Can anyone remember the shops in the old Churchill Square?

[Bodular]

I can remember a few shops, but what I do remember is climbing that/them concrete things behind bhs next to that little newsagent

 

[Max Paper]

I can remember Tesco, Our Price? That scuplture thing ( was it at the top of some stairs? ) the band stand, and BHS but the one I remember more than anything was the computer game shop. I LOVED that place!

 

[Weststander]

A mid size Sainsburys down the left (east side)
Werff ladies clothes (made to go there with mum)
A veg health cafe (food for friends or something similar), low down by Tescos
Rj hairdressers
A jeans shop next door
Bhs as a kid seemed a very sterile, bland place selling light bulbs and cheap underwear. Still is dull.
Habitat always seemed quality, with a hippy feel early 70s.
The rear bit near Tescos always had empty units and never took off.

 

[scottdaboss]

The only real vivid memory I can recall is shopping with my Mum in WHsmith...was there an escalator near the main entrance?

 

[Box of Frogs]

How i longed for a Tamiya Radio controlled car..

Me too. A childhood wish still yet to be fulfilled!!

 

[HovaGirl]

The only real vivid memory I can recall is shopping with my Mum in WHsmith...was there an escalator near the main entrance?

I though the escalator was near the back . . . ?

 

[Doc Lynam]

I though the escalator was near the back . . . ?

If memory serves i think it was at the front to the right hand side.

 

[smudge]

Orange Hand, natty threads.

 

[Gwylan]

In none of my memories do I see Brighton as "dull and decrepit". My father was born in Brighton as well, in 1920, and they're not words I've ever heard him use to describe it either. In it's day, Churchil Square was a decent town centre. It had to go because it became old, dated and tatty.

Quite. I'm not sure what Doc Lynam is on about describing Brighton as dull and decrepit. I lived in London for most of the 80s and used to come back to Brighton every second weekend - often with one of London friends in tow. All of them enthused about the place and how exciting it was.

I think Brighton is a bit duller now than it was in the 70s and 80s but that's probably because I'm middle-aged with a family - a consequence of ageing rather than a reflection of Brighton.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

In my mind it still looks the same now as it did in the 1980'sq. Not sure i've even seen the rebuild - at least not from inside - 1998 was it? blimey. WHSmiths was a mjaor landmark of my childhood, esp, the music store round the back, and one of my first jobs was in the BHS next door where I was in charge of stocking the lightbulbs.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

d..d..double post

 

[Binney on acid]

I remember buying a cheap bottle of Pimms number 4 in Peter Dominics just before they closed down. I also remember how revolting it was.

 

[tinycowboy]

I remember queuing up in HMV to get Boy George's autograph. I was quite young. I knew he was a man, but he looked like a woman. That was the limit of my understanding on the matter. I also liked the concrete shapey things for climbing. That same day, The Pinkees did an instore at Rounder Records in Burgess Hill. Truly a day to cherish.

 

[Weststander]

If memory serves i think it was at the front to the right hand side.

This. Taking you up to their books.

 

[grawhite]

Had a Curry's

 

[The Large One]

Quite. I'm not sure what Doc Lynam is on about describing Brighton as dull and decrepit. I lived in London for most of the 80s and used to come back to Brighton every second weekend - often with one of London friends in tow. All of them enthused about the place and how exciting it was.

I think Brighton is a bit duller now than it was in the 70s and 80s but that's probably because I'm middle-aged with a family - a consequence of ageing rather than a reflection of Brighton.

I think there were many aspects of Brighton which were a bit run-down in the 1980s. There were an awful lot of waste ground sites doubling as ad hoc car parks, especially around the station and in Jubilee Street; a waste of urban space.

I don't necessarily agree with change for change's sake, but the improvements the council set in motion in the early 1990s have - for the most part - reaped their rewards. For example, the sprucing up of the seafront, while it might be merely aesthetic for some, has made a significant contribution. Irrespective of what you think of it now, Churchill Square needed something doing to it, likewise the *cough* New England Quarter.

The growth of the North Laine, additionally, though slightly conversely, has been indigenous; i.e. without public funding or as part of a council programme. In short, people just came in and converted it.

I do have some misty-eyed nostalgia for the 'old' Brighton of my youth, but by the 1970s and 1980s, the magic of the previous years (going by those old James Gray Regency photographs) had certainly gone.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I worked at weekends firstly in tescos on the fats and butter section..fek that was hard work used to get cramp in my thumb with using that gun to label each individual pack of butter/fat (thank goodness for barcodes) and bruises across me chest where the guy i worked with threw the full boxes at me...i then moved on to HMV for a saturday ....i had a large vinyl collection after i left there and no money....remember Smiths ..got sacked after 1 month b*****s

 

[LamieRobertson]

If memory serves i think it was at the front to the right hand side.

correct

 

[scottdaboss]

If memory serves i think it was at the front to the right hand side.

Ah yeah it's all flooding back now. I was outside looking after the dog while my mum bought me school supplies. Bless her!

 

[Doc Lynam]

Anyone recognise the location in the picture?