By Alan Green
Readers of this blog may recall a piece I posted in March 2024 about No 18 North Street as seen in an old postcard which I had just acquired on eBay. Well, I’ve just made another eBay find, this time depicting the next three shops up, namely Nos 19 to 21.
This early 20th century photograph, shewn above, is mounted on card bearing the printed inscription “20 NORTH STREET, CHICHESTER”. The street is deserted; the only sign of life being a dog outside No 21 and the only vehicle is a handcart, but the copious deposits of dung in the road point to horses being the principal form of traction in the city.
No 20
No 20 is the centre shop in the photograph, a humble two-storey building whose fascia reveals it to be the premises of Lambert & Norris, Wine & Spirit Merchant. Lettering applied to the wall at first floor level proclaims that it is the ”Lambert & Norris Branch Office, Eagle Brewery Arundel”, whilst a further sign, mounted above the gutter and running the full width of the roof announces Lambert & Norris to be selling “Noted Friary Ales and Stout” The fact that the photograph has been mounted and annotated suggests it was intended for publicity purposes by, or for, Lambert & Norris of the Eagle Brewery in Arundel.
In 1910 Lambert and Norris ran into financial difficulties and became a subsidiary of Friary, Holroyd and Healy’s Brewery in Guildford. That same year production ceased at the Eagle Brewery and the beers were supplied from Guildford. Lambert & Norris finally went into liquidation (an ironic fate for a brewery perhaps) in 1935. As well as this shop, Lambert & Norris had two pubs in Chichester, The City Arms at 34 North Street and The White Horse at Northgate. 1
The shop is so listed in the 1906 Chichester Directory, when the manager was a Mr B Bean. A clue as to the date range of the photograph is given in the high level sign which mentions Friary Ales; i.e. it post-dates the 1910 Friary take-over. It is still listed as being with Lambert & Norris in 1914 but by 1926 it had become Tyler & Co, wine and spirit merchant, so a date of 1915 -20 seems about right.
No 19
No 19, to the left, is also a humble two storey building whose dentilled eaves course is contiguous with that of No 20. Its elaborately-painted fascia, which is rather difficult to read, shews that it is the shop of J Hobbs the baker. It sports a fine double frontage with multi-paned oriel display windows.
Mr Hobbs is also listed in the 1906 directory and was still there in 1940. By the time Kelly’s resumed production of their directories in 1950 it had become the well-remembered bakery of A E Spurrier & Sons who continued into the early 1960s.
No 21
No 21 to the right is far more impressive, and of particular interest as it is no longer with us. It is an 18th century three storey building of four bays whose roof is hidden behind a parapet. A canted oriel has been added at some time at first floor level spoiling its Georgian symmetry. As with No 20 it is bedecked with advertising. The fascia shews it to be the emporium of Mr Egbert Moore who was both “The People’s Clothier” and a “Home Furnisher”. A large ‘21’ in raised lettering appears between the first and second floors and that number is displayed again in gigantic painted numerals on the end wall above the roof of no 20*. The final flourish is the wording “West Sussex Stores” painted in Gothic lettering on the parapet. Mr Moore was in occupation in 1906 and still there until 1939 when the building was demolished.
* This huge number is prominent in many early postcards of North Street.
Today
No 21 was swept away in 1939 to make way for Kimbell’s tea rooms and dance hall, a neo-Georgian building designed by local architect Harry Osborn. 2 After Kimbell’s closed it became a branch of John Perring, the furnishers, who fortunately retained the fine Art Deco interior. It is now a branch of Marks and Spencer who, sadly, gutted the interior and destroyed the magnificent perron staircase.
Nos 19 and 20 remain, but comparison with the 1915 view shews that, apart from a shared dentilled eaves course, both have lost their previous charm. The pair have been reroofed, during which operation the dormers, and the large chimney stack with its Fareham pots, were lost. No 19 was re-fronted and a prominent modern shopfront has been inserted. No 20 has also been re-fronted and given very different first-floor fenestration and it has an even-more prominent modern shop front. These two buildings are quite likely timber framed and had been given brick fronts in Georgian times, but those fronts had begun to part company with each other in more recent times necessitating the re-frontings.
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