What is well established is who built Stanhope Place in St Leonards on Sea. What, I suspect, is not known is why the road has that name, and who actually owned the freeholds of its 14 terrace houses in its first decades.
These houses are Grade II listed, and their official description at the Historic England website is:
Circa 1840. 3 storeys. 2 windows to each house, centre 3 houses (6 windows) project slightly. Stuccoed. Stringcourse at 1st floor cill level. Cornice and parapet. Windows in moulded architrave surrounds, those on the ground and 1st floors (except on the 1st floor of No 12) with segmental heads. Sashes mostly with glazing bars, No 7 has 1st floor casements. Round-headed doorways in moulded architrave surrounds with semi-circular fanlights, Nos 3, 4, 7, 8 and 10 to 14 with moulded and panelled doors, the remainder have later doors. Slate hipped roofs.
Nos 1 to 14 (consec) and 7 Mews Road form a group.
In fact they are more than a decade later than 1840. The documentation for 6 Stanhope Place has been purchased from the Land Registry and this states that in August 1851 Alfred Burton, son of James Burton the original developer of St Leonards, granted to James Smith the right to build “houses of a respectable class having not less than 3 storeys and according to an elevation to be previously approved of by the said Alfred Burton”.
This is supported by a document in The National Archives, Kew, MH13/87/148. Pages 289-91 consist of a letter to the General Board of Health, dated 10 February 1852, by J. and J. Langham, solicitors, on the High Street, Hastings. Its contents are summarised in the catalogue entry as being on behalf of James Smith, St Leonards Railway Contractor, who had applied to the Hastings Local Board of Health for a sewer to be provided for drainage for 14 houses newly erected by him called Stanhope Place, in St Mary Magdalene in the borough of Hastings.
Brett, the chronicler of the town, has this to say about what happened:
The fourteen houses built by Mr. James Smith (one of the railway contractors) at Stanhope place could only be drained through the sewers under the jurisdiction of the St. Leonards Commissioners, who required 6d. in the pound to be paid to that authority, whilst the property would be rated to the Hastings Board of Health. That being so, Mr. Smith would have to pay double rates, which could not be obviated. He had applied for advice to the General Board, but they could not interfere. The only consolation Mr. Smith could get from the Town Council was that if he “chose to build houses where there was no drainage, he must take the consequence”. Was it, then for such a principle that the Health of Towns Bill was obtained? It will have been seen, however, in the reported meetings of the St. Leonards Commissioners that they were more considerate than the Local Board of Health, by reducing their charge to Mr. Smith from 6d. to 4d. in the pound.
So who was James Smith ? In the 1851 census, at 9 North Street, St Leonards, we have this household:
James Smith, head, M[arried], 37, railway contractor, born Durham Stanhope
Mary Smith, wife, 41, born Essex Wenden
(Also 5 children, youngest Elizabeth, 11 mos, born St Leonards, the others born Kent; plus 2 servants, and 2 lodgers)
His place of birth of course explains the name of the street.
These are the couple’s marriage details:
24 Feb 1842, St James, Bermondsey. James Smith, plate layer on railway, of Deptford, son of George Smith, miner, and Mary Rand, spinster, of Deptford, daughter of James Rand, farmer.
Both of his names, and his wife’s first name, are very common but I knew it was the right marriage because, in the 1861 census, his Rand mother in law was living in his household. Clearly he had worked his way up from being a plate layer.
The normal way builders operated, at least in St Leonards, was to buy leases to plots of land from freeholders and, having built a house, sell it on to recover the money so that it could be used for spending on labour and materials in the other plots. 90-year leases were the usual from the Burton Estate — these sound incredibly short to us.
In the 28 June 1853 issue of the Sussex Advertiser we have an article about a dispute about drains before the Bench. It was The Commissioners of St Leonards v Mr James Smith. Smith was described as a railway contractor of Newton, Smith & Co. On the 7 June he allowed soil to flow from his drain. It was said that six or eight of the houses on Stanhope Place were occupied. When Mr Smith is here he occupies no. 8. There was mention of a quarry [at the present location of 7 and 8 Maze Hill]. Smith had put in a covered drain. The case was dismissed.
The next year Smith was responsible for British patent 1854/789, filed on the 6 October 1854. He was described as of St Leonards on Sea, contractor. The title was ‘Construction of railways’. In the next few years we have several mentions of him on Stanhope Place, although his exact ownership of houses is not clear.
The 1856 Parliamentary electoral register for East Sussex lists James Smith of 8 Stanhope Place who owned the freeholds of 11, 12 and 14 Stanhope Place.
The 1858 Melville’s Directory of Sussex has, at 7 and 8 Stanhope Place, James Smith, railway contractor.
The 9 February 1858, Sussex Advertiser has the following:
To be let for visitors. 1, 3 and 14 Stanhope Place, furnished, and 2 Stanhope Place, unfurnished. Proprietor J. Smith at 8 Stanhope Place.
The 1860/61 electoral register states that James Smith of 1 Stanhope Place was entitled to vote as owning 13 freehold houses 2 to 14 inclusive, Stanhope Place.
The 1861 census for 1 Stanhope Place has this household:
Sarah Rand, head, wid, living with her son in law James Smith householder born Essex Wenden
Margaret Smith, granddau, 15, born Kent Ashford
Helen P. Smith, granddau, 14, born Kent Deal
Elizabeth M. Smith, granddau, 10, scholar, born Sussex St Leonards
John V. Smith, grandson, 8, scholar, born Sussex St Leonards
Elizabeth Rand, granddau, 26, house servant, born Essex Wenden
Mary Royle, granddau, 18, house servant, born Surry Kingston
I could not find James Smith or his wife elsewhere.
The Sussex Express, 12 October 1867, has a detailed advertisement of the sale by auction by Gausden the auctioneer at the Castle Hotel, 15 October, of the freeholds of every house on the street, on instruction from the mortgagees under a power of sale. It looks as if the owner of the freeholds — presumably James Smith — had not made his mortgage payments.
Below is a simplified transcript of the details for the houses. As often happens we are told the name of the renters and the amount they pay.
No. 1, comprising dining and drawing rooms, 5 bedrooms, kitchen, scullery, two water closets, cellars, and yard, in occupation of Mr Stace at £40 p.a.
No. 2, similar, occupation of Mr Golding, at £35 p.a.
No. 3, similar, occupation of Mr Crouch, at £35 p.a.
No. 4, similar, occupation of Mr Selway, at £37 10s p.a.
No. 5, similar, occupation of Miss Chenning, at £35 p.a.
No. 6, similar, occupation of Mr Coleman, at £35 p.a.
No. 7, similar, occupation of Mr Valinshooten, at £35 p.a.
No. 8, [broadly similar], occupation of Mr Beck, at £35 p.a.
No. 9, [broadly similar but 4 bedrooms].
No. 10, similar to last, in occupation of Mr Neve, at £35 p.a.
No. 11, similar to last, in occupation of Mr Moon at £35 p.a.
No. 12, broadly similar but five bedrooms, wine cellar, in the occupation of Mr Charles Hughes, at £40 p.a.
No. 13, similar to last, in occupation of Mr Skinner, at £40 p.a.
No. 14, seven bedrooms [and other details], in the occupation of Mr Beddoes, at £40 p.a.
Smith appears to have moved, as the 1868 Parliamentary electoral register for East Sussex lists James Smith of Norman House, Emsworth [Hampshire, just over the border from West Sussex] as being entitled to vote as owning 13 freehold houses, 2 to 14 inclusive, Stanhope Place. Presumably this register was compiled before the sale.
It is possible that some of the houses were not sold, but as usually happens there was no comment in the newspapers on what was sold that I could discover.
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 5 February 1870, reports another sale by auction by Gausden at the Castle Hotel on the 15 March of the freeholds of nos. 1-11. Perhaps this was the mortgage owner selling to recover his money ? Below is a simplified transcript.
1 Stanhope Place, let to Mr Stace at £40 p.a.
2 Stanhope Place, let to Mr Golden at £35 p.a
3 Stanhope Place, let to Miss Crouch at £35 p.a.
4 Stanhope Place, let to Mrs Pearson at £37 10s
5 Stanhope Place, let to Miss Chenning at £35 p.a.
6 Stanhope Place, let to the Rev. S.H. Parkes, at £36 p.a.
7 Stanhope Place, let to Miss Giesler at £40
8 Stanhope Place, let to Mr Epps at £35 p.a.
9 Stanhope Place, let at £35 p.a.
10 Stanhope Place, let to Mr Neve at £35 p.a.
11 Stanhope Place, let to Mr Breeds at £35 p.a.
Those names could be compared with the 1871 census but I will leave that to anyone interested…
The mention of Emsworth in the 1868 electoral register leads on to the 1871 census at nearby Lumley Road, Westbourne, West Sussex:
James Smith, head, M, 57, contractor for public works, born Durham Stanhope [with wife, two daughters, and son George, 27, civil engineer].
In the 1881 census the family were at 8 Durham Place, Chelsea, with Smith being a retired contractor. I could not trace him further.
Below is the area in an Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1872 and published in 1875. The rear areas for 9-14 are quite different from those for 1-8.
