Portsmouth England United Kingdom UK History
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NORTH END - Circa 1900 to 2009
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North End Junction - we've seen this picture in a few different places and it's been dated
on a couple of occasions as between 1905 and 1907, but we think it may be from perhaps
two or three years earlier. Compare it with the scene below, which is circa 1909 and we
can see the difference at the junction itself, where Gladys Avenue goes off to the left.
Also, apart from the trams, note how little other traffic there is in the scene, when
compared with the picture below, although of course we don't know at what time(s) of the
day the two photographs were taken.
Nevertheless, the photos in this section make for an interesting study of the junction's history.

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A typical Edwardian shopping scene, with a mix of "infernal" combustion engines and two and four legged transportation. The camera is looking north, further up London Road and with Gladys Avenue forking off on the left. Stubbington Avenue is on the right, beyond the Clarence Gardens pub and the building that became White's Furniture Repository and which is now Cornerstone House, with the British Heart Foundation's furniture store on the ground floor, the InterCash head office on the first floor and with the Portsmouth Taikwono Centre and Curves Ladies Gymnasium above that. Note the tram lines and the overhead wires to the right of the roadway.
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The Junction around 1938 - the building on the junction of London Road and Gladys Avenue would
serve as the Southdown Motor Comapny's booking office for many years after the war.

 

By 1970, North End was a busy shopping centre, on a par with and jointly second in
importance to Commercial Road. How little we could anticipate the changes in our
shopping habits that would be imposed upon us by the major retailing concerns.
Notice that the complete revamping of the White's building has included not just an
additional floor, but in larger and rectangular windows.
The start of the 21st century, and not a horse in sight, although the odd horse-drawn vehicle does occasionally turn a few heads.
Compare both the pub and the building on the corner of Stubbington Avenue with the photograph of the same scene in 1909 - the pub has been widened to the right as we look at it and inside, evidence of this can be seen from the chimney breasts, which stand freely away from the present outer wall. The old White's building was largely remodelled around 1928, with an additional floor and the original rounded windows given a rectabgular aspect. The curved building that stands on the corner of Gladys Avenue, just behind the No 6 bus, was originally the old Southdown coaches booking office.
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Less than a decade on from 2000 and not that much has really changed, although the Clarence Gardens has been refurbished and renamed The Mischief. A shame in some ways, because that name change has obliterated a historical link - the original Clarence Gardens were in fact just that, a small area of trees and gardens (named after the Duke of Clarence), occupying the same space that Cornerstone House now stands on and the Clarence Gardens pub was, in turn, named after them. The original gardens offered residents a little sanctuary of peace and quiet, in which they could sit and contemplate a world that ran at a much more sedate pace than it does nowadays.
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