James Gray: Goldstone Villas, the last vacant plot. Ever since this road was laid out, in the 1870s, this space was empty. The reason, of course, was that it formed part of the large rear garden of a detached house in Denmark Villas, No. 47. Photographed on 27 October 1963. A house was built here in 1970/1. jgc_14_028
2018: A small block of flats called Stone Court and numbered 37 Goldstone Villas now occupies the vacant plot in the original image. No 47 Denmark Villas still stands behind it. (Photographer: Alison Minns)
James Gray: It is hard to realise that this is now the busy Woolworths’ corner, at the junction of Goldstone Villas and Blatchington Road. This photograph, taken about 1895, shows the West Brighton Grammar School soon after the houses were built in 1874. At that period the side garden of the end house extended some distance along the frontage of Blatchington Road but in 1898 three shops, numbered 113, 115 & 117 Blatchington Road were built on this garden area. The Woolworths building in 1935 replaced these in turn with the first four houses in Goldstone Villas. jgc_14_049
James Gray: In 1914, at the time when Brighton Corporation were seeking powers to extend their tramway system into Hove and thence to Shoreham, Hove Corporation experimented with an electric trolley bus. This ran from the top of Goldstone Villas to the bottom of George Street and into the Church Road, opposite St. Aubyns. Only the one bus was in use and the service was free. Power was supplied from Holland Road Electricity Works, by cable along Cromwell Road and Denmark Villas to the terminal wires. The experiment lasted only four weeks and was discontinued. At night, the bus was kept at the Corporation depot in Sheridan Terrace and it was towed to and from George Street, by a lorry, and on one occasion, even by a horse and cart!
James Gray: Two more photographs of the short lived trolley bus experiment in 1914. Most of the Station buildings look much the same seventy years later, though the gas lamps and the standpipe for water carts have gone. jgc_14_052
2018: The 1914 picture shows the overhead power lines for the trolley bus at Hove station. In 2018 the gas lamps have gone although the base of the standpipe remains. The low squarish building with an apparently triangular roof, immediately to the right (east) of the stairs is now a sandwich bar with a Hove Heritage board in front of it. A short central reservation has been built in the centre of the station approach. (Photographer: Alison Minns)
James Gray: One cannot help reflecting how much nicer the road must have been in those days, particularly for the residents with little traffic to disturb them. What a contrast with the 1980s. jgc_14_053
2018: The large cream building on the left on the north side of Goldstone Road, probably hidden by trees in the 1914 photograph, is Europa House. A former Primitive Methodist Church, it was designed by Thomas Wonnacott and opened in 1878, closing in 1934 when several Methodist denominations joined together as the Methodist Church. Around 1968, it was converted into offices for Olivetti by Edward Cullinan Architects and continues to be used as offices today. The prominent staircase at the front was added as part of the conversion, mirrored by another staircase at the rear. (Photographer: Alison Minns)
James Gray: Looking north to Hove Station, which at that time was all to the east of the footbridge, built in 1896. To the left of the bridge can be seen scaffolding used for the building of the extension to the station and, beyond that the large house facing into Hove Park Villas. jgc_14_054
2018: The ‘new’ station has been built to the west of the footbridge,
extending the ‘old’ station. There is a taxi rank at the north end of
Goldstone Villas and central reservations north and south of the rank (the south reservation is a bicycle park).
James Gray: The experimental trolley bus introduced by Hove Corporation for a brief period of four weeks, seen at the foot of Goldstone Villas almost at the junction with Blatchington Road, in 1912. At the right is the high wall of Holy Trinity Church, which still stands though the trees have been pruned. (For more details of the operation of this vehicle see similar photographs in the Volume 14 “Hove Central, North”). jgc_13_146
James Gray: Until the footbridge over the railway was built about 1896, the few people living north of the railway had to use the narrow lane under the railway, which emerged into the Goldstone Street. In 1903 the modern red brick extension to the station was built, as shown above, but the roof over the forecourt was not built for another few years. jgc_14_065
2018: The station building itself looks almost exactly as it did in the 1903-1910 photo. However, there is a porte-cochere, or covered porch, in front, which came from Victoria Station after it was redeveloped between 1896 and 1906.
James Gray: This station photograph, doubtless copied from a postcard and attributed to Hove’s prolific photographer, Thomas Wiles, calls for little comment. Apart from the dress of the travellers and the gas lamps (see extreme left) the scene is much as it is today. No steam locomotive though. Period probably about 1912/1914. jgc_14_066
2018: The station still looks largely the same in 2018. One noticeable alteration is that the the canopies over two platforms no longer have wooden edges with decorative details.
James Gray: The pair horse bus of the Brighton, Hove and Preston United Omnibus Company at its terminus in Goldstone Villas outside the Cliftonville Hotel. Period unknown, but almost certainly before the 1914-1918 War. jgc_14_067
2021: Today the former Cliftonville Hotel is a busy pub next to Hove Station. The first floor appears to be the same as in Gray’s photograph, but the ground floor frontage has changed considerably since the building was modernised in 1996. (Photographer: Jane Southern)
James Gray: Hove Station and Railway Approach, in 1909. The line of horse cabs is standing outside the original buildings of the Cliftonville Station as it was called when first opened in 1865. The remaining buildings are of a very much later period. jgc_14_068
2018: There is no longer a canopy in front of the original station building as there was in 1909. Where the horse cabs used to stand, there is just one car about to be washed at Hove Station Hand Car Wash. It is standing on a road renamed Robbie’s Approach in 2003, after the owner of the car wash. (Photographer: Jane Southern)
James Gray: The chief interest in this photograph is that it shows the houses 2, 4, 6 and 8, Goldstone Villas, which were demolished in 1935 to make way for Woolworths Store. Additional Information: Cliftonville Sunday School Outing. jgc_14_129
2018: The 1930s Woolworths building, seen here from the east side, still occupies the site. It traded as Woolworths until the company closed down in 2009. After this it was taken over by the fashion chain Peacocks and is now a Peacocks store, fronting on Blatchington Road. (Photographer: Steve Agace)