Time was when Hoe Street ran from Notte Street straight up to the Hoe, however in the 1950s post-war redevelopment of Notte Street the bottom end was appropriated for the construction of the so-called ‘star’ (on account of their shape and design) flat developments. The western side of Hoe Street was also redeveloped after the war and apart from a section of terraced housing on the eastern side, and the Margaret Macmillan Nursery (the former rectory building), little now survives of the original thoroughfare.
Originally Hoegate Street, which runs parallel and to the east of Hoe Street, and Zion Street, which runs parallel and to the west, also offered direct uphill access to the Hoe – that high ridge or ‘hoh’ (to use the Old English term) that gave them both their names. However like Hoe Street, the other two no longer provide a through road to the Hoe, however such a connection was re-instated in the 1980s when the imaginatively named Hoe Approach Road was created to provide a pedestrian and vehicular route through to that high ridge.
