Floral Clock

~1961: Hove Floral Clock [image info]

~1961: St. Johns Church and gardens, Hove, looking West. The central lump is probably the Floral Clock seen from the side. [image info]

The Hove Floral Clock is a squat rectangular pyramid planted with flowers, with clockfaces on the longer North-and South-facing sides.

The clock is traditionally put at the head of Palmeira Square, on the elongated garden "traffic roundabout" made by the misaligned meeting of Church Road and Western Road, which run along the Island's North and South sides.

The clock in 2021

Kissing Circles

With the destruction of Hove Barrow, which had traditionally hosted "Kissing Circles", some seized upon the Floral Clock's rather more modest raised mound as the new focus for these celebrations ... but the smallness of the Clock's replacement mound seems to have rather dampened the sense of excitement, and the Kissing "around the clock" seems to have been more polite and less wild and (a polite Victorian flowery clock evoking less sense of primal passions than an big old heathen burial mound), and the more reserved version of the tradition died out.

1898 mention:

The parks and pleasure grounds are of particular interest especially a twin dialled floral clock, ...

— , -, , The Municipal Year Book and Public Services Directory, , 1898

External links

• Hove Floral Clock at the 1966 Chelsea Flower Show, by John Bell (mybrightonandhove.org.uk)
• Time has run out for floral clock (theargus.co.uk) – 23rd June 2000
• Hove’s Floral Clock set to get festive (brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk) –30 November 2016