The Portslade We Could Smell

 

The Portslade We Could Smell: A Walk Down North Street, 1915

They say that scent is the fastest way to travel through time. While many of us look at the old photographs of North Street and see a silent, grey world, those who lived it—and those of us with long memories—know it was anything but.

The Butcher’s "Iron and Wood"

If you were a child in Portslade sixty years ago, or a neighbour in 1915, the local butcher shop had a signature "perfume." Whether you were visiting Charles Curd at No. 19 or Arthur Hardy at No. 44, the first thing that hit you was the floor.

The thick layer of fresh, resinous sawdust was there for a practical reason—to soak up the Labour of the day—but it created a soft, muffled atmosphere and a clean, woody scent that mingled with the metallic tang of cold iron rails and fresh meat. It’s a smell that hasn't existed in a supermarket for decades, yet for many of us, it’s still right there "up our noses" the moment we close our eyes.

The "Portslade Pong" and the Sanitary Man

Outside the shop doors, the air was a battleground. You had the heavy, sulphurous weight of the Gas Works (the infamous "Portslade Pong") competing with the yeasty warmth from Hendrik Zwartouw’s bakery on Church Road.

Keeping this sensory chaos in check was the job of Arthur Taylor Allen, the town’s Sanitary Inspector (Ref C 105). Living at 46 St Andrew’s Road, Mr. Allen’s "professional nose" was the town’s primary defence against the less pleasant side of Edwardian life. He was the man who ensured the North Street butchers kept their yards clean and that the many local laundries, like the Albemarle, didn't let their soapy "wash-water" linger in the gutters.

A Vanished World

Today, North Street is quieter and the air is cleaner, but we’ve lost that rich, pungent tapestry of local trade. We might miss the smell of Valentino Burden’s paraffin oils or the "Fly" horses at Alfred Bourne’s stables, but through our memories of those sawdust-covered floors, we can still find our way back to the heart of the old community.

The Source	The Aroma	The "Hidden" Labour
The Sawdust	Clean, woody, and slightly resinous.	Spread every morning to soak up the "liquids" of the trade and kept the floor safe for your mum to walk on.
The Gas Works	Acrid, sulphurous, and "thick."	The relentless work of the gas-house labourers down by the Canal (Ref C 119).
The Fly Stables	Warm horse, leather, and pungent manure.	Alfred Bourne (Ref C 117) keeping his "Fly" carriages ready for the gentility of St Aubyn's Road.
Valentino Burden	Paraffin, turpentine, and linseed oil.	The "Oil & Colourman" (Ref C 122) supplying the painters like Leonard Hollands (Ref C 182).
The Bakeries	Toasted flour, yeast, and coal-smoke.	Hendrik Zwartouw (Ref C 274) and Herbert Taylor (Ref C 258) firing up the ovens before dawn.

That "minds eye" walk down North Street in 1915 is a multisensory experience, and you are absolutely right—the smells would have been overwhelming. While the "Portslade Pong" (the notorious sulphur and oxide scent from the Gas Works) was the dominant atmospheric feature, the butchers added a very different, more visceral layer to the air.

The Butchers and the "Scent of the Street"

In 1915, North Street had a remarkably high concentration of butchers. Looking at your list, we have Charles Curd (No. 19), John Curd (No. 27), W & R Fletcher (No. 35), and Arthur Hardy (No. 44).

• The Abattoir Question: In those days, it was very common for "Master Butchers" to have their own small-scale slaughterhouses (abattoirs) right behind the shop. While larger towns were beginning to move toward municipal abattoirs for hygiene, a street like North Street—half-industrial and half-residential—likely still saw livestock being driven up from the harbour or the local farms (like Sydney West’s North House farm, Ref C 73) directly to the back of the shops.

• The Sensory Reality: You’d have the smell of fresh sawdust on the floors (used to soak up blood), the metallic scent of raw meat hanging on brass rails, and yes, the occasional pungent odour of the "backyard" slaughterhouse.

• Competing Smells: * The Gas Works: Sulphur and "bog ore" (the "Portslade Pong").

  • The Butchers: Blood, bone meal, and offal.

  • The Stables: Manure from the "Fly" horses (Alfred Bourne, No. 77) and the coal carts.

  • The Bakeries: The smell of soot from the ovens (Zwartouw, No. 28 Church Rd) mixed with fresh yeast.

The Curd Family "Meat Empire"

The Curds (Charles at No. 19 and John at No. 27) were a significant presence. They were likely a family firm that split the street between them. In the 1911 census, Charles Curd is listed as a "Butcher & Shopkeeper." Usually, a shop like his would have had a "killing house" in the yard behind the terrace.

Arthur Hardy: The Pork Specialist

Arthur Hardy (No. 44) is listed specifically as a Pork Butcher. This is a great detail because pork butchers often did their own curing and sausage-making on-site. The smell of boiling hams or rendering lard would have been another distinct North Street aroma.

A Walk of Contrasts

If you started your walk at the Prince’s Imperial Cinema, you’d leave the scent of the perfume used to freshen the theater and immediately hit the "industrial" air of the street:

1. Passing the Bookseller (Eli Andrews) and the Watchmaker (Arthur Skinner).

2. The sudden tang of the Oil & Colourman (Valentino Burden) with his paints and paraffin.

3. The heavy, meaty atmosphere of the Curd Butchers.

4. Ending with the coal dust near George Daws (No. 74) at the bottom by the canal.

It really puts the "Labour" in North Street into perspective—it was a street that worked hard, smelled hard, and probably sounded even louder with the clatter of carts on the stones.