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Where are these shops?

Have been trawling through the museum’s collection of local history photographs again.

I found this untitled image and wondered where it was.

Do you know? Please post a comment below

Mystery photograph - click on image to open a large version in a new window.
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Comments about this page

  • Reliance Motor Works were at 58 Lewes Road, around where the Co-op is now (between Caledonian and Edinburgh Roads). I’m assuming this stretch of shops was demolished in the 60s or 70s. Does anyone else know?   

    By Janet Beal (02/08/2017)
  • That has to be Lewes Road – a branch of the Deveson family lived next door to us in Hartington Road and I can just about recall the shop being in Lewes Road, roughly opposite the Lewes Road Inn.  The business closed about 1967 and the site became a filling station.

    By Geoff Robbins (03/08/2017)
  • This is Lewes Road west side, just below Edinburgh Rd. Flinns and Tingleys (above) were there in 1969 from the Kellys at #57. This is earlier than 1969 as the directory shows the Reliance Motor Works as #58/62. S.F. Deveson is not listed at that date.

    By Geoffrey Mead (03/08/2017)
  • A loud voice in my head is saying this is Station Road, Portslade.

    By Rodger Olive (03/08/2017)
  • This is the Lewes Road. I used to shop at Deveson’s when I worked at Carter’s newsagents.

    By Sylvia Adams (03/08/2017)
  • My 1939 Kelly’s shows Sydney Frederick Deveson as a Greengrocer at 59/60 Lewes Road next to the Reliance Motor Works and it is probably the same S F Deveson living in Bonchurch Road the same year.  Given Geoff Mead’s details of the Reliance works being at 68 – 62, I would speculate that the garage bought 59 and 60 in order to turn the whole site into the filling station that I recall (Esso possibly?).

    By Geoff Robbins (03/08/2017)
  • This is definitely Lewes Road. I used to go to Elm Grove girls school and I used to cross over Lewes Road at this point to go to Princes Crescent where I lived. 

    By Christine Barry (06/08/2017)
  • Must be Lewes Rd! I started my first job there, lasted a month, my Mum got me the job she was a cleaner there, she was not happy when I packed it in. I was paid £1 a week. I’m told they were the good old days?

    By Arthur Harris (07/08/2017)
  • I grew up in Hartington Road & don’t recall a toyshop close to the bottom.

    As you came out of Hartington Rd, on the left was the undertakers followed by the pawn shop.  On the right was the off-licence, followed by Carters newsagents (although Carters was quite large and did have some toys as well…..).  Opposite the bottom was a Co-op butchers on one corner and (certainly in the early 70’s) Brownlow’s chemists on the other side.

    Perhaps it was Carters you were thinking of John?

    By Geoff Robbins (25/09/2017)
  • This may be the one, Kelly’s 1954 shows at 140 Lewes Rd [2 doors from Hartington Rd] Carters toy dealer & stationer, Mrs RA Griffiths.

    By Geoffrey Mead (25/09/2017)
  • Not relevant to this discussion, I know, but can anyone tell me the name of the toy shop that was at the bottom of Hartington Road in the sixties?

    By John Gower (25/09/2017)
  • That would be FILBYS I believe ,on the Lewes road just before the Elm grove junction ,run by a father and son ,my children loved that shop ..

    By jan (25/09/2017)
  • Didn’t the Reliance garage become Brighton Van Hire in the 70s?. When I worked as a driver for Woodcocks carpets at Crowhurst Road Hollingbury my lorry had to be taken to Caffyns, Kingsway after a breakdown. I am sure Woodcocks hired a lorry from Brighton Van Hire just along from Elm Grove, where the Reliance garage stood.

    By Mick Peirson (26/09/2017)
  • John, could it have been No 138, which shows as “Young Ones”, Toy Dealers, in my 1974 Kellys? I’m not sure when they were established there. It would have been just to the north of the side road Melbourne Street, but still only a few feet from the bottom of Hartington Road.

    By Alan Hobden (26/09/2017)
  • Thanks for all your suggestions! I’m starting to think that it’s me who’s got the place wrong…..! I regularly travelled by bus from Lewes and in my memory it seems that the toyshop was at the bottom of Hartington Road. On the windows I remember seeing from the bus “Join our all the year round toyclub-join our toyclub”. I’m as certain as I can be that it was in that section of Lewes Road. The name “Carters” doesn’t sound right to me…Oh dear! 

    By John Gower (26/09/2017)
  • After writing my previous comment a few minutes ago, a name has come to me! I have a feeling the toyshop might have been called Trotmans! Does that name ring any bells with anyone?

    By John Gower (26/09/2017)
  • Filby’s was a toy/bicycle shop close to the bottom of Elm Grove. When my daughter was small and attending Fairlight School, I must have spent a fortune in there buying Barbie dolls for her, I don’t remember ever being able to sneak by without going in and then catching the bus to the top of Elm Grove, she is 40 now, and we have lived in Australia since she was 4, but she still remembers Filbys.

    By sandra (27/09/2017)
  • I remember Trotmans, it sold a few toys but it mostly sold bikes. I bought my first bike there when I started work in Carters in 1951.

    By Sylvia Adams (27/09/2017)
  • My Kelly’s 1954 & 1969 both show 138 Lewes Rd as Trotman’s cycle maker[1954] and cycle dealer [1969]

    By Geoffrey Mead (27/09/2017)
  • Well, well, well.  I don’t recall the shop at all but John Gower and Alan Hobden are both right.  My 1939 Kelly’s shows 138 Lewes Rd (on the viaduct side corner of Melbourne St) as being Jack Henry Trotman, Cycle maker.My recollection of that corner is that there was nothing between the viaduct and Melbourne St but clearly there must have been.  Must look for some photo’s now……

    By Geoff Robbins (27/09/2017)
  • Thanks to all of you who’ve helped with this. I didn’t realise Trotmans was a cycle dealer as well as selling toys. But the “mystery” is solved now. I can still picture those words on the windows (Join our all-the-year round toyclub), so I would imagine toys were perhaps quite important for them, in addition to bikes. Geoff-do you mean Trotman’s was actually in Melbourne Street? I’ve been away from Brighton for a long time and can’t quite recall the order of the streets along that part of Lewes Road. Is that street the next one along from Hartington Road?

     

    By John Gower (28/09/2017)
  • I’ve just rechecked my copy of Kelly’s and Trotman’s was on the corner of Lewes Road and Melbourne St.  Melbourne St is a C shaped road and one end of it is the next road to Hartington Road.  Trotman’s was on the Lewes side corner of that end of Melbourne St – looking at Google Street view the site is occupied by a New and Secondhand Discount Furniture shop. 

    By Geoff Robbins (28/09/2017)
  • Many thanks for this info Geoff. Looking at the view on Google Street view, I can indeed imagine that that is where the shop was. I can almost feel myself on the upper deck of the bus from Lewes , looking out of the window as it went past that point!

    Going home in the evening on the bus, I remember always being intrigued by “Wilson’s Library”. Do you recall that place?

    By John Gower (29/09/2017)
  • Looking at the photo of the viaduct - I do remember the Wilson’s Library shop front but cannot for the life of me, recall ever going in.  It’s been strange the last couple of days, I used to catch the bus at the Melbourne St stop every morning to go to school and was in and out of the United Reform Church buildings a couple of days a week yet I only remember some of the premises with any clarity (ok, it’s been over 40 years since I lived ‘full time’ in Brighton!).  

    By Geoff Robbins (30/09/2017)
  • Indeed the photo at the top of the page is 57,58,59 and 60 lewes road…57 was Flinns dry cleaners also in the same building was Tingleys wireless egineers and also Charles Ewer he was a watch maker, 58 was reliance motor works brighton ltd engineers, 59 and 60 was sydney frederick deveson greengrocers, this row of shops was between caledonian road and edinburgh road … does anybody remember clarks bakery in the same area.. hope this is not too confusing.

    By george sibun (20/11/2017)
  • Does anyone remember the name of the off licence next door I think to Carters at the bottom of Hartington Road / Lewes Road ? Thanks I’m trying to find out for my father in law.

    By Cath (23/12/2017)
  • We lived next door to Fords the furniture store in Lewes Road in the seventies, and do remember that Clark’s the bakers was the first shop next to the Race Horse Inn on Lewes Road.

    By Jan (23/12/2017)
  • In 1964 the off-licence at 142 Lewes Rd was Galleon Wine Co Ltd.

    By Geoffrey Mead (24/12/2017)
  • Thanks very much for your help , I really appreciate it.

    By Cath (26/12/2017)
  • Great work, thanks.

    By Michael D. Johnson (06/03/2018)
  • This was my grandad’s shop. He died before I was born. I’d love to hear from anyone that could remember him. Probably unlikely now though.

    By Marc Deveson (17/08/2018)
  • Hi Marc, I can’t say I ever knew Syd Deveson but I do remember our next door neighbours Bert & Ivy (?) Deveson, although they were always just Mr & Mrs to me growing up. I think Bert was Syd’s brother. As I recall Bert worked with Syd in the shop until it closed and then he had a job up at the racecourse. I remember them as a good neighbours, if ever I got home from school and mum wasn’t there I could always knock next door and be sure of a welcome. There was always sweets to be had (Murray Mints, I still can’t eat one without thinking of ‘Mrs Dev’) and the opportunity to play with their cat Pippy (I still have photos of Pippy!).

    I do have a few more memories if you’re interested…

    By Geoff Robbins (18/08/2018)
  • Hi Geoff, thank you for that. My dad and all his side of my family that I knew as a child have passed away now. It’s lovely to hear from people that remember them. Thank you.

    By Marc Deveson (19/08/2018)
  • Sydney Deveson was also my grandad, my father was Dick his son. I was born in Brighton, and remember going to the shop in Lewes Road and then my father had a shop in Horsham.

    By Linda Collins nee Deveson (11/11/2018)
  • These shops were at the foot of Franklin Road, across from the Public house ( a bomb site when I grew up ).
    I remember the greengrocers well, Mother sending me down to pick up spuds ( not to big or muddy ) and runner beans ( do not take big ones ) .
    Back then you had to take your own newspapers to wrap your produce .
    Like many others I think I grew up in the best of times, mind you having said that without the progress that sometimes makes me scratch my head , how could I send this to you ?
    Oh well Brighton still holds a place in my soul.
    Former resident of Franklin street.

    By Peter Miller. (25/04/2019)
  • I came to Brighton during the 50s and 60s, during the holidays as my grandparents had a shop on the corner of Melbourne St that sold tobacco and sweets etc.

    By Rob Body (16/09/2019)
  • My Grandparents lived in Pevensey Road

    Does anyone else remember the Home and Colonial store next to Clark’s the bakers and Twitchens store nearby ?

    By Lee Bishop (09/07/2020)
  • This is Lewes road just before a takeaway called AA Charcoal Grill.

    By Nadine (19/09/2021)

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