East Street

The main road out of town to the east, like its bigger brother West Street, East Street was designated A27 in 1922 until 1971, and is now an arm of the less catchy C366. Despite being home to a number of shops near the central point, the street has itself avoided much of the bustle of the town centre.

Trading Area

The Red Lion Hotel deserves a special mention here because it was historically a coaching inn, built to serve horses and their owners travelling along the south coast. Its location was a key trading point, the wide junction with the High Street being the main market place before various changes saw this shifting further down West Street. There were coachworks alongside it too, now an estate agents.

To the side of the Red Lion Hotel was Lusby's Warehouse, which became offices in 1979, with its rounded windows. Next to this was Burpham House (the brick building). Fareham's Conservative Association was previously an employment centre. Behind them, a printing works became Madison Court.

On the north side, the Corner House Bakery started trading in 1907. It became Soothills in the 1950s, and continues to bring a lot of people into the area.

After Bath Lane was woodland, where The Cedar Cottage tea room and Cedar Garage were built. They became a Land Rover dealer and then Cedar Court. Opposite these were Kingston House Hotel and Fairfield House/Fareham House, which was owned by Vospers until 1986, when Wykeham House School moved here from the High Street. A building behind it was labelled 'High Walls'. The school closed with financial problems in December 2015, and is now housing.

Residential Area

The descent down the River Wallington was known as Bridgefoot Hill, which appears to have been an official name that's largely forgotten today (it still appears on some maps).

Bridgefoot Drive existed to serve Beech Lawn, another building at the back, before gaining more properties in the 1960s such as Little Orchard, Blackheath, Ananda, Warramanga/Montana and Woodcote Lodge.

The properties on Bridgefoot Hill itself are older, and also all named: Bridgefoot Cottage became Ivy Cottage, and a new Bridgefoot Cottage was built opposite.

It is at Delme Roundabout where East Street has seen the greatest changes. At the bottom of the hill, the road would have swerved sharply to the right, in front being the mill pond. This was an accident blackspot of its time, and there was a history of people coming down the hill and ending up in the mill pond. This alignment can still be seen in the way the pavements split, helping vehicles to navigate the sharp bend. Lysees Lane and The Esplanade joined here, now the exit from the car park. This twisty section of road was regarded as "a disgrace" in the 1950s: it was, after all, the main road to Portsmouth.

The bushes in this area which look like they have been there a long time were planted in the late 1980s. Most of this land was tidal mud until the roundabout was built in 1971; and it was bare land for a while after that.

End Of The Road And The Mill Pond

From here the line of East Street can be seen in a short stub of effectively abandoned road now used for parking. Of course, Delme Roundabout is far from round and part of it appears to be heading straight for this section of road. That'll be because it is a recycled part of it!

That tiny road which runs behind the houses was the Esplanade, a path to what's now Deanes Park Road, which shows us where the edge of edge of Fareham Creek (officially 'Fareham Lake') once was. The main road ran straight across them middle of the creek on two bridges, the first of which had eight arches, both with weirs and sluices limiting the flow of water. The 19th century railway arch crosses the road in between the two, with a wide span to take in the route.

Fareham Mill (also known as Clarke's Mill and Cams Mill), dating back to the 11th century. The mill was used to grind corn using water that entered the mill pond (roughly what is in the centre of the roundabout today), but by the 20th century it was silting up and wasn't very effective. It remained until 1919 as it was useful for controlling flooding. At some stage this bridge was replaced by a modern structure with two channels: perhaps this was when Delme Arms Corner was widened in 1957. A stone on the side of the roundabout commemorates the former mill.

By this stage the view from East Street was mostly mud, with limited water being chanelled under the bridges. The railway viaduct had advertising hoardings hanging from it at the time, which wouldn't be tolerated now.

After crossing the river, the road ended at a crossroads with Shore Road, Cams Hill and the grand entrance to Cams Hall, at a junction which became known as 'Delme Arms Corner'.

Major changes came with the opening of Eastern Way in 1971. This meant the construction of the large roundabout, initially known as 'Bridgefoot Roundabout', but 'Delme Roundabout' soon became the official handle. It meant a lot of the lake was filled in, and East Street was cut back to Lysees. A tiny section of pond didn't remain in the middle of the roundabout, until the flyover was built in 1986, at which point the path of the river became completely artificial.

It is noticeable that both the roundabout's railway arch and the river bridge are at an angle which doesn't match the angle of the modern road, showing how it is re-using the line that was once used by East Street. The bend outside the Delme Arms pub is the only clue as to where East Street used to end.

A Cessna 150 light aircraft collided with the railway viaduct in November 1983, with the pilot losing his life. The bridge was damaged and had to be repaired. The pilot's intentions weren't clear, but he provided his destination as "Fareham" and was later spotted above Lee-on-the-Solent airfield, then Wallington. It then turned and struck the viaduct at a right angle, having sped up and using full throttle, then fell into the creek. The report adds that the plane would never have fit through the arch, and recorded a verdict of "suicide", which not everyone supported.