Clifton Hill

2018: Together with No 2 Clifton Hill (out of shot in both photographs), No 1 forms a pair of Grade II listed semi-detached houses, built around 1850, both with a 3-storey entrance wing set back at the side, in the style of an Italianate villa. The main changes to No 1 since the James Gray image are the removal of the ground floor canopy over the window,  the increase in window panes at ground and first floor level and the enlargement of the dormer in the roof. Some of the railings have been replaced. The buildings to the west of 1 Clifton Hill in both photographs are the back of Montpelier Crescent. The other two photographs mentioned by James Gray can be found on the Dyke Road (2) page. (Photographer: Tony Bailey)

2018: The white house on the right of the 2018 image is on the corner of Clifton Hill and Powis Villas. The houses in Powis Villas were built between 1848 and 1853 and this house is number 5. It was originally known as Aberdeen Lodge and appears in some early street directories as 22 Clifton Hill. The original image is a copy of an 1843 painting (see http://www.vmine.net/williamvine/) by miller William Vine’s son-in-law, Henry Bodle (and so the date given in the original James Gray entry, 1806, is incorrect). At that time there was no road between Clifton Hill and Vine Terrace. Powis Grove was built between and parallel to them in 1848-1853. The land on which the mill stood became the gardens of 5-7 Powis Villas. In 1937 these houses were donated to the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and the gardens became a staff car park.

Following the hospital’s move to Eastern Road in 2007, the gardens were built on in 2011 by River Oaks Homes. Behind the high flint wall, the new terrace (The Cliftons) designed by architects Morgan Carn can be seen, comprising three 4-storey houses (numbers 23a, b and c, Clifton Hill). Behind them at 5a and 5b Powis Grove are two further houses in this development.  (Photographer: Jane Southern)