EPW000071 ENGLAND (1920). Darley Road and environs, Eastbourne, 1920

Dear all,



That’s great; we’ve reviewed your suggestions and thanks to your help we can update the catalogue. The revised record will appear here in due course. Hope you have the same success solving some of our other mysteries!



Katy Whitaker

Britain from Above Cataloguer

I believe the building on the lower right is the old All Saints Hospital, the majority of which still exists as modern apartments,and Meads Street is on the left.

This is a wonderful photograph showing several buildings which have disappeared over the years. The large building in the foreground is indeed All Saints. The flint cottages with partially tile-hung walls at the corner of Darley Road and Meads Street were for the staff of the hospital and are well documented in various photographs. More interesting are the Ships Cottages (demolished c. 1950s) which were reached via the twitten behind the Ship and also from Meads Street. The large pitched roof to the right of these cottages was that of the former gymnasium run by a Mr Moss – this was used by many of the smaller private schools which did not have such facilities: after WW2 these premises became a shirt factory. At the corner of Meads Street and Matlock Road, partially hidden by trees, can be seen the white rendered walls of Sprays Farmhouse, which was demolished in October 1921. The lane which runs behind the farmhouse (now behind nos 24 – 34 Meads Street) can clearly be seen, as can a large building with white double doors. This was stables but in later years became garages with the upper part a store for the scenery of the Clarkson Rose shows at the Devonshire Park.