This is an account of the early history of what is now Gensing Gardens. It was called at various times the Western Pleasure Ground, Gensing Pleasure Ground, Gensing Wood Public Pleasure Ground, and perhaps other variations. This park, a combination of open land and shrubberies with some trees, slopes quite steeply from Charles Road on the west to London Road on the eastern border, and also less steeply from north to south. At first it was surrounded by countryside, and it is interesting that the Council thought of providing a park in advance of actual building work in the district.
DH/B 89 at The Keep, Falmer, is an archive titled ‘Hastings Borough Council: minutes of the St Andrew’s Gardens and Gensing Gardens Committee 1867-1875’. St Andrews Gardens opened in 1864 and was renamed Alexandra Park in 1882 when visited by Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra. Clearly, if this is accurate, the idea of Gensing Gardens existed by 1867 (1 March 1867 is the beginning of the minutes according to another catalogue entry), but on a relatively swift search of the newspapers I could not find initial discussions. I suspect that mentions of Gensing Gardens are later on in the minutes.
However, when I was close to finishing this post I came across a 17-page PDF document on the Internet, the Sussex Gardens Trust’s Gensing Gardens Hastings. It dates from 2017. It contains a great deal of extra historical information, including two early photographs. The report includes careful comparison of maps to establish what was there or not there at specific dates. I have not reproduced such information in this post except to note its information on the lease and purchase of the park by the Council.
On the 1 May 1868 the Council agreed — apparently as part of a complicated deal to do with nearby land, which I didn’t really understand, as explained on page 7 of Gensing Gardens Hastings — to accept from the Eversfield Estate the six acres of land called Gensing Woods as pleasure grounds. This was in fact not a gift but a lease, as made clear in other mentions, and with a covenant, and the freehold was only bought in 1903.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 8 October 1869, has this report:
THE GENSING PLEASURE GROUND.
The line and level of roads around the new pleasure ground, on the Eversfield estate, near London road, having been laid out by Mr Hill, the Garden Committee recommended the Board to order notices for tenders to be issued for fencing in the ground; also to offer a premium of £10 for the best design for laying out the same.
The report was adopted on Mr WINTER’S motion.
It was elsewhere stated that the fencing was 470 yards long. Mr Hill was probably Richard A. Hill. In the 1871 census he was at nearby 19 Pevensey Road, age 39, architect and surveyor, born Cork, Ireland.
I was interested in who designed the park rather than in the successful fence contractor. It was the Borough Surveyor, William Andrews, assisted by Mr Palmer the gardener. So says Gensing Gardens on the Hastings Council’s website (and also other sources), which also states that the tender was won by Moring and Vernon, ‘who built some of the houses in Warrior Square’. If so, why aren’t those two credited as the designers ? I am confident that Moring was a mistake for Charles Moreing, an architect who was the developer by 1856 of the square, while Vernon was almost certainly Walter Liberty Vernon, a local architect and surveyor.
In the 1871 census William Andrews was living at 12 Quarry Terrace, Hastings. He was 43, Borough Surveyor, born in Lincolnshire, with his wife Harriett and three locally-born children, the eldest age 14. When they married in Cheshire in 1855 he said he was of Hastings, a builder. Both he and his bride had builders as fathers. In the 1861 census, at 24 St Mary’s Terrace, Hastings, he was a builder’s foreman. He was appointed Borough Surveyor in 1862. He died in 1902, as of Newlands, Baldslow Road, Hastings, as Consulting Surveyor to the Council. This was apparently a sinecure which paid him £200 annually.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 28 April 1871:
The Gensing or Western Pleasure Ground, London road, has made but little stir. A good deal of work has been quietly done there. A strong retaining wall forms the boundary in London road; and a substantial oak fence encloses six acres of land. A wide border, completely round the ground, has been planted with trees, shrubs, and flower seed; and the main drives are process of formation. However, much remains to be done, and probably the place will not be opened to the public this summer.
The map given below shows the gardens as surveyed in 1872 by the Ordnance Survey. While many of the paths shown are those seen today, there are some important differences. The map does not show a gardener’s cottage at top right; there is a pond halfway down, on the right, absent today; there is a small greenhouse at bottom right, while there are no greenhouses at all today.
In the Hastings and St Leonards News, 10 May 1872, in an article titled ‘Gensing Pleasure Ground’, it was explained that work had being going on under Mr Andrew’s direction in laying out lawns, flower beds and walks. Although the work was incomplete, the flower borders ‘present a sight which does credit to the gardener, Charles Palmer’. Mr Andrews wanted to open it soon, and the writer thought it would become as popular as St Andrews Gardens – despite being much smaller. Another difference was that what is now Alexandra Park is mostly flat, and with a stream.
In the 1881 census Charles Palmer was in the newly built gardener’s cottage, described as Gate Lodge, Gensing Gardens. It is still there, now a private residence, at the northeast corner. He was 42, ‘gardener’, born St Mary’s Hastings, married to Elizabeth, 41, born Eltham, with four children and a lodger. In the 1871 census he had lived at 10 Egremont Place, Hastings, a labourer. Mysteriously, he had not aged between the two censuses, being 42 in both.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 5 July 1872, covered the official opening by the Mayor, attended by councillors and aldermen. A marquee had been erected, and after a walk through the gardens various toasts were drunk at what was described as a tea. A croquet lawn was mentioned.
Houses began to spring up around the attractive new gardens. I intend to cover this in more detail in future, so I will only include the bare details here.
At some point 72-80 London Road was named Gensing Gardens, according to the 1912 edition of Pike’s directory. These are the five houses between the southeast corner of the park and Clyde Road. I am not sure when they were built, but they were not there in 1872 and were certainly there by 1874.
Planning application DH/C/6/1/1525 was permitted on the 7 February 1873, for 13 houses on Clyde Road. It was originally called Barham Terrace, after Barham House, the substantial building at its south-east corner on London Road, still there today as 66 London Road (nos. 68 and 70 do not exist). The houses on the northern side have their back gardens bordering the park.
On the 5 June 1874 approval was given to planning application DH/C/6/1/1667, for ‘new roads, Charles Road, Anglesea Road and other new roads on Eversfield Estate.’ These are the roads on the western and northern border. This layout (and main sewers) were required to be built, of course, before any building work could begin. As usual I have not looked at this document, which is at The Keep, at Falmer. The Hastings Observer the next day stated that it was submitted by Mr Elworthy, Surveyor to the Eversfield Estate. The estate never actually built anything, but instead sold 99-year leases on building plots to, mostly, builders.
The same edition stated that the Gensing Pleasure Gardens had cost £1500, and was completed with the exception of a small piece of land. It was recommended, and agreed, that a cottage for the gardener be added. It was remarked that ‘first-class property was being erected around them,’ which is odd, as it would have been illegal to do so before the roads and sewers were installed. Perhaps they only meant London Road.
On the 7 August 1874 approval was given to planning application DH/C/6/1/1677. This was for 45 houses on ‘Charles Road, Anglesea Road and opposite the Gensing Pleasure Ground.’ Anglesea Road was soon renamed Anglesea Terrace.
The Hastings Observer, 4 September 1875, had these two items:
ERECTION OF A GREENHOUSE. The Surveyor was directed to erect a greenhouse in the Gensing-gardens, on the recommendation of the Committee.
THE GENSING GARDENS. The application of inhabitants of Barham-terrace for permission to open private entrances into Gensing-gardens was refused.
The Hastings Observer, 5 August 1876:
THE COTTAGE AT THE GENSING GARDENS. The lowest tender received for the erection of the new cottage at the Gensing Pleasure Gardens having been £696, the Committee recommended that the Surveyor be instructed to prepare plans for a sum not exceeding the amount borrowed.
The recommendation was adopted.
From now on I will only mention a few items.
The Hastings Observer, 5 June 1886:
THE TOWN BAND. – Orders have been issued by the Watch Committee to the Town Band to play in the public gardens in the town three afternoons during the week, viz. : Gensing Gardens, on Tuesday; the Alexandra Park, on Wednesday; and the St Leonards Gardens, on Saturday; from 3.00 to 4.30. The presence of a band will prove an additional charm to these pleasant resorts, and will, no doubt, attract large numbers of people.
I am not aware of a bandstand ever being in the park, so I wonder where the band played.
The Hastings Observer, 14 July 1888, had a long article discussing both St Leonards Gardens and Gensing Gardens. Gensing Gardens’ pond had carp, and boys also sailed small boats on it. Mr Kerswell, the chief gardener, conducted the reporter around, and was installing carpet bedding in the place where the Queen’s Jubilee had had a floral display the previous year. The new display would celebrate the Prince of Wales. Numerous varieties of semi-tropical plants were also mentioned, including agave, yucca and cactus. There was one clump of rhododendron. None of these plants are there today.
It had a dozen tennis courts — there would have surely not have been enough space, let alone flat space, for them besides the other attractions. It was forbidden to play on these courts in boots, but that was allowed in Alexandra Park. A maze was also mentioned. Neither the courts nor the maze are present today.
No doubt miscreants were around. The Hastings Observer, 7 September 1889, reported on Samuel Bragg plucking flowers. He claimed he did not know it was wrong. He was fined 20s and costs.
The same, 6 February 1892, had this item. Is this shaft still there ?
VENTILATING SHAFTS. The Committee had had their attention called by Messrs. Young and Son, the solicitors to the Trustees of the Eversfield Estate, to a ventilating shaft in connection with the public sewers, which has been erected in the Gensing Gardens, in contravention of the lease under which the Gardens are held, and have received from them draft of a deed of covenant under the terms of which the Trustees are prepared to allow the said shaft to remain upon certain conditions. The Committee recommended the terms be assented to.
Historical Hastings’ page for Gensing Gardens has two photos, one from 1901 looking towards Anglesea Terrace, with the greenhouses showing, the other from 1950 showing the boating pond.
On the 24 January 1903 Gensing Gardens, with four reservoirs, was sold as freehold by the Eversfield Estate to Hastings Council for £6834. Gensing Gardens was labelled Plot 5, as in the original 1868 lease. The relevant document is cited as ESRO 9658/4/4/5 by Gensing Gardens Hastings but this does not appear to match an actual archival reference at The Keep. ESRO stood for East Sussex Record Office.
An Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1897, published in 1889 is at https://maps.nls.uk/view/103674748 which may be of interest to those familiar with the park, like these other maps.
The 1954 map shown above has some differences to today. Gone are the greenhouses on the northern edge, the pond and the tennis courts, while the playground has moved a short distance. The original fencing has long gone, and walls are only on the northern and eastern sides, with open ground next to Charles Road.