West Pier 1902, Brighton
West Pier 1902, Brighton Ref: 48495
Memories of West Pier 1902, Brighton
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Brighton & local memories
Read and share memories of Brighton and East Sussex inspired by Frith photos.
Camp Warden
In the early 1950s my uncle, William Grosvenor, was warden at this camp site. As a young girl I can remember visiting him and my aunt and helping or hindering with campers arrivals.
Chinese Jazz Club
It was Uncle Bonnie's Chinese Jazz Club which ran all-night sessions on a Friday night, from 11pm to about 6am the next morning. All sorts of jazz was played, including trad jazz. There were singles and couples, I think drinks most of the night, and of course a smoky atmosphere from cigarettes. Great music and atmosphere, you all went home for breakfast unless you found an open cafe - what time did Joe Lyons tea house open at the bottom of St James Street? Who was Uncle Bonnie and what happened to him?
Aquarium
The Aquarium was the venue for the 'Chinese Jazz Club' which was run by a man in a straw hat called 'Bonnie'. I was a regular as a student and despite the name all I recall was R&B music from a range of bands and singers including Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Jefferson (I think) , Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart - then known as Rod the Mod.
Days Out by The Seaside
We enjoyed summer holidays at Brighton by the sea.
Brighton Jazz Club
Used to visit the Brighton Jazz Club - at the Aquarium, at about the time this photograph was taken
Teacher Training College
The building in the corner was Brighton Teacher Training College. The building at right angles in the distance was a hotel.
My mother Florence Starkey was studying in the Teacher Training College top floor and looked out of the window across the angle into the side window of the curved bay hotel window to see a woman hovering strangely in the shadow of the back of the room. Their eyes met.
She looked away and as she did so the woman threw herself from the window and was impaled on the area railings below, directly next to the College's entrance. All the students were confined to the College for hours whilst the 6 foot section of railing was sawn out. One can still see only the top rail was crudely welded back. This may also explain why the windows are blocked.
One small anonymous tragedy.
Brighton Teacher Training College.
The house on the far right of the terrace was no 9 which together with no 8 formed the premises of Brighton Teacher Training College, which I attended in 1956-58. The road on the left hand side of the picture (just visible) is Paston Place. This eastern area of Brighton is known as Kemp Town.
The Good Old Days
Actually, my memories of Brighton go back earlier than 1953 because I was born there in 1933. I do have a memory of being wheeled in my pram over a small area of ridged concrete outside the little shop at the end of our street, Bennett road, Kemp town. We were bombed out from there (number 35) in 1943 and I do remember that quite well. From then on we moved to Preston Drove which was still in an area which suffered from the bombing. However, being a hop step & a jump from Preton Park it was a great spot in which to spend my childhood. I really hoped to find a photo of Brighton Town Hall amongst The Francis Frith photos but, no luck. My grandfather had his barber's shop in the road behind the town hall; the shop and that road no longer are there and a hotel is in its place. I could go on and on but had better not.
Day Out Shopping.
As a child during the 1970s I used to live in Burgess Hill (10 miles away) with my parents and younger brother David. I remember being very small and my mother taking us to Brighton on the stagecoach bus with our next door neighbours. Both women loved to shop and us four children had to go along for the ride.
As we passed Preston Park we always counted the 'pudding trees' (because they were shaped like christmas puddings!) which ran along the side of the road. Also I remember that the rock gardens on the right always looked like a magical place to me as a child and I imagined fairies and such like, but we never got off the bus there. We got off the bus at the old Churchill Square and that is where we stayed all day being dragged around a variety of shops.. I did use to like the big old Gamleys in the arcade though (great for Sindy stuff!). We went to the same... Read more
Growing up in World War II
I was born to Jewish parents whom had a ladies clothes shop in Kensington Gardens (The Lanes) my Father died in 1941, My Mother now a very young widow decided she wanted us all to live above the shop because of bombs etc, it had 2 rooms upstairs which we used as bedrooms, a small room we used as a dining/living room, with gas fire which she told us if the Germans invaded we would sit in front of it and turn it on, she was terrified as we were all girls and Jewish, NO bathroom, we went once a week to the public baths How Awful UGH!, toilet out side in the yard next to the coal cellar, kitchen downstairs, real spooky, I remember running to the air raid shelter during the night, which was around the corner in another street, everyone took something down there to eat, it was like a picnic, we eventually got... Read more
Crescent Road
We moved to Brighton in 1959 and my parents Pat and Jim Webb bought a house here after spending their honeymoon here (lived in Dulwich). I remember when there were very few cars parked in the road and we could always play safely out on the street. Nowadays cars are parked top to tail in both directions! We lived at no 3 and there used to be a big field behind our house and my brother and I would go scrumping for apples! Sorry if they were your apples! We also hid in the long grass in that field and made camps with other kids from the area. Back in the 60's we were not allowed to play out on the street on a Sunday - and there were NO shops open anywhere. The Salvation Army band used to come round twice a day and play hymns on the corner of the road. We lived pretty close to the abbatoir in Hollingdean Lane (soon to be a waste dump -... Read more
Family Tree Information
My grandfather's family lived in Brighton/Hove near Seven Dials and attended Belgrave Road Congregational Church. Their surname was WOOD and his forenames were WALTER EDWARD. He had a brother PERCY and sisters ADA, POLLY and AGNES. His father (my great grandfather) was reputed to have been very tall and also to have held the position of Head Postmaster in Brighton/Hove. This would have been around 1890 onwards approx.
