Kingsway (2)

James Gray: Kingsway and Brunswick lawns from the seafront looking east. jgc_12_016

2018: This image looks east along Kingsway, showing the fine terrace of buildings between Third Avenue and Grand Avenue known as 1-4 Kings Gardens. These have survived largely unchanged – a minor miracle as they were not listed until 1992. In the modern image, the western end is covered in scaffolding – evidence that the summer season of repair and redecoration has started.

James Gray: These three photographs (1 of 3) covering an area from Adelaide Crescent to Fourth Avenue are all pre-1914. At that period these fine mansions were nearly all occupied by single families of great wealth, who had exclusive use of the private lawns of the West Brighton Estate Company, which faced the houses. The ornamental gas lamps on the dividing wall were removed in 1921. jgc_12_017

James Gray: These three photographs (2 of 3) covering an area from Adelaide Crescent to Fourth Avenue are all pre-1914. At that period these fine mansions were nearly all occupied by single families of great wealth, who had exclusive use of the private lawns of the West Brighton Estate Company, which faced the houses. The ornamental gas lamps on the dividing wall were removed in 1921. jgc_12_018

James Gray: The dates of these two photographs are uncertain. This view was probably taken during the 1890s, because there is no sign of the Queen Victoria statue in Grand Avenue which dates from 1901. This view exudes the spacious atmosphere of the Edwardian era. Crossing the road presented no difficulty in those days, but what a change in 1952. jgc_12_021

James Gray: Above is a scene which we are never likely to see again. A very well dressed young girl from this then fashionable area, with her smart pram and doll, a fox-terrier, a popular breed in those days, and an almost empty roadway. The road above the girl’s head is Third Avenue. Photographed by George Ruff (Junior) in 1903. Additional Information: ©Philippe Garner.  jgc_12_024

James Gray: This view is taken from the West pier, looking along the Hove beach a few years later, about 1910. jgc_12_025

2018: After 25 years of neglect and two arson attacks in 2003 the West Pier is now just a rusting skeleton with no walkway or public access for photgraphers. Fortunately, a more recently built groyne provides a similar vantage point for a view of the beach in 2018. It is unusually quiet on this sunny July day and the buildings along the north side of Kingsway appear largely unchanged.

James Gray: The Barnum & Bailey Circus procession passing the mansions of Kingsway, between Third and Forth Avenues on 13 July 1899. Note the social strata of those times. On the entrance porch of the ground floor – the family. At the first floor balcony – probably two governesses. On the second floor balcony – the five housemaids. These large houses, on the West Brighton Estate were built early in the 1880s and outwardly they were little changed now, some 70 years later. The wealthy families are gone though and most of the houses have long since been converted into flats. jgc_12_028

James Gray: Another view looking east. jgc_12_035

2018: The original image seems to have been taken from the upper floor of the building once curiously called Hoove Lea and now Courtenay Towers.  It shows how little has changed on this stretch of the northern side of Kingsway up to the Brighton boundary. In the far distance. Kingsway Court, the only new addition, is barely visible. (Photographer: David Sears)

James Gray: From this photograph, taken about 1912, it can be seen that the buildings are very much the same, now, in 1952, though they have changed in character. The cab-rank, of course, disappeared with the 1914-18 war. jgc_12_060

2018: The imposing houses closest to the camera in the 1912 picture were St Catherine’s Mansions. They were divided into three grand dwellings,  St Helen’s Lodge, Adelaide Lodge, and The Priory. In 2018 they have been replaced by two eight-storey blocks of flats. 

James Gray: A far cry from St Helens Lodge in the 1860s to St Catherine’s Mansions in the 1960s. A century in fact but the shabby house in the next photograph, in January 1968, is the same as the smart, newly built villa seen in the joint photographs on the previous page. The date of these photographs is not known but it was probably soon after the house was built in 1858. jgc_12_124

James Gray: A far cry from St Helens Lodge in the 1860s to St Catherine’s Mansions in the 1960s. jgc_12_125

2018: There is a sad contrast between this James Gray photograph and jgc_12_124, above, taken about 100 years earlier. The 1968 image shows St Helen’s Lodge empty and derelict. The wall along Albany Villas has been demolished and the area fenced off as part of the widening of Kingsway. In 1973 the entire building was demolished and replaced with the Albany Towers flats, as seen in the 2018 picture. What was an open space in front of St Helen’s Lodge was reduced to an enclosed paved area, a little below pavement level. The white stuccoed side of 2 Albany Villas is just visible in the background of both pictures. (Photographer: David Sears)

James Gray: Further east, St Catherine’s Terrace between Medina Villas and Albany Villas looking in both directions. These houses on either side of Albany Villas are the oldest ones in the Terrace and those seen in the next photograph may well also have had short front gardens when they were just built in the early 1850s. If so, these doubtless went when the adjoining Willett built mansions were projected in the 1870s. jgc_12_128

James Gray: Photographic copies of drawings by William A. Delamotte made in the 1850s, of the whole of the marine frontage from Hove Street to Kemp Town. Additional Information: Copies of these drawings can be seen in the History Centre of Brighton Museum.  jgc_12_131

James Gray: More photographs of the area involved in the widening during 1968. This is a view westward from between Fourth Avenue and Albany Villas, 1st August 1965. jgc_12_132

2018: The James Gray image was taken from the service road in front of St Catherine’s Terrace, before road widening removed the service road adjoining Albany Villas and the front gardens in front of the newly built flats of The Priory.

James Gray: Close-up view of the building forming part of St Catherine’s Mansions, but previously a separate mansion known as Adelaide Lodge. This was probably built at the same time as adjoining St Helen’s Lodge, in 1858, though the portico to the left was a much later addition. jgc_12_133

2018: No physical traces remain of St Catherine’s Mansions or Adelaide Lodge and St Helen’s Lodge, now replaced by Albany Towers. Both images show the just visible six projecting balconies of the adjacent flats known as The Priory on the extreme left. (Photographer: David Sears)

James Gray:  St Catherine’s Terrace, 21 January 1968. Another view of Adelaide Lodge and part of St Helen’s Lodge, with the high wall removed as part of the widening. jgc_12_134

2018: See jgc_12_133 above. This shows the south façade. (Photographer: David Sears)

James Gray: St Catherine’s Terrace, 21 January 1968. St Catherine’s Lodge Hotel, originally separate houses numbered 9/12. 9 and 10, on the right, were reconstructed to form one large house, St Catherine’s Lodge, for Mr Stephen Ralli , after whom the Ralli Hall was named, while the house to the west, 11 was known as Rossmore Lodge. It was in 1927 that the four properties were linked to form the present Hotel. jgc_12_135

James Gray: Scenes along Kingsway and Brunswick Lawns. These show His Majesty King Edward VII. Additional Information: No later than 1908, the year of Edward VII’s death. jgc_11_181

2020: The building in the background is 15 King’s Gardens at the bottom of Fourth Avenue. (Photographer: Helen Glass)

James Gray: The buildings have changed little since these photographs were taken apart from the First Avenue Hotel demolished by a bomb in the 1939/1945 war. The cars and the ladies fashions show the greatest changes – oh, those cloche hats and short skirts! jgc_11_194

2020: First Avenue Hotel has been replaced by Kingsway Court. Courtenay Gate now sits between Kingsway and the Esplanade. (Photographer: Helen Glass)

James Gray: The Sussex County Cricket Team of 1864 photographed in front of the thatched pavilion. The [Royal Brunswick Cricket] ground was a little to the west of the Brunswick area, being where the Avenues are today, and was opened on 26 May 1848. It was not used for very long as its situation within the valuable Stanford Estate meant that the land would soon be needed for high-class residential development. It was replaced by the present County Ground [in Eaton Road] in 1872. jgc_11_207