Old pictures of Brighton

[dougdeep]

I was born here...

All the best people were.

 

[Woodingdean Gull]

James Gray worked for General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, (GAFLAC or General Accident as it was known) at 34 West Street and then 155 Preston Road. He was their Chief Clerk until he retired in the '60's.

I know this because I worked for them when I left school from 1964 to 1967.

He was not only an Albion fan, but a true sports fan and when we were based at West street, he would walk down the road and go for a swim in the sea every day.

He was a hard task master but a true gentleman. A workmate and I had to study for our ACII exams and this meant that we went to college on a Wednesday afternoon. Well, we went twice and, although we were both playing football on Saturday and Sunday, we joined a mid week football team and played the rest of the season for them. All was ok as we both passed our ACII part 1 exams but then Jas, as he was known behind his back and Sir or Mr. Gray to his face, called us into his office.

He asked us how we had got on with our studying at the College and after we had come out with a load of bullshit dropped the bombshell that the college had supplied a record of our attendance. Not only that, but from his office, that overlooked Preston Park, he had seen us playing in the mid-week league.

As we had passed the exams, he said that he wouldn't take it any further and he didn't.

I said he was a gentleman and he was. Great bloke.

 

[bigc]

The entrance is still there. It's used for ticket distribution on matchdays.

The tennis stadium went when I got Brighton Borough Council to pull it down to give me more car parking spaces for the shoppers' park and ride service that I managed during the 1990s.

This had the spin-off benefit of ensuring that a major demolition job wasn't needed when the Club wanted to use Withdean as a football stadium.

How did that Park and Ride do anyway?

I remember that stand being demolished in the Summer of 1996. I looked round at it earlier that year, because back then you could get out from the Sportsman Garden, down onto the running track and head on over.

 

[sams dad]

All the best people were.[/QUOTE.
I was born there and for the first five months of my life I lived about 100 yards away

 

[Lord Bracknell]

How did that Park and Ride do anyway?

Park and Ride first came to Withdean in the late 1980s - on Saturdays, in the run up to Christmas. It was very successful and the idea was floated that a year-round, Monday to Saturday service might be worth trying. I was given the responsibility to manage the project and it was eventually introduced in the early 1990s. I remained in charge of it until 1997, when Brighton & Hove City Council came along and took over transport responsibilities in the city from East Sussex County Council.

There was a lot of scepticism from some quarters about whether car drivers could be persuaded to use a park and ride bus. But the popularity of the service grew year on year and it became quite clear that the biggest problem was that the car park at Withdean wasn't big enough. Hence the decision to knock down the old tennis stadium. But Withdean has always been seen as a "temporary" park and ride site, pending the development of a bigger, purpose-built facility.

The service continued to run successfully until earlier this year - but the problem has continued to be an inadequate amount of parking spaces to cope with the growth in demand. Every alternative, bigger site that has been found has proved too controversial, so nothing long-term has yet been developed.

In these circumstances, I think the council has basically given up. What's been on offer since this summer has just been a facility for free parking at Withdean for anyone who wants to use the regular bus service to travel into the city - a half-baked service that seriously undersells the potential of park and ride.

A shame, in my opinion. My role was to develop and manage the original Monday to Saturday service and prove that the idea had potential. That succeeded. Sadly, the City Council hasn't been able to build on that success. It's simply proved too difficult.

 

[bigc]

Park and Ride first came to Withdean in the late 1980s - on Saturdays, in the run up to Christmas. It was very successful and the idea was floated that a year-round, Monday to Saturday service might be worth trying. I was given the responsibility to manage the project and it was eventually introduced in the early 1990s. I remained in charge of it until 1997, when Brighton & Hove City Council came along and took over transport responsibilities in the city from East Sussex County Council.

There was a lot of scepticism from some quarters about whether car drivers could be persuaded to use a park and ride bus. But the popularity of the service grew year on year and it became quite clear that the biggest problem was that the car park at Withdean wasn't big enough. Hence the decision to knock down the old tennis stadium. But Withdean has always been seen as a "temporary" park and ride site, pending the development of a bigger, purpose-built facility.

The service continued to run successfully until earlier this year - but the problem has continued to be an inadequate amount of parking spaces to cope with the growth in demand. Every alternative, bigger site that has been found has proved too controversial, so nothing long-term has yet been developed.

In these circumstances, I think the council has basically given up. What's been on offer since this summer has just been a facility for free parking at Withdean for anyone who wants to use the regular bus service to travel into the city - a half-baked service that seriously undersells the potential of park and ride.

A shame, in my opinion. My role was to develop and manage the original Monday to Saturday service and prove that the idea had potential. That succeeded. Sadly, the City Council hasn't been able to build on that success. It's simply proved too difficult.

Yes I always thought Withdean would just be the start of a Park and Ride scheme, and like you say, it does seem to have fizzled out somewhat. I dread to think how long it would take to find a suitable Park and Ride site and then gain planning permission.

Didn't the Tories have a crazy idea of building an underground car park under Preston Park?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Didn't the Tories have a crazy idea of building an underground car park under Preston Park?

The latest version of this was the proposal in 2007, put forward by Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, for an underground car park "between the Level and the Old Steine".

Underground car parks could solve parking problems From The Argus)

Underground car parks could solve parking problems
4:48pm Wednesday 20th June 2007

By Richard Gurner »

Underground car parks are being forward as a solution to a city's parking problems.

Members of Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce have suggested putting a car park underneath land between the Level and the Old Steine in a bid to make the city more car friendly to its eight million visitors a year.

Chris Shanks, executive committee member at the chamber of commerce, said: "At the moment we have got a shortage of car parking spaces and since we are not going to get a park and ride scheme, we have to bring people people further into Brighton with easier parking.

"It would take all the congestion away from the roundabout at the Palace Pier. All the traffic is going down there but if we can go down a few levels you can get a lot of cars in there.

"In the past we have heard that NCP are interested but the council did not want to know. Our members clearly feel the issue should go back on the agenda.

"We need to stop people crawling into our city. Our visitors want to come by car and if you visited a city that took two hours to get into, how many times would you want to go back?

"Internally we have an excellent bus service but the problem is we have an estimated eight million visitors a year."

The chamber was asked to respond to Brighton and Hove City Council's Air Quality Action Plan which recommends joining up the green space between the Level to the Old Steine to create a "Green Heart" of the city.

It suggested if work was to start on this, it would be a good opportunity to construct the underground car parks.

There was also overwhelming support for a proposed Rapid Transport System for the city and also calls for the council to lead by example in environmental issues and use electric or hybrid vehicles in its work.

Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of the council's environment committee, said: "We are looking at all kinds of matters to see whether there are any possibilities.

"If I think there are, we will progress them further. At this stage I'm looking at a whole range of matters and I have put this to engineers to look at."



I'm fairly certain that the Council's traffic engineers will have told Mr Theobald that this is not only a crazy idea, but impractical and ludicrously expensive - a multi-million pound project that would make traffic congestion worse.

 

[bigc]

Mr Theobald doesn't listen to that kind of logic though does he?

He is too busy getting up in arms about Ovett's statue being stolen or restoring the Bandstand. I wonder if he will try and be selected again as the Tories candidate for Pavilion seeing as Dr David Bull (shit) has dropped out as PPC.

 

[skipper734]

Bit damp under there, I should imagine.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Mr Theobald doesn't listen to that kind of logic though does he?

He won't have much choice but to listen to that bit of the explanation that goes along the lines of ... "The City Council haven't got either the funds or the borrowing approval necessary to pay for this madcap idea".

 

[Taybha]

i loved this place,easy to bunk in and for the film earthquake installed a groundbreaking sound system that made the seats seem to shake under you.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Particular favourites of mine ...

The entrance to my current workplace at Preston Barracks, with the non-existent Hollingdean estate in the background.

And Preston Barracks itself ...

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Lord B. When was it pulled down? I was a Withdean resident from day one (for me, at least), just above the nature reserve, but can't really piece together the changes of Withdean Stadium. I am sure there was a fire there at some point.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Interesting stuff. The King Alfred was a nice uniform building when it opened. A far cry from the shambles it is now.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Lord B. When was it pulled down? I was a Withdean resident from day one (for me, at least), just above the nature reserve, but can't really piece together the changes of Withdean Stadium. I am sure there was a fire there at some point.

bigc remembers the tennis stadium being demolished in the summer of 1996. I'll not disagree with that.

It was certainly at some time between May 1996 and April 1997 that the car park that replaced it came into use. I remember some of the local residents getting very agitated about a request that Brighton Borough Council made to re-route the park and ride buses along Withdean Road. The locals weren't having it and there was a bit of an issue about which council had the right to decide the matter - East Sussex County Council, Brighton Borough Council or the new (shadow) Brighton & Hove Council.

In the end, ESCC took the decision (because the contract with the bus company was with ESCC). It was a dispute that taught me how tenacious the locals around Withdean can be. Fortunately for me, I decided to go along with their wishes and recommend that the buses should continue running via Valley Drive in both directions. The Withdean NIMBYs thought I was their HERO.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Thanks for that. A REAL sheep in wolf's clothing!

Withdean residents never fail to surprise me. I remember someone knocked up a phoney planning application for a Strip Club and placed the notices, strategically, around Withdean/Westdene. There was an EGM called within 24 hours. Food for thought on our, eventual, departure of God's own Brighton Ward.

SWEAT (Save Withdean Environment Action Team) was setup within hours of Brighton announcing their plans to move to Withdean Stadium. A newsletter was circulated, aimed at 'vulnerable' residents, warning of thuggery, garden pissing, riots and what have you. What they did not bank on, was that not all suburbians were vehemently anti-Albion. Although my sister did register us as SWEAT-Sympathisers... to spite me for some reason or another.

John Catt is a voice of the people, but not everyone. In actual fact, I am positive that the club have benefited the area. It is certainly a lot cleaner nowadays and the fence erected around the Nature Reserve seems to have stopped the flytipping. The small businesses certainly do more trade than they would do otherwise and the council/bus companies get a tidy sum at the end of the day. Hey ho!

 

[BUTTERBALL]

1946, Brighton Racecourse. Look at the fantastic 'Art Deco' stands long since demolished.

 

[Garage_Doors]

Can anyone tell what was previously on the site that now sits the Thistle Hotel.

My mate has the fishmongers next door to the fisherman museum down on the promenade and trying to get a fix on where it is on the old photos.
I did go to the Thistle web site but just gives the address as Kings road without a number.

 

[The Spanish]

Particular favourites of mine ...

The entrance to my current workplace at Preston Barracks, with the non-existent Hollingdean estate in the background.

And Preston Barracks itself ...

so the road in front on the top one is Coombe Road I guess?

 

[The Large One]

Can anyone tell what was previously on the site that now sits the Thistle Hotel.

My mate has the fishmongers next door to the fisherman museum down on the promenade and trying to get a fix on where it is on the old photos.
I did go to the Thistle web site but just gives the address as Kings road without a number.

Not from that collection. It appears to be in 'Volume 3' which hasn't yet been uploaded.

However, I wouldn't mind betting that it may well originally have been fishermen's cottages which were later torn down and a hotel built. Just a guess, like.