Brighton & Hove North Laine Tidy Street www.mhms.org.uk Tidy Street Lead researcher Phyllis McDonald This volume is dedicated to our colleague Phyllis 19th May 1945 - 15th October 2011. MyHouseMyStreet is a collaborative, community-based project providing information about Brighton & Hove's historic homes and streets. It encourages and enables exploration of the local and, in particularly, the City’s 'back-street' neighbourhoods. MyHouseMyStreet is a Regency Town House project. Project Progress 2010/11 Over the last twelve months the MyHouseMyStreet project has evolved significantly; developing strongly after the pilot programmes staged in 2008-10. Recent key achievements include: the assembly of a database containing more than 1.4 million elements, recording past residents in twenty-five of Brighton & Hove’s historic streets; the staging of ten MyHouseMyStreet exhibitions across the City, with detailed street histories produced about each exhibition location; the building of a project website that already offers some 40 thousand local directory pages dating from 1784 to 1975 and which will soon offer to all, the full set of information gathered by MyHouseMyStreet researchers. Acknowledgements We are grateful to all who have contributed to expanding the initiative during the last year, especially the many Regency Town House volunteers who have assisted with its long-term development and the residents of the areas in which we have staged MyHouseMyStreet exhibitions. All have given very generously. Without their effort, enthusiasm and perseverance the project would have been much diminished. Special thanks must go to our principle street researchers: Shirley Allen, Gilly Burton, Alan Campbell, Elaine Fear, Phyllis McDonald, Chris Nichols, Catherine Page, Rosemary Pugh, Caroline Wallis. And, particularly to Caroline and Catherine, who also edited the street histories produced this year. Others who we must acknowledge include: Esther Cox, Triston Robinson and Cyrill Studer who have provided their graphic design skills, Val Cartei, Janice Ferris, Amy Miller and David Witt who have given significantly of their free time to assist the project’s technical development, and those who, every week, work at The Regency Town House to support members of the different teams contributing to the project, especially Jill Hepplewhite, Nina Hirshorn, Enzo Marra and Ellen Scaife. Our gratitude goes also to the Trustees of the Heritage Lottery Fund for grant aiding the initiative and to the staff at East Sussex Record Office (ESRO) and the Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton and Hove, for their ongoing support of the project and permission to reproduce images held in their collections. Nick Tyson, Curator, The Regency Town House Heritage Centre, September 2011 Note: Version 1 of this document produced, September 2011. It is hoped that updates will be issued periodically. For the latest version, see: http://www.mhms.org.uk Published by The Regency Town House ISBN 978-1-903709-05-4 Contents Introduction ...................................................................................... 4 Development ...................................................................................... 5 Architecture and materials ........................................................................ 5 Amenities ......................................................................................... 6 Ownership ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 Residents ......................................................................................... 9 Trade ............................................................................................. 10 Health ............................................................................................ 11 World War One ................................................................................... 11 Events �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 14 References ........................................................................................ 15 Brighton & Hove Introduction This is the story of Tidy Street in the North Laine area Richard Lemmon Whichelo from whom it passed to El- of Brighton. The street is built on two strips of ancient gate Whichelo in 1800 and on his death, within months, open-field arable farming land: one of these was 4 pauls to his brother John Whichelo.1 in size and the other was 8 pauls. We had no knowledge Tidy Street runs north to south between Trafalgar of what was grown on the land but we know that, by the Street and Gloucester Road. Downhill to the east is Syd- 1830s, when building started, both of these pieces of land ney Street and uphill to the west is Kensington Place. had passed into the ownership of John Whichelo. The The name of Richard Tidy appears often in the lists land was “part of 4 pauls formerly Benj. Scutts late Har- of copyholders in Brighton. In 1755 he inherited property mans and 8 pauls, formerly Benj. Master’s, situate in the from his uncle, Richard Masters and this included one of 3rd furlong North Laine.” These can be seen in the 1792 the pieces of land which was used to create the street.2 He “Terrier” - the official record held by the manor of Bright- was described as a merchant living at Cliffe, near Lewes, on-Lewes - and it is possible to track the changes in the but he had many business interests in Brighton. In 1757 he copyholders. Benjamin Scutt’s 4 pauls passed to Charles became the owner of the White Lion in North Street (op- Scrase and, by 1793, to his grandson Charles Scrase posite West Street), the building dated at least from the Dickins. In 1822 Charles Scrase Dickens sold the land to Sixteenth Century and it was probably Tidy who turned it Thomas Attree who then sold it on in 1823 to John Which- into an inn which became notable for cockfighting.3 Like elo for £140. Benjamin Master’s 8 pauls had passed to his Richard Whichelo he was one of the first Commissioners nephew Richard Tidy in 1750 and on his death, in 1788, to for Brighton formed under the 1773 Brighton Town Act.4 1 | Terrier map of Brighton, 1792 (Third Furlong here shown framed). Image courtesy of East Sussex Record Office 4 Tidy Street 2 | Close up of the Third Furlong, 1792. Image courtesy of 3 | Detail from the 1792 Terrier’s apportionment list showing East Sussex Record Office landholding interests in Tidy Street. Image courtesy of East Sussex Record Office Development For most of the 18th Century Brighton had been a servants, tradesmen and artisans to supply their needs. town of 2-3,000 people. Following its adoption by the In Tidy Street, John Whichelo worked with Robert Prince Regent and its continued development as a sea- Chalcroft, a builder. Land at the south end was sold to bathing centre, the population rose to 5,669 in 1794 and Robert Frampton, who built and occupied what was to to 7,339 in 1801. In 1811 it was 12,012 but that had doubled become 101 Gloucester Lane (later Gloucester Road) and (to 24,429) in 1821 and by 1831 it was 40,6345. This popu- number 1 Tidy Street.6 Robert Frampton appears to have lation increase saw John Whichelo and his fellow busi- built the property (or messuage) to live in himself. There nessmen engage with the great early-19th century build- are no details of the rest of the street but in 1835 Whichelo ing boom which gradually covered all of the old open and Chalcroft sold number 4 Tidy Street to Robert Mor- arable fields with streets of small houses. They knew that ling, who paid £64 for the land and £166 for the building.7 the arrival of the wealthy meant the arrival of an army of Architecture and materials The properties in Tidy street were, like those in neigh- and lime wall), brick, Roman cement, lime-plaster and bouring streets, constructed principally of Bungaroosh (a timber. Although sharing this common set of materials, local Sussex name for layered, shutter-constructed, flint the street has a distinct and unique personality, one de- 5 Brighton & Hove rived largely from the efforts of the original developers to east section of the street, the door cases are elaborated give the facades a unified and slightly gentrified character. with fine molded surrounds with caps and keystones. Almost all of the properties in the street are two sto- By far the majority of the houses would have origi- ries above ground with basement, albeit that there is oc- nally utilised, on the front elevation, one double hung casionally evidence of a property having been extended sash window to ground and another to first floor; albeit upwards during the 19th century, such as at number 29 the style of the ground floor window in properties ful- which is discussed below. filling a commercial rather than a residential role would Perhaps the most immediately noticeable character- frequently have been a large Georgian-pattern fixed light. istic of the houses in the street is their rendered finish The two properties in the street that really stand out and, in particular, the rustication (deep, wide, channels as being different from the rest are numbers 36 and 37, a laid into the render) that has been employed, on most, to pair of buildings with a large projecting string cornice finish the ground floor elevation. Small homes in com- and parapet atop the 1st floor. parison with those built into the prestigious squares and In recent decades, the