We lived at Pyecombe in the 1950's and early 1960's and London Road was our shopping area. As with you Alen we visited all the places you mention as there was probably nothing that couldn't be bought in the area. My brother and I even had our haircut opposite St Peter's Church. And yes I remember our Co-op Number too - 58431!

From1949-1982 I lived in Dyke Rd Drive just north of the Viaduct so Preston Rd and London Rd were our daily shopping areas, Western Rd only for the Big Shop on Saturday. Bradshaws was where you could look in the long side window at the rows of yellow boxed Dinky toys as well as the bikes in the main shop. Next to Mitchell's paint shop was a little garden in Rose Hill Terrace where there was a model village. Ah! fantastic memeories of the sweet shop near the Co-op, liquorice wood to shred with your teeth for days, honeycomb and hard toffee the man broke up with a metal silvery hammer. The pork butchers, Harrison's next door and along the street Dawkins Forge at the Open Market. My first job as a Saturday boy was at Sainsbury's 55 London Rd near the Branch Tavern. I started as an egg boy graduating to a cheese boy but never making the dizzy heights of grocery boy [the top dept] as I retrained as a butchers boy! Behind the branch on the corner of Providence Place and York Hill was the Dolphin cafe where the JS workers bought lovely crusty and floury cheese rolls. Further along on the west side was the army surplus stores where I used to buy camping equipment for Scout camp, and down that side was Roslings store where I saw a lovely toy fort one Xmas. It was too dear to buy but my mum asked a teenager - Paul - in our road to make one as a surprise. It was built like...a fort...! You could stand on it! I had it for 20 years before giving it to the Royal Alex! At the back of London Road there was someone with Rhodesian Ridgeback hounds which as a butchers boy I used to feed scraps to from the backdoor. Public Health Officers where were you?

Yes, London Road was my mother's main shopping destination too, and in the fifties and early sixties was still sufficiently vibrant to rival Western Road, though later it suffered a severe decline from which it still hasn't really recovered - probably instigated by the Churchill Square redevelopment. If it wasn't for the proximity of the Open Market it would probably have suffered even worse. (Like Lewes Road, which used to be just as good, but is now just a shadow of its formal self as a shopping thoroughfare.) Fond memories include the original Sainsbury's - no self service in those days, all done by ladies in turbans - Bellman's, which was nominally a textiles outlet but which seemed to sell everything including ex-juke box singles which I bought to start my record collection, Bradshaw's bicycle shop whence came my first real bike, a 19-inch BSA Star Rider, and, just up Ann Street, Needham's tiny musical instrument shop where I bought my first musical instrument, a Hohner Chrometta 10 harmonica. Oh, and the enormous numbers of passengers who'd disembark at the Co-op when I was conducting the service 5 bus in 1968. London Road was certainly a popular destination in those halcyon days. On my occasional visits to Brighton from home here in Bath I still stroll through the Market and along London Road, and invariably pop into the bookshop opposite the Co-Op - Bredon's, is it? - to look out the latest nostalgia publications on the old home town. Rarely disappointed. Must also mention the wonderful photos from the James Gray Collection, including the ones above. What a favour that guy has done for nostalgiacs like us, and how brilliant that MYB&H has such wonderful access to the collection. The best community website in the country just got even better.