Church Road (1)

The trees have been thinned; those that remain are now mature. The buildings to the left in Palmeira Square are fully in residential use as flats. Across the road, on the northern side of Church Road, the lower floors of the buildings have been converted to commercial use. There is a flower stall in front of the church. (Photographer: David Sears)

Traffic lights and pavement bollards have been installed to guide and protect cars and pedestrians. A bicycle rack has been installed for cyclists. Behind all this the buildings remain substantially the same with, as elsewhere, the ground and some first floors now being converted for commercial use. On the left, at the junction with Church Road, there is now a branch of Ladbrokes, a betting shop. Further along The Drive on the left is the high-rise block of Normandy House built in 1959. Once again, the trees have survived. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The original image can be recreated with few changes visible to the basic structure of the buildings on either side of Church Road, or of the church of St John the Baptist in the far distance. But the original description, also given to image jgc_13_007 (see Church Road 2), seems to be describing a different view. The current No 2 The Drive is out of sight, at the corner on the left by the traffic lights. It now houses the ISE Language School with a branch of Caffe Nero on the ground floor. Diagonally opposite, the most prominent building in both images is one end of a fine block running east along Church Road. Today, the ground floor (52 Church Road)  is occupied by Sawyer & Co, letting agents, while the upper floors (address 12 Grand Avenue) is residential. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: It seems that this end of Church Road has barely changed in the 130 or so years since the original picture was taken. The buildings on the right comprising Palmeira Mansions facing onto Palmeira Square are still fully in residential use. The railings along the south side have been removed but the green space remains. The trees have been well preserved and now obscure this view of St John’s Church. The square clocktower of the new Town Hall, built to replace the original building which burnt down in 1966, is still just visible in the far distance. Unusually, there are no buses in this picture. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: This picture, taken from the southern side of the war memorial in Grand Avenue looking up The Drive, from about 100m south of images jgc_13_004 and 13_023, again shows a peaceful scene which is hard to imagine today. The roads are full of cars, parked or waiting for traffic lights. Some of the older buildings are covered in scaffolding – an indicator of the constant need to repair in the face of salt-laden winds and rain. To the left is Grand Avenue Mansions, the first purpose-built flats in Hove, with bath taps for hot, cold and sea water; to the right, currently under repair, are the red-brick ‘Surrey vernacular’ buildings, seen from a distance in image jgc_12_003. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: As with many other images of Church Road, the outlines of the buildings and the upper façades have barely changed, although the ground and some of the first floors of buildings on both sides of the road are now in use as offices, shops, cafés or restaurants. Most of the south-facing buildings have been covered in white or yellow painted stucco; those opposite, facing north and always in the shade but better protected from salt-laden winds from the south-west, have generally retained their original yellow or red-brick façades. The roadsides are full of parked cars and the buses are now large, double-decked, and diesel-powered. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: This image shows, on the immediate left, at the junction of Church Road with Second Avenue and Wilbury Road, numbers 16 and 18 Church Road, shown and discussed in greater detail in image jgc_13_021. The façades of the upper floors of the buildings on both sides of Church Road looking east have remained remarkably unchanged. The ground floors of the buildings on the right have, however, now been converted almost entirely into shops, offices, cafés or restaurants. The lower level replacement for the original Town Hall which burnt down in 1966 is only just visible in the far distance. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: As with many other images of Church Road, the outlines of the buildings and the upper façades have barely changed, although the ground and first floors of buildings on both sides of the road are now in commercial use as offices, cafés or restaurants. The ornate iron and glass structure at number 18 Church Road on the right (south side) of this image, behind the tree, is now trading as Mulberrys and is shown more clearly in image jgc_13_021. St John’s Church stands apparently unchanged in the background, although internally it has been cut in half and this, the western end, now meets the needs of today as the Cornerstone Community Centre. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The street numbering in Church Road remains unchanged so numbers 16 and 18 (the Glass Annex mentioned) on the south side of Church Road can be identified without difficulty. The smaller ironwork and glass building to the right once again trades as a greengrocer under the name Mulberrys. The original decorative structure is sadly being slowly replaced with more functional materials. To the left, at number 16, the ground floor provides a range of gin cocktails from more than 100 gins under the name of the Gin Tub. The basement is or was known as The Rum Cage under the Tub, offering a similar range of drinks based on different rums. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: Superficially this end of Church Road is largely unchanged – however, as can be seen from the signage on the corner, the lower floors on the buildings on the left are now in use as offices (in this case, those of the GMB Union) and beyond that, as shops and restaurants. On the right, the Church of St John the Baptist, consecrated in 1854, now known simply as St John’s Church, has been cut in half internally to reduce the seating from around 900 to a more realistic 80 or so for today’s congregation. The west-facing end re-opened as the Cornerstone Community Centre in 1996. A pedestrian crossing is now essential for anyone wishing to cross the road in safety. (Photographer: David Sears)

To the right is the fine façade of Palmeira Mansions. In the foreground, as in many other locations across Hove and Brighton, is now a row of temporarily parked bicycles, the preferred mode of transport for many health & climate conscious young people. (Photographer: David Sears) 

 2018: The comments made by James Gray in 1951 are still true 57 years later, in 2018. The buildings are unchanged; the people and buses (and cars) are barely recognisable! In the modern image the double-decker 49 bus to Moulsecoomb, named after the writer Ivy Compton-Burnett who attended Addiscombe College, Hove, between 1889-1901 and died in 1969, enters Palmeira Square. Free wi-fi and USB charging, essentials of modern life, are available on board. The Church of St John the Baptist, now known just as St John’s, remains unchanged in the background. (Photographer: David Sears) 

In between are the trees in the central reservation, now mature in full leaf in the modern image. The 25 bus shown here (and in image jgc_13_001 from the opposite side) is not in service; normally it runs a limited stop service to Brighton and Sussex universities. (Photographer: David Sears) 

A few bay windows have been replaced with flat sash windows but otherwise the buildings are in good repair. Their usage on the northern side has however changed dramatically with ground and first floors being converted to offices, cafés or restaurants. Road traffic has increased significantly, with white vans replacing the hand or horse-drawn delivery carts shown in the original photograph. The square clock-tower of the new Town Hall is now clearly visible.  (Photographer: David Sears)