This scene was facing the East Side of the Town Hall and in 1959, the building on the right of the lane was a Chinese Restaurant.
The rear of Shorland Fooks Jewellers was just to the left of this picture and Bishops The Jewellers were at the other end of the Lane.

Were you thinking of the Nanking Restaurant? It was directly across the street from where I lived for a few years (Market Street) ?

The Chinese Restaurant to the right of the lane (or "Twitten" in some parts of Brighton ) was called Choy's and was very up market, at least in terms of price. The Nanking was much cheaper and more basic and it faced the exit from Nile Street on the eastern side of Market Street. I grew up in Nile Street and remember it well. Three generations ran it including an ancient old grandad from an impossibly remote part of China and the sons were all numbered as few westerners could pronounce or remember their names, so there was "Number One Son" , "Number Two Son" and so on. It was cheap enough to eat there regularly (can anyone say this about Market Street now?) although my father always ordered steak and chips, which surprisingly was on the menu.

Thank you, Adrian, for whisking me back over 50 years in an instant - I remember the "ancient old grandad" very well - can see his face in my mind. And I also clearly recall the gentleman who, I believe, was the manager, as well as a few of the waiters - Chong, Ting Chee, Landick and so forth. Unfortunately, I didn't know of Choy's. I lived just about on the corner of Nile Street, on Market Street.

In 1955 this lovely old black and white building was used by a shoemaker on the ground floor. I worked as an office junior for Clayton Black & Daviel a firm of Architects in Black Lion Street and often had to take shoes there for one of my employers. Also I used to cut through the little twitten alongside it to get to East Street to deliver letters by hand. I wouldn't cut through there now. I would be too frightened.

I worked for firm of solicitors in Prince Albert Street as a junior litigation clerk. We represented the Chinese family that owned Choys on their licencing applications. The family name was Chong I remember two of the names they were Chong Kai Chek and Chong See Yong