The Spirit of North street Portslade

 North Street, Portslade, emerged as a vital hub of shopping and community during the 19th century, following the area's rural beginnings

To walk down North Street today is to tread upon layers of Portslade’s industrial and social history. Though it began as a modest route in a rural landscape, by the mid-1800s, it had become the primary shopping hub for a rapidly growing working-class population. It was a place where families lived in the shadow of windmills, where community was forged in local pubs, and where public health crises were met with neighbourly resilience. Below are the key moments and personal stories that define the evolution of North Street.

Anecdotes Mentioning North Street, Portslade

Historical records confirm North Street as a central thoroughfare in Portslade by the mid-19th century, evolving into a bustling commercial and residential hub amid the area's rural-to-industrial transition. However, direct anecdotes from the 18th century are scarce, with most evidence pointing to its prominence emerging in the early-to-mid 19th century alongside population growth from brickworks, gasworks, and proximity to Brighton. Below are the key anecdotes explicitly referencing North Street (or immediately adjacent sites like its corner with West Street), drawn from local histories, censuses, and period publications. These highlight everyday life, community events, health crises, and commerce.

Early 19th Century (Pre-1850)

- Lightning Strike at Adjacent Windmill (1813) The Copperas Gap Windmill, located at the corner of North Street and West Street (a key landmark marking the street's southern extent), was struck by lightning during a severe storm. Miller William Huggett suffered severe burns but survived. This incident underscores the area's vulnerability to weather and the windmill's role in local milling/grinding operations, which supported early commerce along North Street.

- Working-Class Settlement and Church Expansion (1862):

North Street was described as "one of the main roads in Portslade-by-Sea," populated almost exclusively by working-class families tied to emerging industries. This prompted the addition of an aisle to St. Andrew's Church to accommodate growth, funded partly by a £40 grant. It reflects the street's role as a hub for labourers, with shops and services beginning to cluster there.

Mid-to-Late 19th Century (1850–1900)

- **Overcrowded Housing and Smallpox Quarantine (1881)**: In a six-room house on North Street, two families (S.A. and his wife with four children; C.J. and his wife with four children) lived in cramped conditions typical of the street's migrant workers from places like St. Albans and Portsmouth. When Mrs J. contracted smallpox on October 28, the entire household—12 people—was quarantined indoors by the Steyning Board of Guardians, with food delivered daily. Her son C.J. (age 8) developed a mild case on November 13 but recovered; no further infections spread locally. Clothes were burned, and the house disinfected on December 13. This was one of five affected Portslade households, highlighting public health challenges in the dense shopping/residential area.

The Clarendon Arms: A Century of Community (1860s–1965) Situated at 6 North Street, the Clarendon Arms was established in the 1860s just as Portslade began its industrial boom. For over a century, it served as a vital social anchor for the brickmakers, gasworkers, and shoppers who frequented the thoroughfare.

The pub’s early years reveal a poignant story of family resilience. In 1871, the Irish-born landlord Thomas Tate (33) managed the house alongside his wife Ann and their four young children. Following Thomas’s untimely death, Ann took over the licence herself—a notable feat for a woman in the 1870s. By 1881, the pub housed a blended family after Ann married Benjamin Wood, an Essex man. The household reflected the street’s busy commercial nature, including Ann’s teenage son, who worked as a butcher’s assistant.

The pub was a mainstay of the local "Brewery Scene," owned by Robins & Co. for 66 years before being acquired by the famous Brighton-based Tamplin’s Brewery in 1928. It remained a popular local "boozer" through the Second World War and into the mid-20th century, eventually closing its doors in 1965 under its final landlord, Christopher "Ted" Routledge. While the building was demolished during the 1960s redevelopment of the area, its long history remains a testament to the North Street spirit of hospitality.

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Comparison of North Street’s Two Main Pubs

Since your blog mentions North Street as a shopping hub, it might be helpful to distinguish between the two main establishments for your readers:

Feature	The Clarendon Arms	The Clarence Hotel
Location	6 North Street	Corner of North St & High St
Character	A smaller, gritty "industrial" local	A grand, three-storey community hub
Key Asset	Famous for its long-serving families	Famous for its upstairs Assembly Room
Fate	Demolished in 1965	Still standing (now Clarence Court flats)

Census Snapshots of Daily Life (1891) 

•    No. 7: Brick-maker William Saville (49, from Hertfordshire) with sons William (20) and Alfred (18, both labourers), plus younger children at school—reflecting influx of migrant workers supporting local building trades.
•   No. 8: Garden labourer William Peters (Portslade-born) with wife Louie and young children, showing ties to the area's fading rural economy.
•   No. 50: Gasworks labourer George Goble (20) in a large family headed by father James (49, from Portsmouth), emphasising industrial shifts and family-scale shopping needs.

Address	Head of Household	Occupation	Origin
No. 6	Ann Wood	Landlady (Clarendon Arms)	Sussex
No. 7	William Saville	Brick-maker	Hertfordshire
No. 8	William Peters	Garden Labourer	Portslade
No. 50	James Goble	Gasworks Labourer	Portsmouth

Faith and Community: The Rise of the North Street Baptists

The Assembly Room Beginnings (1870–1872) Before North Street had its own dedicated chapels, the Clarence Hotel’s Assembly Room served as the area's primary civic space. It was here, on a bitterly cold 18th December 1870, that the Portslade Baptist story began. At the request of the famous Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Rev. E.A. Tydeman arrived in a snowstorm to lead a service for just eleven pioneering congregants. Using the pub's upstairs room as a makeshift sanctuary, this small group formalised their congregation in 1872, proving that the spiritual life of Portslade was just as vibrant as its industrial one.

Growth and Modernisation (1873–1892) The group quickly outgrew the pub, moving to a 150-seat chapel in Chapel Place (just off North Street) in 1873. By the 1890s, the "Baptist bustle" had reached a fever pitch. The chapel was overflowing, hosting the district's largest Sunday School and active temperance groups.

This culminated in the construction of the grand 400-seat church fronting North Street. Designed by architect A.R. Parr, its foundation stones were laid on 1st October 1891. In a charming nod to the future, a time capsule containing contemporary newspapers and names was sealed beneath the stone. When it opened on 29th March 1892, it became a spiritual haven for the shift workers from the nearby gasworks, led by notable pastors such as Tydeman and H.J. Dyer.

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Why the Assembly Rooms Mattered

Site	Ground Floor	Upstairs (Assembly Room)
The Clarence	Public Bar & Hotel	Religious services, Political meetings, & Inquests
The Chapel	N/A	Sunday Schools & Temperance Meetings

Tragedy in the Shadows: The Watchman’s Hut (1899)

While North Street was a place of vibrant daytime commerce, it also had a quieter, more transient "underbelly." This was highlighted by a tragic incident on the cold night of 30th April 1899.

William Burrows, a vagrant with no local ties, sought shelter from the spring chill in a watchman’s hut on North Street. At around 4:00 am, while the watchman was away tending to the street lamps, Burrows appears to have suffered a fit and collapsed across the fire warming the hut. He was rushed to the Hove Dispensary but succumbed to his injuries a month later. Secretive about his past and his identity, Burrows' death served as a stark reminder of the hardships faced by the homeless in Victorian Portslade—even in its most central and thriving commercial Centre.

Summary for Further Investigation

North Street's role as Portslade's primary shopping hub appears more firmly established by the mid-19th century, driven by industrial migration and proximity to Brighton/Shoreham trade routes, rather than the 18th century (when Portslade was largely rural with scattered mills and farms). Anecdotes reveal a gritty, community-oriented street: pubs and chapels as social anchors, overcrowding amid growth, and ties to broader Sussex events like health scares and royal visits nearby (e.g., 1795 Princess of Wales picnic at adjacent Copperas Gap). No 18th-century shopping-specific stories surfaced, suggesting the hub's "main" status may have intensified post-1830s with railway/canal developments.

Join the Search: How to Discover More

While these anecdotes provide a glimpse into North Street’s past, there is still so much to uncover. If you are interested in doing your own "deep dive" into Portslade’s heritage, here are the best places to start:

Category	Recommended Resources	What to Look For
Archives	The Keep (Brighton), British Library, & Ancestry.com	Parish records and 19th-century trade directories (Kelly’s or Pigot’s).
Local Lore	Portslade History Society & Portslade: A History by M.E. Beswick	Specific mentions of shopkeepers or industrial disputes.
Visuals	National Library of Scotland (Ordnance Survey Maps)	1873 maps showing the original layout of North Street and West Street.
On-Site	Emmaus (Manor House) & St Nicolas Churchyard	Memorials to the Borrer family and early 19th-century residents.

Would you like to hear a Podcast about the rise and fall of North Street, and the rise of Station Road and Boundary Road as commercial the hub of Portslade click here