Golden Lion Lane, originally the eastern section of Lombard Street, ran from High Street, Old Portsmouth towards Quay Gate, later King George's Gate, which gave access to the Camber. It is present on all maps from 16C onwards and although rather narrow, (13ft 6ins. at the High Street end) it had allowed adequate access for much of it's history. In later centuries however it became part of a principal route from Portsmouth Town to the Dockyard and the expanding town of Portsea and as such became unable to cope with the traffic. The problem came to a head in the mid 19C when Golden Lion Lane frequently became blocked due to vehicle breakdown or fire in buildings fronting onto the street. The final straw was a blockage reported by the Hampshire Telegraph on 18th July 1868 when "... a heavy piece of ordnance was being taken from the Gunwharf, the horses attached to the carriage brought the wheels in contact with the kerb at each side of the road and being thus jammed the combined efforts of a large number of horses and men ...failed to move it". This continued for three quarters of an hour until a part of the kerb was removed, so releasing the carriage.
The widening of Golden Lion Lane was particularly relevant to local traders for another reason. Not only had Portsea become an important town in it's own right, so had Southsea and the direct route between the two lay along Golden Lion Lane and it was feared that if the Lane was not widened then the majority of traffic would be diverted along St. Georges Road towards Wish Lane (now Kings Road) so by-passing the whole of Portsmouth town with the inevitable loss of trade that would ensue. This is not to say that Golden Lion Lane was the only impediment to through traffic, as King William's Gate at the end of Pembroke Road was so narrow as to permit traffic passing in only one direction at a time. Many Councillors, notably Mr. R.W. Ford, believed that the widening of Golden Lion Lane would signal a death knell for the gate.
By 1868 the Council were actively considering a widening of the thoroughfare, but this brought with it a major problem in that the churchyard around St. Thomas's Church (now the Cathedral) extended to the edge of Golden Lion Lane and was full of burial plots which would have to be compromised in order to accommodate the widening. In July 1868 the first steps to widen the road were taken at a meeting which was reported by the Hampshire Telegraph.
"The meeting was convened by the Vicar of Portsmouth (the Rev. Edward P. Grant) in the vestry-room adjoining the parish church. The Vicar presided and there were also present—Messrs. Aldermen Sheppard, Alderman Hellard, Alderman Emanuel, Chambers, Ogburn, Moorshead, Gillman, Bloxham, Whiting, Newland, Batchelor, Lewis, Bradley, McCheane, R. W. Ford, Rake, Elcock, Wallis, Howell. Dr. Raper, Captain Conway Gordon, &c. &c. As this represented rather more people than the vestry could conveniently accommodate, the meeting was adjourned to the Guildhall across the street ... "
The meeting then considered a proposal to be put to the Warden and Fellows of Winchester College whose permission would be required should any part of the churchyard be needed for the widening of Golden Lion Lane. They went on to consider the need to purchase property at the High Street end, notably No. 103 on the northerly side which belonged to Mr Traylor and No. 102 on the southerly side which was owned by Councillor Emanuel who rented the property to Mr Lewis. The former was considered too expensive to buy whereas Councillor Emanuel was willing to accept the same price for No. 102 as it had cost him 20 years earlier. In this the Councillor was being somewhat disingenuous in that No. 102 was a wide building and only half would be required.
The potential desecration of any graves or vaults in the churchyard was a serious issue to some but to others it was irrelevant what happened to a person's bones after they had died and no one had been buried in that section in the previous 30 years. It was also pointed out that the churchyard had undergone many alterations over the years, including the laying of paths directly over the site of known graves and that this would be just one more change.
One plan put forward would minimise the effect on the churchyard. This involved the removal of half of No. 102 High Street and a strip of the churchyard about 40 metres in length and 8 feet in width. The road would then bend slightly northwards for 8 feet before resuming it's previous direction. This would completely avoid that part of the churchyard to the north-west of St. Thomas's. There was a problem with this however and it was not immediately reported in the Hampshire Telegraph, namely that if the churchyard was to be saved then the extra width required could only come from the houses on the north-east side of Golden Lion Lane.
The meeting, having discussed all these and other issues was brought to a vote, but they made no attempt to decide on the final route of the widened road, they simply agreed, by 23 votes to 6, that in principle they would pay for the work to be carried out. They did not, however, vote for any specific sums of money to be devoted to the scheme despite having been told that it could be completed at a cost of £2000.
Even during the meeting there had been expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of spending taxpayers money on the scheme and subsequently this view spread widely amongst the population at large. This was largely based on the view that the Town of Portsmouth may contain the administrative headquarters of the whole Borough and be one of the main centres of commercial activity, but it's population was rather small in comparison to the rest of Portsea Island. Consequently the widening of Golden Lion Lane seemed to offer a disproportionate advantage to a few already well heeled gentlemen whilst the majority of the populace, particularly in the Landport area, were living in slums without adequate provision of basic services. At another meeting held in Landport in March 1869, between 1 and 2 thousand people voiced their objection to the spending of public funds on the project. This must have been an impressive occasion as the Hampshire Telegraph devoted an entire page to a report on the proceedings.
Notwithstanding the objections raised at the meeting, the widening of Golden Lion Lane did go ahead, being completed in October 1870. The Hampshire Telegraph of 9th October included an advertisement placed by Mr. Thomas Lewis of 102 High Street who announced his closing down sale.
Mr R.W. Ford's prediction that the demolition of King William's gate would follow the widening of Golden Lion Lion proved to be accurate as the gate did indeed come down within a year thereby opening up the thoroughfare to traffic to and from Southsea.
Although the Hampshire Telegraph gave considerable coverage to the widening, it made no mention of the final plan which did involve a 'dog-leg' in the road as shown on the map above. The evidence for this survives in both the wall of the churchyard (see photo above) and the angle to the street of one of the houses in Lombard Street. What is not readily apparent, yet must be accepted, is that the facades of the houses in Golden Lion Lion must have been moved back approximately 8 feet. Today this seems unlikely as the frontages appear to be much older than 1870, but it was surely not beyond the skills of the builders to re-create them exactly.
ADDENDUM
The name 'Golden Lion Lane' did not survive long after the widening before the whole thoroughfare became known as Lombard Street. After World War 2 the street was straightened again, which necessitated a further incursion into the churchyard.
In 2008, an archaeological dowser, Laurie Booth, verified the route of the original Golden Lion Lane and located the position of the church path gatepost that can be seen in the drawing at the top of this page. He placed it a few inches from the edge of today's kerb, about 8 feet north-west of the current path into the church.
Tim Backhouse
October 2008