St. Ann's Well Gardens is a public park in Hove with an entrance in Somerhill Road. At one time it was the original Brighton Spa and the brown waters of the chalybeate spring still flow from the hill at the top of the park. Sadly the stone basin and the Pump House where the water could be drunk have long gone. Mrs Fitzherbert visited the Spa in 1830 and wrote that "....the waters have wonderfully improved my health and strength."

The imitation well in St. Ann's Well Gardens is not real, nor is St. Ann. The name is taken from a fictitious romantic story about a Saxon Lady called Annafrieda whose flowing tears shed for the dastardly murder of her lover, by a miracle, became the chalybeate spring ! The spring flows naturally, in summer it often becomes a trickle covered with vegetation. Its waters are yellow and the surrounding mud brown and reddish streaked.

Situated a long way from Brighton the Spa was not successful and closed. Its fields were dug to make bricks for the local brickmaking industry and to this day the sunken terraces where the clay was removed remain in the park and in nearby roads. Hove Borough Council eventually bought the land and the Park was opened to the public in 1903. At this time Mrs Flora Sassoon, the the widow of wealthy business man Sassoon David Sassoon (S.D.) of Ashley Park near Walton, gave a clock which was placed on the front of the old pump house building; and in 1913 bought and then donated the grounds which became the Croquet Lawns (now bowls.) She also donated turf and croquet equipment.

The Commemorative Plaque to Mrs Flora Sassoon. It can be seen on the left pillar outside the entrance to St. Ann's Well Gardens Somerhill Road in Hove

Mrs Sassoon was a formidable character who could be both kind and imperious. She was often seen in Hove, always wearing black and carrying a rolled umbrella. She was born Fahra Reuben in Bombay, India, and at 14 years of age was married to Sassoon David Sassoon (S.D.) then aged 18. Both were members of a Sephardic branch of Judaism which had moved eastwards to India; after their marriage they travelled first to Baghdad then returned to Bombay for the birth of their first child Joseph. S.D. came to England in 1858 and Fahra, now known as Flora, followed him in 1860. They lived at Ashley Park until S.D. died young in 1867. As guardian to their 4 children Flora remained there until her eldest son Joseph married, she then moved to Hove living by the sea at 37 Adelaide Crescent. She had two other sons Alfred and Frederick and a daughter Rachel: devoutly religious she strenuously opposed both Alfred and Rachel's marriages outside the Jewish faith. Flora Sassoon died aged 91 in 1919 after 50 years of widowhood; only her daughter survived her.

Other members of the extensive Sassoon family also settled in Brighton and Hove: Sir Albert Sassoon (1818 - 1896) built the Sassoon Mausoleum in Paston Street Kemp Town in 1876 as a family resting place but there were no more burials after 1933 when it was emptied and sold becoming a furniture store, a decorator's, a restaurant and a club ! The poet Siegfried Sassoon was Mrs Flora Sassoon's nephew.