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Can anyone remember the shops in the old Churchill Square?
- Thread starter Doc Lynam
- Start date
Perfidious Albion
Well-known member
I can just remember the old shops that fronted Western Road before Churchill Square was built. I was too young to know what shops they were.
Ah, the Solarium Cafe, up one flight of stairs. I had my wedding reception in the bar area. The first step on a road to ruin!
I can remember being taken to a Christmas ice show at the West Street rink - and a public outcry at its closure and a long running campaign to "Save the Tigers"
Ah, the Solarium Cafe, up one flight of stairs. I had my wedding reception in the bar area. The first step on a road to ruin!
I can remember being taken to a Christmas ice show at the West Street rink - and a public outcry at its closure and a long running campaign to "Save the Tigers"
Who hasn't waited for a date at the wishing well at the front of Churchill Square?!
Once a girl I was waiting for turned up and she approached me and asked if I was Dave from Coasters the night before. My memory of her was rather jaded from the booze and I was very disapointed with what I saw. So I flatly but politley denied being the bloke she was meeting....trouble is, she didn't walk away (clearly had the same memory issues as me) so I had to stand there next to her for a further 20 minutes until eventually she walked off!!!!!!!!! AWKWARD!
Once a girl I was waiting for turned up and she approached me and asked if I was Dave from Coasters the night before. My memory of her was rather jaded from the booze and I was very disapointed with what I saw. So I flatly but politley denied being the bloke she was meeting....trouble is, she didn't walk away (clearly had the same memory issues as me) so I had to stand there next to her for a further 20 minutes until eventually she walked off!!!!!!!!! AWKWARD!
Poyetry In Motion
Pooetry Motions
That be Soft Centre, that be. Got a game for my commodore 16 in there, circa 1984 - Monkey ( the chinese martial arts dude ) and it cost an enormous £8.25 on cassette!That computer game shop in the dingy corner next to the public toilets.
WHSmith Record Shop.
brakespear
Doctor Worm
The Churchhill Sq monolith
which was meade out of (or clad in) polystyrene under that grey exterior.
Always remember Habitat, Solarium, Our Price, WH Smith Records, that ice-cream kiosk and the lower-level Tescos.
janee
Fur half
There was a kids' clothes shop which was quite expensive downstairs tucked away - Colts. I remember my mum buying Peter Grummit (sic) some really expensive Levi's there before buying me a Tesco's pair in the shop opposite!!
A generation later (well nearly!) House your Seagull and his co-editor used to build a camp in the building site!
My whole family seem to still be here and on NSC!
A generation later (well nearly!) House your Seagull and his co-editor used to build a camp in the building site!
My whole family seem to still be here and on NSC!
The Maharajah of Sydney
Well-known member
Orange Hand - a teenybopper emporium .
The Large One
Who's Next?
Western Road (pre-Churchill Square) before road widening
Western Road (pre-Churchill Square) after road widening
Western Road (pre-Churchill Square) after road widening
Old Churchill Square (how most of us remember it in its final days - deserted)
Western Road (pre-Churchill Square) after road widening
Western Road (pre-Churchill Square) after road widening
Old Churchill Square (how most of us remember it in its final days - deserted)
Cracking thread, really got me reminiscing!
Wasn't Bejam's downstairs? To the left of Tesco's as you look at the picture I thought there were ramps going down to another level or am I imagining things?
I also remember Rumbelows being on the right hand side parade of shops as you look at tesco's!
Also, when I was 6 or 7 I used to go up town with my parents on a Saturday. Me and my old man would go in solarium and she'd go shopping, crisps and coke for me while the old man had a few pints. Strange thing is I can remember the name of it and vaguely being in there (i'm sure the bar was on the first floor?) but I don't remember it being out the front of Churchill Square, could have sworn it was above the shops to the left as you look at tesco's with the entrance on the east side?? This would have been about 1983.
Wasn't Bejam's downstairs? To the left of Tesco's as you look at the picture I thought there were ramps going down to another level or am I imagining things?
I also remember Rumbelows being on the right hand side parade of shops as you look at tesco's!
Also, when I was 6 or 7 I used to go up town with my parents on a Saturday. Me and my old man would go in solarium and she'd go shopping, crisps and coke for me while the old man had a few pints. Strange thing is I can remember the name of it and vaguely being in there (i'm sure the bar was on the first floor?) but I don't remember it being out the front of Churchill Square, could have sworn it was above the shops to the left as you look at tesco's with the entrance on the east side?? This would have been about 1983.
Knightsworld
Well-known member
That's the name I have been waiting to see, I couldn't remember it.
Got our Commodore 64 from there. Happy days.
Miss Selfridge reached from front to back and was on 3 floors, with a cafe. It was a must-visit every Saturday. Smiffs, next door, used to reach from front to back as well and had a record dept and a travel agents. Nearby was Mothercare with a cafe next door called Sarah's. Right at the back was the 2-storey Tesco, which even sold paint upstairs. I was shopping there the day the bomb went off at the Grand, so I went down for a nose. RJs hair was in Churchill Sq before it went to Queen's Road. Habitat was always there, even till after the remodelling. Still there, but empty. I had my first snog at the bottom of the stairwell next to that naff old bit of concrete artwork, before the place was open!
Saw Jackie Pallo wrestling there. And others.
I don't remember a Sainsbury's at Churchill Sq at all. Where was it?
Blazing Apostle
Active member
- Jul 30, 2011
- 319
Sainsbury's was tucked round in the top left corner - I worked for BT in the offices above the Square in the mid 80's and remember the weekly shop at Tesco's in the 70's
DanielT
Well-known member
Colts! Got my gear for stringer down in that darkened crevice of the old churchill square!
Lush
Mods' Pet
Look what I found! Taken in summer 1981.
Not Andy Naylor
Well-known member
I worked at Smiths in autumn 1975, and the aircon broke down one Saturday about two weeks before Christmas. All the floors werre rammed with Christmas shoppers and the air was unbreathable within minutes. But the manager was desperate to be the first shop in the UK to beat some target or other, so they stayed open. For once I was glad to be working in the stockrooms in the basement where you could just open the door to the service road for ventilation. I also remember the manager instituting spot-checks to make sure staff weren't nicking things but then getting us to help him lift shop units into the back of his car.
The best thing was that they had an old-style lift, so you could load up a trolley with books in the basement and head off up to the top floor, then pull the door slightly open between floors to stop the lift, and spend as long as you felt like reading. Everyone on the top floor assumed the lift was being loaded in the basement, everyone in the basement assumed you were unloading on the top floor. No-one could ever be arsed to check.
On another subject, didn't there use to be a bridge at the back of Churchill Square across to the Brighton Centre?
Lich Seagull
Member
Rarely post, but this thread had me reminiscing as well. Soft Centre, Colts, Intersport, Bejam..classic stores of their time. As a young lad in the mid/late 80s spent many a Sunday bombing round the back of Churchill Square (when all shops closed) on skateboards, rollerboots or bikes. Happy days.