The Broadway in Andover and how it evolved over the years

Before 1931, the area was the site and grounds of Western Cottage, the residence of the Clarke family. Turner Poulter Clarke was a surveyor and borough councillor, serving as mayor five times in the mid-Victorian period. He died at the ripe old age of 93 in 1897 but some of his children continued to live in the house until 1930, when the last-surviving, Miss Charlotte Aletta Clarke, sold it to Alphonso Mattia.

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The Broadway, Andover, c.1951 (Image: Contributed) Alphonso Mattia lived in Chantry Street and dealt in scrap metal. He had arrived in England from Italy around 1907, when he married Angelina and proceeded to have a large family – though some died as infants. The censuses of 1911 and 1921 describe Alphonso as a ‘marine store dealer, which was an all-encompassing term to mean somebody dealing in second-hand goods with premises. However, during the 1920s he branched out into building as well.

In 1930, after buying Western Cottage, Mr Mattia asked local architect Freddie Henshaw to draw up plans for a block of shops on the site. The ingenious design retained the old house within the structure, ‘wrapping’ the new development around it. The original plans allow for five shops of varying size, with accommodation to the rear of each on the ground floor of Western Cottage, as well as further rooms above. Each of these shops were also allocated a showroom, either behind the street premises or above them. Clearly, they were intended to be somewhat prestigious, made all the more so by a surrounding pavement of Italian white stone terrazzo mosaic which was part of the property. This survived into modern times but the stone has now either been removed or covered up by rather less prestigious tarmac.

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Western Cottage peeps between the trees in this view by Weaver and Co, c.1910 (Image: Weaver and Co, c.1910) The 1930 plans, deposited in the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, do not align exactly either with what we see today or in the photographs; there is clearly an extension facing Suffolk Road, which provided another shop, showroom and more accommodation. This was used as garage premises run by the Lintott Motor Company, distinct from the garage at the end of the yard that is now Broadway Garage, built originally for servicing post office vehicles. A row of garages for use by the shop tenants was also constructed on the land now used by the car wash.

The 1934 Kelly’s Directory of Andover was the first edition of the Andover series and it usefully includes the early tenants of The Broadway: Lintott’s was designated No 1 and the numbering then ran consecutively around the building. No 2 was Ferris and Cook, all-encompassing builders, estate agents and architects. This shop was taken over in 1952 by Cook’s son Ken, who ran an electrical and radio business. No 3, the corner shop, was newsagent Sidney Portsmouth, whose occupancy lasted until recent times but is now empty. The three shops facing Bridge Street have seen frequent changes over the years but in 1934 there was a café/restaurant in No 4, b

utcher Robert Millard in No 5, and John Clark, house furnisher in No 6. Many may remember too, that for many years until the early 1960s, there was a cubicle and petrol pumps near the front of Portsmouth’s operated by Cory’s. A conveyance of 1931records that Alphonse Mattia sold that part of the land to the Cory brothers.

The photographic postcard showing the petrol pumps in full view shows how smart the complex looked then. Interestingly, we can see that No 2 was occupied by a business called G Longley, although there are ‘To Let’ signs in the window. Ferris and Cook must then have been subsequent occupiers and not among the originals. Longley was evidently a very short-lived tenancy and is for the moment unidentified. The van parked outside is not Longley’s but Sid Portsmouth’s delivery vehicle and perhaps some motor-enthusiast readers will be able to pinpoint the make and year. More evidence of this being an early view is that the restaurant at No 4 was replaced in the mid-1930s by Melanie, the hairdresser, run by Miss Kathleen Ingham. This continued well into the 1960s and was replaced (as often happened) with another hairdresser, Roy Mears, who also had a shop in Swan Court. Likewise, Millard’s butcher’s shop, next to the restaurant, was replaced by George Harold Cordy in the 1940s, and in the 1960s by Norman Tate – all butchers.

Such smooth progressions were more likely in an age when family businesses were the norm and business owners were local. Shopkeepers could still arrive from elsewhere but they frequently bought an ironmonger’s or a haberdasher’s business, rather than an empty shop premises. These replacement proprietors got the benefit of the regular customer-base and goodwill, as well as the convenience that suitable shop fitments were already in place – and indeed perhaps the remaining stock. Much of this practice has now died out. Capital-rich national chains or supermarkets that sell everything, together with the increasing demand for new, niche outlets that are ‘different’, has made the old way obsolete.

If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk.