North from the Steine:Dorset Gardens
Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990. As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.
f) DORSETGARDENS: Lined with three- and four-storey houses of the 1790s on the eastern side. Many were refaced in the mid nineteenth century, but nos.7 and 12-18 retain their original facades and are listed buildings; nos.7 and 15 have flint-cobble fronts. The gardens cover 0.97 acres and were taken over by the corporation following the 1884 Brighton Improvement Act; in the late 1980s they were designated a ‘peace park’ with several trees symbolically planted. The Methodist church was built in 1808 and enlarged around 1840, but was completely rebuilt in red brick with terracotta dressings in 1884 by C.O.Ellison, with the southern extension added in 1929. It has shell capitals and an Italianate tower. The building is now used by the Dome Mission, founded at the Alhambra Music Hall in King’s Road by the congregation of the Norfolk Road Methodist Church; the growing attendances necessitated a move to the Dome in 1907. {44,62,123,126}
Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.
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The 1901 Census shows my great grandparents at number 32 Dorset Gardens, but it no longer appears to be there now. As it would have been the St James’s Street end, I think their house would have been demolished or became part of the large store that was on the corner of the road. My memory fails me but I think it used to be Woolworths.
I remember Dorset Gardens, they were the posh part of the area I lived, next to Mighell Street. At the end of Dorset Gardens was a building known as the Golden Arrow hotel, in later years it was made into flats that were less than posh.
According to a newspaper report an ancestor of mine, Louisa Marie Goldingham nee Popham, wife of John Goldingham ( Astronomer and engineer of Madras Observatory, India) was residing in Dorset Gardens (number unknown) in the summer of 1812 when being in very low spirits committed suicide by cutting her own throat!! Very sad as she had 5 or 6 young children….
I haven’t yet been able to locate the actual Coroners Report.
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