and it remained until 1961. It is now part of a supermarket. jgc_16_017
2018: The shop is now part of a mini supermarket. The upper floors have changed little on the outside. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: Peter’s shop, at 118 Portland Road. There were then only three more buildings on the south side between here and Portslade. Nearly 60 years later the shop is still a wine and spirits store. jgc_16_018
2018: The shop is currently a barbers. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: Laying the wood blocks to replace the old macadam surface, in November 1923. The photographs were taken from Fousler’s shop at the corner of Westbourne Street. jgc_16_020
2018: The shops may have changed but the buildings are still recognisable. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: Laying the wood blocks to replace the old macadam surface, in November 1923. The photographs were taken from Fousler’s shop at the corner of Westbourne Street. Additional Information: Horse-drawn carts. jgc_16_021
2018: The pub, dating from 1882 and originally called the Aldrington Hotel, is now The Westbourne. With its brightly painted walls, it is a prominent building on the corner of Portland Road and Westbourne Street and is now promoted as an ‘ale and eating house’. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: The Portland Hotel, in 1911. Portland Road is comparatively modern, only the eastern portion dating from last century. In the 1880s that portion from Sackville Road to the Aldrington boundary was called Clarendon Villas Road and the few houses west of the boundary, Bertram Road. It was renamed after the Duke of Portland, who owned the land, in 1895, and the Portland Hotel was erected in 1896. This was rebuilt in its present form in 1928. jgc_16_022
2018: The building was clearly refaced, not rebuilt, in 1928: look at the chimneys and the upper floor windows. The pub is now called The Stoneham and has had the external brickwork painted white. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: St Peter’s Church in 1922 when the land on either side in Portland Road was still vacant. In fact, the next building to the west was then the Portland hotel some 100 yards away. Lumley and Hunt’s premises were built in 1927 and the vacant lots gradually filled in during the next 10 years. jgc_16_023
2018: The church is unchanged but Lumley and Hunt has moved from east of Shelley Road and the corner is now a coffee shop. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: The section of Portland Road between Titian Road and Reynolds Road was one of the last to be developed, some years after the areas on either side. Building started in 1935 and was completed in about a year, but for some reason two plots at the corner of Titian Road were not included and have remained empty ever since. For many years they were used for growing vegetables. This view is from Portland Road. jgc_16_025
2018: The private house (44 Titian Road) to the left of the James Gray image still stands but on the empty plot now stands TJ’s Branding Solutions commercial premises whose address is 186-188 Portland Road. TJ’s is a chain with a range of print-related products and services. Flats above TJ’s were granted planning permission in 2009. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: Looking east, from the corner of School Road in 1935. In a road almost devoid of traffic, one could not have imagined that forty years later it would be crammed with cars and lorries from end to end. The shops (right) are those between Hogarth Road and St Helier Avenue, but the pavement was not made up or channelled. Additional Information: Granada cinema. jgc_16_026
2018: The old Granada Cinema (later the Gala Bingo Hall) no longer stands on the corner of School Road and Portland Road. In its place is a five-storey development, completed in the summer of 2015.
James Gray: The section of Portland Road between Titian Road and Reynolds Road was one of the last to be developed, some years after the areas on either side. Building started in 1935 and was completed in about a year, but for some reason two plots at the corner of Titian Road were not included and have remained empty ever since. For many years they were used for growing vegetables. This view is from Titian Road. jgc_16_027
2018: The private house (44 Titian Road) to the left of the James Gray image still stands but on the empty plot now stands TJ’s Branding Solutions commercial premises whose address is 186-188 Portland Road. TJ’s is a chain with a range of print-related products and services. Flats above TJ’s were granted planning permission in 2009. The garage with the up and over door belongs to TJ’s. The street lamp remains. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: This photograph shows what a large area of open ground existed on both sides of Portland Road in the 1920s. The year is 1921 and the houses in the background are some of the first Council houses built in Hove – those in the east wing of Ingram Crescent. Further along the line of empty Portland Road can be seen the Co-operative Bakery and just to the right of the man’s cap, Aldrington Cottages. One can only speculate as to the work in progress. It could be filling in a pit, as some existed in the fields between Portland Road and New Church Road, or it might have been laying the foundations for the roadway of Portland Avenue. jgc_16_028
James Gray: The western end of the road between Worcester Villas and Leicester Villas. The road still had a semi-rural appearance, the first building on the north side being Aldrington Barn. jgc_16_019
2018: The area where the wall stood has been converted into two retail premises. Next to them, the ground floor of the two nearest houses have been converted into shops. (Photographer: Mark Stephenson)
James Gray: The gradual change from private houses to shops and business premises in the old part of Portland Road, between St Patrick’s Road and Westbourne Street. The photograph was taken on 28 April 1968, when one such conversion was in progress and it seemed likely that others will follow. jgc_15_137
2018: There has been less development than James Gray feared. Williamson Cottage Homes, a low rise development of 15 flats for older people, has been built on the corner of St Patrick’s Road and many of the original houses are still private homes or flats. (Photographer: Steve Agace)