My grandfather’s firm
My grandfather ran ‘Mead & Co. Premier Brighton Removers’ at 17/18 Bond Street from early in the 20th century until his death in mid 1950s (family history not the Meads’ strong point!). The auction sale rooms were at 17 Bond Street. and Grandad’s office was at number 18. The family lived above it; my dad was one of 13 children. According to my older brother, there was a roof garden above that.
A Saturday morning sixpence
After Grandad’s death it still traded as Mead & Co but later became Meads of Brighton (but with no Meads!) and then Michael Norman Antiques. It is now pure North Laine, being a fancy clothes shop and a cocktail bar. As Grandad was a lay reader at the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel nearby in North Street he must be spinning in his grave! I well remember as a small boy visiting the office on Saturday morning and offering my Grandad my Stanford Road school cap for a 3d bit or 6d to be popped in.
A fleet of lorries
My mother, no great fan of her father-in-law, was always scathing of his meanness. He did have eleven removal lorries, a garage and store on Dyke Road Drive, and at one time had a large house in Reynolds Avenue, now Valley Drive, Withdean. Next to 18 Bond Street was Mrs Gibbs, always pronounced JIBBS, who had a bird shop, and where we bought seed and sand for Joey our canary. Across the road was the pub The Wheatsheaf, this had a side passage that allowed you, when the pub was open, to cut through from Bond Street to New Road.
Comments about this page
The removal lorry shown in the photo is a c1924 Ford Model T Commercial. This was similar to the famous Model T car but with longer stronger chassis and heavier rear wheels. Note the lack of front brakes, oil side lamps, but electric headlamps. Probably bodywork by one of the local coach builders, I wonder which one? The Brighton registration number is about 1924. The original Brighton ‘CD’ series started in December 1903 ready for January 1904 and was completed in 1927.
You might like the photo of the Mead removal vehicles in front of the Pavilion:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1637736326503729&set=gm.939166092788445&type=3
Thanks Paul, I have that image from a similar source. That is Grandad in the brown coat with clipboard and somewhere down the long line of drivers and their mates is my dad in his white removal man’s apron.
I believe my grandfather worked at Mead showroom in Bond Street.
Hi I recently bought an item at auction with a small white label underneath. Would Mead and Co have been selling new furniture or were they an auction house or just a remover.
“Phone 5969
Mead and Co
Furniture Repository
Bond Street
Brighton
Name; Mallers ?
Number; 46”
This was my grandfather’s business and we were furniture removers and auctioneers, as it said on our adverts ‘Brighton’s Premier Removers and Auctioneers’.
I have looked in Kelly’s Sussex Directory 1927 and that telephone number 5969 was our number then, so that gives you an indication of when it was in the saleroom.
The progression of telephone numbers over the years is quite interesting; When we were at the Bristol Garage in Brighton ours was 3305 and the people next door were 3304. In the 1950s we went up to 23305 and after we left it became 623305. Our house was an extension from the garage with the same number and to get through there was a large mahogany box with a handle on the side which you had to wind quite violently to ring the extension. This box also had little red indicators which dropped down to show which of the half dozen extensions was in use.
Here in our village in Kent the doctor had number 1 and my wife’s grandfather’s shop had number 2. This progressed to being 202 and when dialling of all numbers (STD) was introduced in the 1970s, 211202. The wheelwrights next door which later became a garage was number 3.
When I got my own business number here I was given 303. This was quite apposite as it had previously belonged to the garage above which had long closed down. However when we went over to the six figure system it rather messed up the number I had on my truck which was registered with 303.
My great great grandfather was called Arthur Robert Mead, born to John Mead and Mercy Rebecca Gain! Ernest Henry Mead was his brother.
Add a comment about this page