Publications
The West Brighton Estate, Hove, by W. F. Pickering, 1969 at Sussex University (M.A. thesis)
The West Brighton Estate: Hove. A Study in Victorian Urban Expansion, by Wliiam F. Pickering, published December 1972 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 5, article, pp.14-30) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/5] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:That part of Hove which was known as the West Brighton Estate lies between Church Road and the sea, from First Avenue to Fourth Avenue. Today, it is a comfortably dull district of architectural mediocrities in unco-ordinated styles. It is hard to recapture the enthusiasm of contemporaries for this 'Belgravia-sur-mer', praised for its 'magnificent avenues after the style of those in Berlin' and called the 'finest suburb in the parliamentary borough'. Yet this area set the pattern for the later development of Hove and was a symbol of civic pride in the period of Hove's most boastful self-awareness. It was a monument to status, respectability and quiet ostentation.
Hove is not part of Brighton, nor has it ever been. For long they were physically separated, and when the towns eventually grew together to form a single urban area, they remained apart in other ways. Throughout the 19th century, even after it had become an ordinary seaside resort town, Brighton retained something of its air of Regency rakishness. From the beginning, Hove saw itself as a contrast to Brighton, and cultivated the image of solid middle-class respectability it retains today.
Hove is not part of Brighton, nor has it ever been. For long they were physically separated, and when the towns eventually grew together to form a single urban area, they remained apart in other ways. Throughout the 19th century, even after it had become an ordinary seaside resort town, Brighton retained something of its air of Regency rakishness. From the beginning, Hove saw itself as a contrast to Brighton, and cultivated the image of solid middle-class respectability it retains today.