Can anyone remember the shops in the old Churchill Square?

[Canonman]

Did some work in the old meat market yonks ago. It was a bit of a creepy place to walk through at night.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Yes. A jump up and grab scramble over the wall with the small black railings on top of it past Bullock's the butcher at the top of Cranbourne Street. Skate the bowl for a while then down past Family Fun at the bottom of West Street to grab the spare pennies (!) from the "tilt" ledge on the Avalanche machine then on to the ramp between there and the West Pier. Happy Days

By the way, what was the name of the shop at the back of Churchill Square past the Habitat that used to sell clock radios and other "modern stuff". Mini TVs too. I used to stare in that shop window for ages. Ha ha.

Could have been Tandy or Currys? Or even Rumbelows?

Did some work in the old meat market yonks ago. It was a bit of a creepy place to walk through at night.

Yeah the Event night club changed long ago.

 

[Canonman]

Event, meat market, nice one. just about right. Regarding the meat market our firm was just involved in the dismantling the electrics in there before the wholesale demolition of the area.

 

[burnee54]

Saw Jackie Pallo wrestling there. And others.

TV's Jackie Pallo, Mick McManus, Monty Swann, Joe Cornelius, Billy Two Rivers, Les Kellet , Ah yes I remember it well. I wonder where my old Autograph Book went?

 

[Drumstick]

Looking at the regency page I discovered something interesting on West Street today. Can anyone spot it?

 

[Flex Your Head]

This ties in perfectly with this thread - some great old shots:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151612842841657.1073741841.346288121656&type=1

 

[The Birdman]

Used to be men's shop down the old steps can't rember the name 1970ish also the American Express travel shop. Nat West Bank !

 

[Man of Harveys]

Looking at the regency page I discovered something interesting on West Street today. Can anyone spot it?

You can't see anyone fighting?

 

[whitelion]

Used to be men's shop down the old steps can't rember the name 1970ish also the American Express travel shop. Nat West Bank !

Just read the whole of this thread and spent a couple of hours looking at the Recency Society website...thanks for posting the link to that...can't remember who put that up.

I think the shop you're referring to might have been Taste....mentioned early on in the thread. Remember buying stuff there myself...very dingy down there. It was there or along Western Road to Stunning Rags on a Saturday when trying to buy something to wear that night. Remember the Tesco well as it was way before the superstores we now have and I'd park there and do a major shop in the mid-eighties.

Have really enjoyed this thread...thanks to all for contributing.

 

[sueelleker]

Natwest, BHS and Smiths are all still in the same place albeit indoors. Remember the Fortes restaurant with the Kenco coffee sign outside, they also had the one on the seafront which is now Harry Ramsdens. Used to love being taken to the Solarium cafe in the pictures, was a real treat as a little lad. And there was a little ice cream kiosk at the top of the stairs leading down to the big Tesco at the back, whose neighbours included 'Hall of Cards' 'Bejam' (frozen food) and Leaders (kitchenware). It's all a bit sterile now.

The one downstairs was Dalgety Frozen Food. Bejam was upstairs, beyond Habitat.

 

[sueelleker]

The bits and pieces shop was Scotcade. They also had a catalogue; I got a nice watch from them, also a suede and knit jacket that I still have.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Gamleys!!

 

[somerset]

I remember WH Smith and HMV, vinyl in the sleeves, music collector heaven, all for free too....... #those were the days.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Gamleys!!

Churchill Square

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Churchill Square

Whoops..

 

[Ruffy]

Just down the road I know, but I remember the clock tower had rather vile toilets underneath until they got concreted over. I wonder if they're still underneath?

 

[loco61]

I remember WH Smith and HMV, vinyl in the sleeves, music collector heaven, all for free too....... #those were the days.

great thread and great memories ... I started work at WH Smith in Churchill Square in 1985 and was there for 6 months before leaving to go to of all places WH Smiths in the Whitgift Centre, Croydon !!! 18 months later i applied for a job as "Department Manager Sounds" back in Brighton and was back "home"...The shop out the back was next to the Nat West Bank which is to this day still my branch although the address has changed and i think it might have been a Midland Bank at some stage. When i started in 85 my boss in Brighton was a Springsteen fan and this was played as much as he could get away with ... loads of vinyl and the first cds and last Betamax videos ... closed at 5.30pm. I have just found my application (written on a typewriter) ... CCTV was introduced in 1986 and the branch was hoping for a much healthier audit result !!!

I could go on forever but heres a bit about the competition which might be of interest ... Virgin, a fair distance from Churchill Sq, and HMV which had good availability and an extensive range were the main competition, Woolworths were rubbish at that time , Boots had a small range of music and it was hard to find, The Classical Long Player in Duke Street had what you would expect, Rounder Records had the R missing in the sign at that point and had seen much better days, Record Album in Queens Road specialised in deleted LPs . Harringtons sold some records, Laskys had a small selection of CDs and Dixons competed with WHSmiths on blank tapes (video and audio!). Happy Memories. 1987 was to be a good year and i got to the Goldstone when i had a Saturday off! I left in 1987 for the bright lights of London ... N12!

 

[Doc Lynam]

Nice one
Funny the things you remember; used to work in the BHS restaurant under the shop my first job back in 91/92 you used to get some right old sorts down there! I think it was something about eating underground that attracted them!

 

[BrianWade4]

Once saw a man masturbating in the changing room of C+A as I tried on my school uniform

#akward

 

[Doc Lynam]

Once saw a man masturbating in the changing room of C+A as I tried on my school uniform

#akward

To be fair they did sell some lovely gear back in the day!