James Gray: Front view of houses on the east side of Norton Road, adjoining the old Town Hall, photographed on 21 July 1968. Building of this road started in 1878 but development was very slow and several years elapsed before the road was fully built up. jgc_13_093
2018: This shows the northern extension of today’s concrete and glass Hove Town Hall which now covers the site.
James Gray: The Town Hall, opened in 1882, was almost completely destroyed by fire in January 1966. To make way for the new one to be on an extended site, nine of the houses seen, numbers 2 to 18, are being removed and the purpose of this photograph is to show the road as it was. The rear view of Norton Road. jgc_13_094
2018: The original image was taken from the pavement on the north side of Church Road, looking north-west to the back of Nos 2-18 Norton Road. The view today, from the same corner, is of the replacement glass and concrete building, with trees, flower beds and a statue.
James Gray: A little known and seldom explored mews, hidden away behind the houses on the west side of Norton Road. Doubtless built at about the same time as Norton and Tisbury Roads, that is 1878-1882, the mews buildings were originally stables later used as garages. Photographed on 4 July 1971, these buildings were demolished a year later. The cleared site is to be used for a multi-storey car park, in conjunction with the new Town Hall. jgc_13_095
2018: The mews were in Norton Place and nothing now remains of them. The site is under the multi-storey car park facing Norton Road, opposite the Town Hall. (Photographer: David Sears)
James Gray: See caption for jgc_13_095 above. jgc_13_096
2018: Norton Place mews ran north-south, parallel to Norton Road, in between Norton Road and Norton Close. In 1972 the entire area was cleared to make way for Norton Road car park, immediately opposite the new Town Hall. A few houses in Norton Close, running round the back of the car park, have survived (see image jgc_13_097). Nothing remains of Norton Place. This image, from the north looking south through the car park, is the nearest that is now possible. Images jgc_13_095 (above) and jgc_13_098 (Tilbury Road) show the car park from the south-east. (Photographer: David Sears)
James Gray: A photograph of adjoining Norton Close, originally designed for the same fate, but later reprieved so this cul-de-sac now has a new lease of life. jgc_13_097
2018: This quiet and easily missed close now runs around the side and back of the multi-storey car park. Numbers 19 and 21 are easily recognisable from the original image but now sit behind an imposing black gate. (Photographer: David Sears)
James Gray: These two photographs of 7 September 1969, were taken during the time between the destruction of the old Town Hall and the start of the building of the new. By then some of the houses on the west side of Tisbury Road had been removed – see jgc_13_100 – and the cleared area was already returning to nature.
This photograph shows the rear of the many houses in Norton Road that had to be sacrificed to create the very large area on which the new Town Hall was later built. jgc_13_101