The park displays design elements reflecting its use as a spa, pleasure garden and later public park. It is a rare example of an historic pleasure garden.
No CA
LLHA0188
The gardens started as a medicinal spring, known as the chalybeate. Patients came to drink the waters in order to cure their ailments. The gardens were developed in the late 18th/early 19th century in order to cater for this trade. The manager of the chalybeate lived at the associated building ‘Swiss Cottage’ (now demolished), which had a distinctive thatched roof. A pump house was also built over the spring. The decline of the spring led to the closure of the enterprise. It was revived in the 1880s as a pleasure garden by Dr Bayes, by which time its name was changed to St Ann’s Well Gardens. The Gardens were owned and managed by a number of different individuals, notably including George Albert Smith between 1892 and 1904. Smith was an early pioneer in the film industry and built his own film studio in the gardens. The private gardens were bought by Hove Council in 1907 and opened as a public park in 1908. The brick and terracotta piers were erected to mark this occasion (matching ones survive at Hove Recreation Ground and similar at Hove Park). The park was extended in 1913, following a donation of land by Mrs Flora Sassoon. A number of sports facilities were provided, as well as other facilities expected within a public park. A scented garden for the blind was added in 1954, and includes an unusual cylindrical brick dovecote with stone elements and a shingle roof. The varied ownership and history of the park has led to changes in its layout and buildings over time. These are shown on successive Ordnance Survey maps. Source: Middleton 2002, http://www.stannswellgardens.co.uk/#!history/c3zm, http://portsladehistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/st-anns-well-gardens.html
ii The park displays design elements reflecting its use as a spa, pleasure garden and later public park. It is a rare example of an historic pleasure garden.
v The gate piers and dovecote are of unusual and striking designs
ii The park is associated with the development of Brighton & Hove as a spa resort, and the subsequent tourism trade. It also has links with the early film industry; although this is not clearly reflected in the park’s current appearance v The surviving design of the park reflects its varied phases of development, which reveal much about changing fashions and the move towards publicly-accessible open space
ii Not within a conservation area, the gardens as a whole contribute to the townscape.
i A rare surviving example of one of the few pleasure gardens in the city, with significant associations with the development of Brighton and Hove as a destination. Its conversion to use as a public park has ensured the survival of the space and some of its original design elements.
i Many elements of the park’s earlier design phases survive, although the majority of the structures are more recent
2015 (walls, gate piers and dovecote Pre-2015)
