The Seaside Home

[Johnr]

Reading all of the above interesting posts. And particularly, seeing the articles posted by Simon Wood and Chris, it is clear the notorious mystery of the :" Police Seaside Home" mentioned so cryptically by Swanson in his marginalia in his copy of Sir Robert Andson's memoirs, will not be adequately cleared up unless people study the potential sites Swanson may have been referring to.

To this end, I actually have been to West Brighton, where I have photographed the TWO Police Seaside Homes which existed in the 1890's.
(Wonderful details of which appear above).

The marvellously gothic Portland House site which was opened in 1893,
is still standing.My more recent photos show this atmospheric locale in all its
disturbing spleandour.

More confusingly, as we see above, it is possible the 51 Clarendon Villas address, may have been shared by both a Police Orphanage and the original West Brighton Police Seaside (Convalescent) Home.

For this reason, may I call upon my great and long-suffering friends from Ripperologist, Adam Wood et al, and ask them to post the photos I sent them of the two Police Seaside Home sites (Portland House and 51 Clarendon Villas) onto this thread? Or better still onto the Photographic Archives pages here?
Or even better still, both!
You see, if you read my post above I said a long time ago, that I lack the techo savvy to do this myself.Thanks chaps.

My reason for asking this, is that when I saw the present-day layout of 51 Clarendon Villas ( the most likely location for the Swansan "Home"), not only did I think it looked decidedly unsafe as a place to stage a police "line-up" for a JTR suspect, I did not then know the site may have been shared by a children's orphanage as well.

So, if you Rippo chaps could belatedly oblige me, there might be a lesson in these photos for all of us.Thanks in anticipation of your usual good work.
JOHN RUFFELS.

[Johnr]

My Recent Photos of Both West Sussex Police Homes

Reading all of the above interesting posts. And particularly, seeing the articles posted by Simon Wood and Chris, it is clear the notorious mystery of the :" Police Seaside Home" mentioned so cryptically by Swanson in his marginalia in his copy of Sir Robert Andson's memoirs, will not be adequately cleared up unless people study the potential sites Swanson may have been referring to.

To this end, I actually have been to West Brighton, where I have photographed the TWO Police Seaside Homes which existed in the 1890's - and still do. (Wonderful details of which appear above).

The marvellously gothic Portland House site which was opened in 1893,
is still standing.My more recent photos show this atmospheric locale in all its
disturbing spleandour.

More confusingly, as we see above, it is possible the 51 Clarendon Villas address, may have been shared by both a Police Orphanage and the original West Brighton Police Seaside (Convalescent) Home.

For this reason, may I call upon my great and long-suffering friends from Ripperologist, Adam Wood et al, and ask them to post the photos I sent them of the two Police Seaside Home sites (Portland House and 51 Clarendon Villas) onto this thread? Or better still onto the Photographic Archives pages ?
Or even better still, both!
You see, if you read my post above I said a long time ago, that I lack the techno savvy to do this myself.Thanks chaps.

My reason for asking this, is that when I saw the present-day layout of 51 Clarendon Villas ( the most likely location for the Swanson "Home"), not only did I think it looked decidedly unsafe as a place to stage a police "line-up" for a JTR suspect, I did not then know the site may have been shared by a children's orphanage as well.

So, if you Rippo chaps could belatedly oblige me, there might be a lesson in these photos for all of us.Thanks in anticipation of your usual good work.
JOHN RUFFELS.

[Chris]

So, if you Rippo chaps could belatedly oblige me, there might be a lesson in these photos for all of us.Thanks in anticipation of your usual good work.

Here's a link to the thread containing the photos on the old boards:

http://www.casebook.org/forum/messages/4924/19178.html

The main lesson in these photos for me is that the postcards on Ebay showed the wrong Seaside Home ...

[Chris]

And here's a link to a "Then and Now" of the right*Seaside Home, which Rob Clack posted:

http://forum.casebook.org/showpost.php?p=78686&postcount=1569

[*Not that I think it is necessarily the right Seaside Home - just that it's not necessarily the wrong one.]

[Johnr]

So Now Can The "Photo Archive" Wallahs Capture These Photos?

Thank you Chris,

The lost thread. Magnificent.
You can see a lot of this hard work by A.P. and Robert and Chris and Chris and Simon Wood (not to mention Stephen P Ryder and Ally et al), might disappear .
Along with the "lost threads" unless we can pursuade the Photo Archive people to capture and embed these "Police Seaside Home" photos in their valuable archive.
This was my initial concern.

Other than the obvious logistical problems presented in dragging a poor demented East Ender down for a " day at the Seaside" at West Brighton, I was struck by how bloody far from the sea the Convescent Homes actually was/is!

Sure, like unscrupulous owners describing their property to distant buyers,
there are/were "ocean glimpses", but these are to be had from the attic windows on the top floor!
Handy if you are convalescing with a gun-shot wound to the leg or something.

I suppose they just said: "Mustn't grumble"....And just got on with it.

JOHN RUFFELS.