Completely RANDOM things about Brighton & Hove...

[severnside gull]

Was it later called The Gondolier

That's the one - seems a lifetime ago (not unreasonably I guess at a bit over 40 years!)

 

[HovaGirl]

Anyone remember The Birds Nest? Disco/Pub
Back in 1972 it had a late night supper license and you could get a drink after 11 pm but you had to buy a ham sandwich with your pint. It had a coloured lighted dance floor like in Saturday Night Fever.
Yeah Baby!

Oh yes! I was a Bird's Nest Babe. Went back there about 20 years later and it looked exactly the same, but scruffy and dated.

 

[HovaGirl]

*COUGH*

It would have been Radio Sussex then.

deleted message

 

[HovaGirl]

How about the fire at the old Hove Town Hall?

That's a very vague memory to me!

Yeah, actually watched it burn down because we lived nearby.

 

[1066 seagull]

Absolute top-notch thread. OK here goes random memories of old school Brighton…

Vogue Cinema on Lewes Road. My mates and I use to go to watch Saturday morning kids cinema. The same venue was also used for striptease on Friday evenings. As inquisitive 7-8 year olds we use to crawl onto stage area and look for any signs of this (knickers, bra, etc.)

Hollingdean Abattoir. Remember an incident sometime in the 70s when a bull escaped from here and legged it up Davey Drive (chasing a lollipop lady in the process).

Graffiti on wall at Hollingdean Abattoir (seen from train window). I’m a bit hazy on exact details but something along the lines of ‘LONG LIVE THE REBEL SPIRIT OF THE RAILWAY WORKERS – YOU DON’T HAVE TO KILL TO MAKE A LIVING’

Tutt’s Radio. The smallest and thinnest shop in town. Mentioned on this thread previously, now converted into a house (I wonder what euphemisms the estate agents use to describe it?)

Astoria Saturday morning kids cinema. Flash Gordon always shown with dramatic endings. Staff (always ladies in their 60s) selling ice creams from plastic trays hanging around neck at front of stage. Ample unruly behaviour from the young (and from memory 100% parent-free) audience

A rag and bone man wheeling a cart around the streets of Hollingdean shouting “Any old rags” then something I never could understand but vaguely like “Tenko” or possibly “Tank-o”

The “10p for a cup of tea mate” man in the pre-Big Issue days.

The rather old looking tap dancing man at Churchill Square. Bow tie, suited, white gloves and sadly with a permanently arched back. Use to dance to (distorted sounding) music from old tape machine. Looked a bit like that red tunic wearing/top hat wearing/union jack waving English mascot that existed in the 60/70s whose name escapes me at the mo.

Mods, Skins and Punks arriving en-masse on any Bank Holiday during the early 80s. Remember one incident when hundreds of punks had arranged to have a game of football on the beach next to the Palace Pier. Police tried to stop it and inevitable shower of pebbles and scuffles erupted.

Previously mentioned on here ‘One Eyed Jack’ in woods near the Rocket Park. I remember actually looking for him with my friends armed with a flick knife. Alas he was elsewhere on that day.

A regular past-time was sneaking into cinemas without paying. Duke of Yorks – easy to boot open fire exit door but you entered directly at front end of cinema, so easily spotted by usherettes – generally thrown out within minutes. Cinescene, North Street once in leg it up to upstairs area and slouch in seats to blend in – but movies often arty and foreign – no good for an uncultured bunch of kids from Hollingdean.

Catching 59 bus from Hollingdean to the Albion ground. Not having enough money for entrance fee we would watch from those gardens of houses behind the Chicken Run. Happy Days.

 

[1066 seagull]

Oh yes I forgot. Have neglected any reference to 'Pig City' - the 70s skateboard culture of Brighton.

The Wall behind Churchill Square - To be able to boost "Yes I can ride the Wall" was of utmost importance in those days.

The Cage - when riding the large blue bowl the roar was exhilarating

West Pier Slope - endless hours spent there - talking about Tracker Trucks, Gull Wings, Road Rider 4s, Kryptonics, Alva decks and more...

Summer evenings at Churchill square - unofficial leader 'Mark baker' (whom I naively thought what the Boney M song 'Ma Baker' was all about

 

[Albumen]

Turn it Up - Mike Bradshaw Radio Sussex Sundays 7-9. Almost as good as Peely listening to it when I was 15/16.

 

[brightonskateboarding]

Oh yes I forgot. Have neglected any reference to 'Pig City' - the 70s skateboard culture of Brighton.

The Wall behind Churchill Square - To be able to boost "Yes I can ride the Wall" was of utmost importance in those days.

The Cage - when riding the large blue bowl the roar was exhilarating

West Pier Slope - endless hours spent there - talking about Tracker Trucks, Gull Wings, Road Rider 4s, Kryptonics, Alva decks and more...

Summer evenings at Churchill square - unofficial leader 'Mark baker' (whom I naively thought what the Boney M song 'Ma Baker' was all about

Hia, I came across this site whilst doing some research for a documentary on the history of Brighton skateboarding.. It sounds like you were around in the days of pig-city.. Did you skate with Pasty/ Tim dunkerly. Mark Baker etc.. Looking for as much info on this era as possible to fill in any gaps.. Photos/Footage/info etc..

If you can help me out could you send me a message at brightonskateboarding@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks a lot mate

 

[fork me]

Buzz Magazine.

The Whippet Inn in Queens Road (The Best Double Entendre In Brighton)

Attrix Record Shop

Gigs at the Cliftonville at Hove Station.

The Old Vic

The Zap Club being two tiny arches....

 

[Rowdey]

The Zap Club being two tiny arches....

And just one before that..!

Gamer or whatever it was called around Gloucester road area (on a corner) - used to sell dungeons and dragons board games etc.

Sure it's been mentioned elsewhere, but Beatties for Tamiya R/C cars.. Would have been just a poor 10 year old dribbling at them, never to get one..

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Oh yes I forgot. Have neglected any reference to 'Pig City' - the 70s skateboard culture of Brighton.

The Wall behind Churchill Square - To be able to boost "Yes I can ride the Wall" was of utmost importance in those days.

The Cage - when riding the large blue bowl the roar was exhilarating

West Pier Slope - endless hours spent there - talking about Tracker Trucks, Gull Wings, Road Rider 4s, Kryptonics, Alva decks and more...

Summer evenings at Churchill square - unofficial leader 'Mark baker' (whom I naively thought what the Boney M song 'Ma Baker' was all about

Could you see this 'wall' from the top of Cranbourne Street or the steps that lead down?

I have a vague recollection of just that.

 

[fork me]

That ridiculous sculpture thing at the back of churchill square that everyone used to try and climb when they were pissed.

Fishing boats on the beach.

The Major and Minor pools at the King Alfred (they're still there underneath the floor of the sports hall - open the trap doors and you can still climb in - or you could when I worked there in the late 80s).

Roller discos at the King Alfred much later (after the pools had been covered in).

The sneaky back way into Coasters from the Top Rank Suite, that meant you could go to the Suite on any age night and sneak into Coasters to buy beer without needing to go past the door staff.

Inter school fights on Hove Rec, and West Hove golf Course.

 

[fork me]

The Glass Animal Man up Queens Road,

He was cool. I remember him being on the pier for a while as well.

 

[fork me]

The big axe swining in Louis Tussaud's window

I used to love going into Louis Tussaud's as a kid.

 

[fork me]

on the subject of graffiti on bridges, does anyone remember the one on the railway bridge just before Coulsden that said " turn back Brighton or Die"

My favourite ever bridge graffiti was on the Shoreham flyover. On one of the most inaccessible spots it said "Spiderman woz ere". I was at junior school so it was sometime in the 70s.

 

[fork me]

The childrens talent show place along from Peter Pans. An early Brightons Got No Talent.

There used to be a kids talent show at the Dome in the late 60s/early 70s. My Mum still has photos of me doing "Long Haired Lover From Liverpool" in a clown suit aged about 3!

 

[fork me]

Glass animal man in Queens Road and Athena B - check.

Blue buses - check

Southdown buses (now stagecoach I believe) - green - check

...and Thomas Tilley buses - red! Check.

Couldn't find a brighton picture from when they actually ran, this is an original that was "bought back" by Brighton and Hove.

I swear I remember white buses when I was a kid as well.

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

The gateposts at Brighton station are made from Napoleonic cannons.

Only found that out the other day.

 

[fork me]

The Wellesbourne.

Brighton's 'lost river' was an intermittent stream known as the 'Wellesbourne' that ran from Patcham and beyond to the sea at Pool Valley , but only at those times after prolonged rainfall when the water-table within the porous chalk bedrock reached the surface along the London Road valley and water from springs was thus able to flow without repercolating, a phenomenon similar to the Winterbourne at Lewes today.

One of its principal sources was the pond in front of All Saint's Church, Patcham , now marked by a slight depression. In most winters the pond overflowed and water ran to the bottom of Church Hill (then named Spring Street) where it would be joined by water from other springs in the valley as far as Pyecombe; these included one at Brapool, which means 'pool by which bracken grew'. The stream then flowed into another pond at the corner of Old London Road and Ladies Mile Road , and along the road to Brighton where it was joined at the Level by another winter-bourne from Falmer that ran down the Lewes Road valley. The stream finally debouched into the sea at the 'pool' of Pool Valley , or perhaps slightly to the east, diverted by an artificial bank to protect the inlet {10}. The Domesday Book records the presence of a mill at Preston in 1086, possibly a water-mill powered by the stream.

The bourne often flooded the Valley Gardens in the winter and skating was occasionally possible on the frozen Steine . The swampy nature of the central valley probably prevented development upon it, but once the Steine had become a fashionable promenade with the arrival of visitors from the mid eighteenth century, such conditions were unacceptable.

In 1792-3 the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Marlborough, at their own expense, laid a wooden sewer under the western edge of the Steine to carry the bourne to the sea which also drained a stagnant pool that collected in front of the Prince's Marine Pavilion ; the Wellesbourne was culverted and Pool Valley was also bricked over. Following inundations in the winter of 1827-8, another drain was laid all the way from Preston Circus to the Albion Hotel.

Particularly strong flows of the Wellesbourne occurred in 1795, 1806, 1811, 1827-8, 1852, and finally in 1876 when both Lewes and London Road were impassable, but since the construction of the Patcham Waterworks in 1889, and the consequent siphoning of water from its sources, the bourne has never flowed again.

The Wellesbourne, corrupted to 'Whalesbone', may have given its name to the hundred through which it flowed, but although often referred to as an 'underground river', it is only so in the sense that spring water from Patcham may be carried under the London Road by sewer; there is no stream flowing within the chalk or Coombe deposits of the valley. After very heavy rain the water-table rises and reaches the surface in basements along the valley and occasionally at Preston Park and the Valley Gardens , giving the impression of an invisible stream. The Parks and Recreation Department uses water from the chalk along the valley for watering its gardens.

Didn't it also resurface in London Road in the year of the Lewes floods?

 

[fork me]

The official outlet for Falmer High School uniform (only ever ordered by innocent new pupils) was upstairs in Hornes (now Bench).

The Cardinal Newman uniform was only available iin Cobley's, on Church Road.