Thinking caps on
I hope that you have all recovered from the Christmas festivities, because I need you to put your thinking caps on for this one.
There is no licence plate visible to give us a date – and the lady’s clothes are not much of a clue.
Over to you all – please post your guesses below.
Comments about this page
I think that it is Jubilee Street, just along from the Waggon & Horses Pub. Latterly this area was a large open space used as a car park. You could walk right through into North Road. The whole area has now been redeveloped including a hotel, library and restaurants.
The building looks like the malt house that once stood on Lavender Street and Hereford Street in Kemp Town.
The trailers look like old British Rail Scammel trailers or Tamplins trailers. The rear end of the vehicle or trailer shown bottom right could be a drayman’s wagon owing to the raised edges to the flatbed to stop beer crates and barrels moving around.
somewhere round Russell Street – Artilery Street at a guess.
Another guess near Edward street? St James Street?
I like Peter Guy’s thinking on this, though I’m not totally convinced that it’s Church Street/Jubilee Street. There is a gentle gradient, which could be the lower reaches of many streets in that general area, including those from Church Street right through to Cheapside.
Having read Michael Brittain’s comment about the old malt house, I think he’s absolutely right. This must be what was laughingly called Paradise Street, with Lavender Street running across the photo. Regards, Alan.
This photo appears on James Gray Collection Volume 22 image 155, if you also look at image 154 the window shapes of the old malt house look the same, even though bricked up.
You guys are amazing! Your powers of deduction would put Mr Holmes to shame. I’m afraid I’ve cheated and looked at James Gray’s photograph collection.
I am going to go with Peter on this one: 1950s, Jubilee Street at the opposite end to the Waggon & Horses for the following reasons. There does appear to be a slight slope from left to right of the picture, ie: towards Church Street. North Road would be immediately to the left of the camera which is facing east. The factory type building with the two chimneys seems to have been built across the street behind the lorry trailers which Mick has rightly said are early British Rail in appearance and this isn’t far from the station, but there isn’t any vehicular access into it. (Note the slots in the headboards for the driver to look through when reversing. The one to the right with the raised edges could have been a milk lorry or one of those that used to come round selling bottles of lemonade and Tizer etc with the crates stacked at an angle so the bottles didn’t fall out when going along. Was it Hooper Struve?) My period Barnetts Brighton street plan shows a small ‘indent’ in the east side of Jubilee Street at this point which could well be this blanked off roadway. If you could have walked straight ahead you would have come out into North Place. I walked around this area a few months ago when in town to visit the library which is on part of this plot now. The Ten Green Bottles wine shop would be approximately where the camera would be today. Someone might be able to identify that factory? I can’t remember anything like this up the Kemp Town end in the fifties and that was my stamping ground although there were plenty of derelict sites similar around the Edward Street area.
I used to go to school at St Mary’s primary on Mount Street in the early 1960s, I remember walking past the malt house many times, there was also a brewery and bottling plant just down the road on Lavender Street. I believe a block of flats now stand at that location called Malthouse Court.
Oh well; That’s two I’ve got entirely wrong now! Sorry. Mind you the James Gray collection is a most valuable resource for everyone.
Although the answer has been revealed, I thought I would add that the picture shows all that remained of Paradise Street and was taken in Lavender Street from the opposite side of the road. The building on the right hand corner was the Wheelwright’s Arms, which closed its doors in December 1936 and was thereafter let out as a house. The place was boarded up in 1962 in preparation for demolition in 1967.
Regards, Andy
This was at the top of Lavender Street, I used to go past it every day on the way to school at St John the Baptist. The building with the iron steps was used for making gas mantels.
Yes the other side of the Gas Mantel factory was in Hereford Street where I lived from about 4 to 10 years of age. I used to go to St Mary’s School in Mount Street too.
It’s the old mantle factory, top of Lavender Street, opposite the Fifes banana warehouse. I remember as a young fireman, going to the building on right.
What sits on this site now is a sixteen block of flats - Hereford court. The reason I know is because when it was build I worked on it as a plumber and did most of the second fix in the flats. To those who do not know what that means, I plumbed all the basins, sinks etc.
Add a comment about this page