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Montague Place in 1967

Hall’s Grocers opened in 1856

This photograph shows the old shops, 6 & 7 Montague Place, off Eastern Road, on the 2nd July 1967.

It was in 1856 that this little grocer’s shop, on the right of the photograph, was opened by the grandfather of the last shopkeeper, Miss G.B. Hall. Sadly, Miss Hall had to leave when the premises were taken for demolition by the Corporation, as part of the Somerset Street redevelopment.

In the tiny garden behind the shop was a sycamore tree about 80 years old and one of the piles from the Chain Pier which had been here since 1896.

Do you remember either of these shops? If you can share your memories with us, please leave a comment below.

6 and 7 Montague Place
Image reproduced with kind permission of The Regency Society and The James Gray Collection

Comments about this page

  • I had lived at 3a Montague Place, about 1960, which now stands a tower block. I remember the hardware shop opposite Halls grocery shop which was called Oakleys. Mr Oakley always wore a beret, and a boiler suit. Good old days.

    By Alan Laycock (06/01/2016)
  • I lived at 14 Montague Place, in a flat above the Maltsters Arms 1956-66. I remember Ms Hall and Mr Oakley, Mr and Mrs Roberts at the greengrocers. My father worked at the old Kemp Town Brewery for many years. Wish I was back there.

    By Paul Briggs (12/06/2016)
  • My dad ran the cafe at number 21 from 1947 to 1980. The veg came from the Robert’s. They had two rather yappy dogs. I remember Miss Hall, and her friend Miss Addison who helped run the shop. I used to spend my shilling pocket money there every Saturday.

    By Phil Coles (23/06/2016)
  • In the very early 1950s, my parents John (Jack) and Lucy Lago, ran the Black Horse Public House which was directly connected to the Maltsters Arms, in later years refurbished into one public house. It is still the Black Horse but now sadly closed and I believe three houses. The Maltsters Arms was run at that time by Bill and Nellie Bevan who had a daughter called Vera – my late brother Chris met Vera as a next door neighbour and eventually they married. The shop next to Miss Halls was a gents barbers and almost next door was a workshop which was run by twins Ken and Ray Robinson who repaired invalid carriages and both raced motorbike and sidecars.

    By Tony Lago (31/10/2016)
  • Was your dad’s cafe ‘Davids Cafe’? Phil Coles, I used to be delivery boy for Home & Colonial grocers and deli on St Georges Road around 1970. I used to wheel a barrow of bacon, eggs and sausage etc after school up to David’s Cafe. I remember the owner seemed a very pleasant mild mannered man…

    By Michael Brittain (02/11/2016)
  • Michael – yes, David was my dad!

    By Phil Coles (14/04/2017)
  • I believe my great great grandfather Frederick Ogburn may have opened this shop himself or been working at the shop when it opened. As the records have him listed in 1858 as grocer and tea dealer and then later grocer and baker at this address, no 7 Montage Place, with his wife Eliza. I do believe from family accounts and records that they also had a bakers shop at one point a few years later where the pusheen ice cream shop is now, on East Street. We have a photo of it somewhere in my mums loft with her grandfather standing out front. They eventually moved out to London to start a new bakers shop many years later which then got passed down to his son and his son after that- my grandfather/my mums dad.
    It’s absolutely fascinating to see this photograph that would have been taken almost 100 years later!

    By Melissa Alder (13/02/2024)

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