Memories of 1980s Brighton wanted

[The Spanish]

much better than the piss poor mini bluewater it is now. see if they had hung on to it, people would be knocking one out about it now like it was the south bank or something.

those foreign students bags are going to last approximately 10 seconds before getting swiped, if my memories of eighties brighton serve me correctly.

 

[Lord Large]

Thanks on behalf of my mate. Apparantly the research is for some book about changes in working clas culture under Thatcher.

Just wondering, what clothes shops did everyone use back in the day?

Any particularly memorably scraps at football?

 

[Beach Hut]

Who remembers that shop "Colts" on the lower level of Churchill Square where there was a Tescos ?

 

[drew]

My best memory of BHA in the 80s (apart from the well documented cup run) was an away trip to Blackburn on the seagull special. Cost was no more than a fiver and as was customary on those trips, you arrived at the local station, got off and were then shepherded to the ground by the massed ranks of the local police. Our mass block of seagull fans were singing and chanting whilst from the other side of the road blackburn fans shouted abuse.

Now there was one blackburn fan who was hyper with his rant and gesticulations against us as he walked along the other pavement. Whilst the local police seemed oblivious to his intimidatory actions, it seems that a local lamp post had obviously taken offence and, whilst I did not see the lamp post step into his path, neither did he and he collapsed to the ground clutching his forehead, the only sound ringing in his ears being the laughter from 500 seagull fans.

happy days.

 

[Lord Large]

I did a lot of my shopping up in London at the time. Sportswear form Lilywhites an absolute must.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Hove station was quite a lively place on matchdays. Fans from both clubs would arrive from Brighton station and there would be mass police trying to keep the groups apart.

Some weeks you'd go for the mass crush over the railway bridge, other times it would be down past the bus garage and under the railway lines bu there was always that excitement and 'edge' of menace that it would all kick off.

Fine then, as a youngster, but I'd hate to see that return now. going to football is a much better & safer experince.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Sarah's caff did a rather scrumptious brekkie. A few doors down from Relate in the old churchill Square.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Not sure if it went on into the eighties, but was certainly the case into the late seventies ...

... there used to be a bit of a head-mental local bye-law that said if you wanted your club to stay open past 11pm then you had to serve food. Memories are dim, as you may imagine, but you'd be at, say Buzby's on the sea-front, strutting your stuff, then at 11pm the house lights would go up, the music would stop, and you'd be served a finger buffet (sarnies, coleslaw, sausage rolls and the like). Then half eleven the lights would go down again, and it was game on, as if the food interlude had never happened. Don't THINK I dreamt it, but would be good if somebody could confirm either way.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

The Rotunda shape Jackett Potato cafe in Churchill Sq called Jacketts

Rory at Coasters

The Brighton Rock Bar down West Street

Sunday lunchtime strippers in Lewes Road (sadly to young to get in)

Hove Dogs Orchard Road Stand and grass straights on the track

The Shuttle bus from Brighton Station to Churchill Square that cost 10p

The Palace Pier

The club house in Hove Park (good for fumbling after school in the winter if you know what I mean)

A Bristol Lodeka struggling up Snakey Hill in the summer.

An unblemished Toads Hole valley on a summers day

The Red arrows diving swooping and crashing

Has no one mentioned the ATHINA B

The Glass Animal Man and the two brothers by the station who sold everything.

The Cranbourne first stop on a Satdee Night

Razor the head Bouncer at the Top Rank Suite

The Book/Paper stall outside Sainsburys in London Road.

Chris Catlin rinning the Albion players round and round Hove Park.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The Shuttle bus from Brighton Station to Churchill Square that cost 10p

Lazy fuckers!

 

[Gully]

Has no one mentioned the ATHINA B

Do you mean the boat or the chip shop of the same name in Portslade...that served possibly the finest fish and chips I have ever eaten.

 

[Marlton & Hove Albion]

Sitting in deepest NJ, laughing and crying (homesick) at the same time. Stream of consciousness as follows.

I was 14 in 1980 and emigrated to the US in 1988, so the 80's were my defining years.

Best Club - Busbys facing the seafront on Saturday Night, Coasters on Fridays. The slags seemed to rotate in this direction.

Pub Crawl Order - Pavilion Tavern by the Steine, The Sussex, The Pump House, The Druids, The Vic and then off to (see above) with copious pints of Tennents Extra

Clobber - Fiorucci Jeans, Levi 501 (red tag) Jeans, Diadora Bjorn Borg Trainers (Gold), Ellesse, Lacoste, Sergio Tachini Shirts, Pringle Jumpers, Lyle and Scott

Music - The Smiths, Haircut 100, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, Howard Jones, The Police, U2, A-Ha, Thomas Dolby,

Jobs - I worked at Gatwick for BCAL, big local one was Amex, perhaps it still is.

Random - Peter Pan amusements on Madeira Drive, The Marina when it was just a building site, Uncle Sams Burgers, Donatellos when it was 10% of the size it is now, Top Shop, Churchill Sq open to the weather, ABC, Odeon and Astoria Pictures, Amusement Arcades at the botton of West St, Dine and Dash nights up Preston Street, Skateboarders at the Churchill Sq Car Park, Virgin Record Shop up Queens Road, Secondhand shops in the North Laines, Pavilion that changed colors every night, Fountains that worked opposite the King and Queens, Clock above Radio Brighton by the Dome, Green Brighton Buses before Southdown...are there any Blue and White Buses left? The 49A route had one. Playing football against english language students in Preston Park, All the European Birds in the Summer with EF (EZ F***) Bags on their shoulders, Hanningtons Dept Store,

Football - ENG U21 vs. Norway U21 Wardies Hat-trick, Both Cup Finals, Aways Days at Peteborough on a Snowy Saturday packed into London Road, Northampton Town when they charged down that cricket field at the end of the game, Liverpool in the League Cup on a Tuesday Night. The smell of the lottery tickets they sold at the Goldstone (yellow and blue?)

I could go on, but it seems like I already did...............

 

[smudge]

Fighting the bouncers in Sherry's, who then employed oriental type chaps & put up signs warning us that they were black belts. Cue lots of Brighton lads picking fights in a Kung Fu stylee.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I seem to recall that concrete stack of crap in front of Churchill Square in the old photos was called The Spirit Of Brighton :wtf:

My memories are a bit hazy as I was fairly young at the time, but I'm sure there was a Tescos down in the toilet-scented, dark, lower level of the old Churchill Square, back in the days when Tesco wasn't a leading retailer, but a pioneer of cheap junk. There might have been a Sainsburys around there somewhere too, or was that a Fine Fare?

The shopping centre car parks looked like the sort of ones that people got routinely raped or murdered in on episodes of The Bill.

Brighton's ice rink, in Queen's Square, meanwhile, was uncontestably the worst in Britain, approximately the size of a penalty box, and an utter let down to any kids who'd ever been taken to the likes of Streatham.

 

[smudge]

Who remembers that shop "Colts" on the lower level of Churchill Square where there was a Tescos ?

Yep; what about "Orange Hand"?

 

[The Spanish]

I seem to recall that concrete stack of crap in front of Churchill Square in the old photos was called The Spirit Of Brighton :wtf:

My memories are a bit hazy as I was fairly young at the time, but I'm sure there was a Tescos down in the toilet-scented, dark, lower level of the old Churchill Square, back in the days when Tesco wasn't a leading retailer, but a pioneer of cheap junk. There might have been a Sainsburys around there somewhere too, or was that a Fine Fare?

The shopping centre car parks looked like the sort of ones that people got routinely raped or murdered in on episodes of The Bill.

Brighton's ice rink, in Queen's Square, meanwhile, was uncontestably the worst in Britain, approximately the size of a penalty box, and an utter let down to any kids who'd ever been taken to the likes of Streatham.

The short lived artificial ice rink made out of made plastic squares in the Brighton centre was mental.

 

[desprateseagull]

i remember going to the big tesco's, and i think there was also a sainsburys at the back, left side on top level?

also a cafe that overlooked the back square..

most teen clothes bought at Fosters, using their shop card- great fun, til the bills came!

 

[smudge]

Waiting in the Willian Tell for away fans to wander past. Shocking behaviour.

 

[rusty redeyes]

well known BHA regular used to sell them, he still knocks about today JUST TELLING YOU HOW IT IS AS ALWAYS

DAS REICH

more than 1...

 

[Jam The Man]

the chip shop of the same name in Portslade...that served possibly the finest fish and chips I have ever eaten.

Aint that the truth...