Liphook

Standing in the shadow of a great chestnut tree and originally a posting and coaching house, The Royal Anchor Hotel (centre) dates from the time of Samuel Pepys, who found 'good, honest people' here. Lord Nelson had breakfast here, and a young Queen Victoria and her mother, the Duchess of Kent, stayed overnight. Note the sign for the West Sussex Gazette to the left of the hotel, and J W Brown the chemist's on the right, who sells 'local views and view post cards' - Frith's, perhaps.
An extract from from"Hampshire Revisited Photographic Memories".

Liphook expanded as a village thanks to the London-Portsmouth road and the arrival of the railway in 1859. The journey from the capital to the naval port by coach took eight hours: the six hours to Liphook cost 13s 6d. In this picture the Royal Anchor is to the right of the chestnut tree.
An extract from from"Hampshire Revisited Photographic Memories".

Liphook expanded as a village thanks to the London to Portsmouth road and the arrival of the railway in 1859. The journey from the capital to the naval port took eight hours; the six hours to Liphook cost 13s 6d. Standing in the shadow of a chestnut tree, the Royal Anchor Hotel, once a posting and coaching house, dates from the time of Samuel Pepys, who found ‘good, honest people’ there. Lord Nelson enjoyed a breakfast in the inn, too.
An extract from from"English Villages".

All looks peaceful and quiet in this photograph. Today all roads seem to lead into Liphook, and it is a busy, noisy place. The author Flora Thompson lived here for a time just before the 1930s because her husband worked at the local post office. She wrote part of her book ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ here.
An extract from from"Hampshire Living Memories".

The cenotaph in the High Street commemorates those who died in battle but whose remains lie elsewhere. It is of unusual and classic appearance; it was designed by the architect Harry Inigo Triggs, who had travelled and studied in Italy. The detailing is borrowed from the eight blank panels in the Medici chapel in Florence; on these panels are carved the names of the town’s dead of the First World War. (Plaques were added after the Second World War commemorating the 54 young men who died on duty away from home during that conflict). After much deliberation over an appropriate location for the town’s memorial, it was erected by the mason Andrew Perryman of Dragon Street in its present position early in 1922 - a position in the Square was discounted. In the wake of the war, under the auspices of the Housing Act of 1919, the country set about building ‘homes fit for heroes’. The first of these were built in Noreuil Road, which was named after a little village of some 100 inhabitants near Arras in France. Petersfield had adopted the village to help with its reconstruction, and a letter thanking the town for gifts of parcels of clothing and coloured wall maps to brighten the schoolroom was signed by J Nicholai, the schoolmistress at Noreuil. The Electricity Supply Act of 1919 gave rise to an application by Dr R J Cross, Mr T A Crawter and Mr C W Seaward, who wanted to form a company to supply electric light to Petersfield. The plan was for a generator on land located to the rear of the Volunteer Arms (now Meon Close), with a frontage on Frenchmans Road. (Note that the company was only to supply electric light, not power). With houses having only 40-watt lamps, it is unlikely that a supply greater than 20 kilowatts would be required. Tom Crawter’s house, Clare Cross, was the first house in Petersfield to be lighted by electricity. Nevertheless, there was enough power to supply the Electric Theatre with the town’s first film shows. The first cinema stood at the corner between Chapel Street and Swan Street - in fact, the demolition of the Swan public house made way for the Electric Theatre. That first cinema was replaced by the Savoy Cinema in 1935, and is now a nightclub.
An extract from from"Petersfield - A History & Celebration".