Vallance Gardens

2018: Three images (jgc_12_085, 136 and 140) show the gardens and rear of Hove Manor. Sadly, the scenes themselves are impossible to replicate. The image from around 1900 shows the ivy-clad Manor House, outbuildings and long gardens leading down to the unmade road that became Vallance Gardens. It  started in 1903 as a private road through the Vallance estate and was declared a public highway in 1928.

In 1936 Hove Manor was demolished and replaced by a block of flats of the same name. The flats can be seen in the far distance between two of the five detached houses built at the end of the gardens. The earlier red-brick houses in Vallance Gardens are on the left. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018:  The image taken in 1930 from the first-floor window of 19 Vallance Gardens (and in 2018 repeated from the same room of what is now the Cloverdale House Care Home, with kind permission of the managers) shows the ivy-clad Manor House shortly before it was demolished in 1936 and replaced by a block of flats of the same name. The flats can be seen in the far distance between two of the five detached houses built at the end of the gardens. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The last of three images showing the gardens and rear of Hove Manor, seen from the east from vantage points in what is now Vallance Gardens.  In this original image from 1867 (according to the original description), suitably attired friends gather in a bucolic setting with horses and hounds. 70 years later, in 1936, Hove Manor was replaced by a block of flats of the same name. The flats can be seen in the far distance between the houses built at the end of the original gardens, now the west side of Vallance Gardens, a private road started in 1903 and declared a public highway in 1928.  (Photographer: David Sears)

In this garden were taken some of the earliest cinematograph films, by Mr Williamson. Close to this house were Ivy Cottages, 3 small cottages, approached by a narrow lane from Kingsway, which can be seen in one of the Kingsway photographs. The Cottages were also accessible from Vine Cottage, via the path seen at the rear of the house. Vine Cottage must have been built about 1850, as it is mentioned in Folthorpe’s Brighton Directory of that period. I am told that it was demolished in 1908, but I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this. jgc_12_187

2018: The modern photographs for this and for jgc_12_188, below, were taken from the top of the fire-escape at the back of 36-38 St Aubyns, by kind permission of the current residents, the EF private international school for English language students. The address is now EF Residence, International House. Vine Cottage is long gone but the distinctive flint dividing wall is still there. Vallance Gardens has been fully developed. In the background to the right is the top floor of the Dolphin Court flats which stand on the corner of Hove Street and Vallance Gardens. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018:  Ivy Lodge was the home of John Oliver Vallance until he left it in 1887 to move to Brooker Hall, now Hove Museum. By the time James Williamson made his two films at this location, ‘Attack on a Chinese Mission—Blue Jackets to the Rescue’ (1900—not 1901), now regarded as the most important film made to that date, and ‘Fire!’ (1901) Ivy Lodge was in poor repair. It was demolished by 1908.  In the background of the 2018 picture, to the left, can now be seen the top floors of flats built on the site of the original Hove Manor. (Photographer: David Sears)