I happen to live on North Street, and I love it. I live in an amazing flat and it is a superb location. The range of shops is not that bad, and as was mentioned earlier it connects all of the 'gems', so it is not necessary for it to also contain fabulous shops and architecture. I see North Street as for the locals with necessary amenities such as banks and newsagents. So leave it alone!!!

It's not the street itself, it's what the people of Brighton have made it! It may not be the classiest of streets, but Brighton isn't exactly a 'show town' is it? North Street and Churchill Square have a lovely sense of home, especially at Christmas time.

Does anyone remember Virgin record store in North Street in the 1960s? It was at the top end of the road. It had record booths where you could listen on a head set. I remember it as a seedy type of place. It must have been Richard Branston's first enterprise? This must be a claim to fame for North St.

Whilst I agree with Geof Mead that the North Street of today is not what it was, in essence, I'm prone to nostalgia, so it's memories of the past that often flood back. I recall simple things like not having to be a taxi or bus to drive in either direction and that you could take any turn to the right or left without infringing any local legislation. I also remember the burley doorman supervising the Sunday queue in the Regent's lower entrance in North Street, Flash Gordon and shouting my head off at the Saturday morning children's film shows, and in the days before supermarkets, being dumped for an hour and a bit at the Princes News Theatre and then waiting for what seemed like hours to be picked up afterwards. As a youth I recall making a single coffee last the whole evening in The Lounge coffee bar, my Italian suit with cardboard handkerchief from Monty Burton, and how I loved watching any payments made at Horn Brothers being put into cylinders in their vacuum operated cash machines, my money being sucked away and within minutes my receipt returning with a loud plonk. Although I now live abroad and realise all that has gone, I think you can still stand on the steps at the North Street entrance of Boots and look into the past from there. For example, unless local legislation has vandalised it, there should still be an ancient terracotta griffin on the tight apex of the peg-tile roof that was once over the Princes theatre, and also the Victorian hatter's hand painted advertisement on the wall next to it. My advice to anyone that visits North Street these days is to ignore the dereliction, gaudiness and tat, and remember the past. If you take the time to think back, by looking above and below the various shop fronts, aspects of the original architecture and historical landscape are still there to enjoy.

Response to David Maynard above.
There is a 1970s picture showing the Virgin store on the corner of North Street on the following website.
http://www.terramedia.co.uk/brighton/Regent.htm

I enjoy North Lane a bit more than North Road because a man stopped me in the street and told me that all the food places made you get food poisoning! North Road and North Lane are both fun and exciting though!

I am opening a coffee house/patisserie in North Street and would love to see some old pictures (if there are any) of the old Clarence Hotel.

Does anybody know anything about the Bricklayers Arms that was in North Street, as my great, great, grandfather William Revening was landlord there in 1840?

I currently live in quite a grand flat on North Street. I'd love to see more old photos of the street and find out about the history of the buildings.

Like Roy, I have very fond memories of North Street, as it used to be. For some reason, my associations are mostly with winter days, when the shops and lights seemed so cosy and welcoming. My earliest memories are probably of the Christmas Grotto at Hanningtons in the 1950s - what a magical experience for a young child! My mother and I also regularly met my grandmother on winter afternoons in the Lyons teashop, which was, as I remember, fairly near the Princes News Theatre. (In the summer, we met up outdoors at the PavilionGardens tea place.) In Lyons, you could get delicious things like poached egg on toast - perfect for a cold winter's day! In the 1960s, when I left school, my first full-time job was at The Prudential, a big red brick building on the left side as you went towards Castle Square. I remember looking out of the windows (OK, I wasn't working very hard) as it got dark on winter afternoons and watching the street lamps and the shop windows light up. While I worked there, we moved into a new building a bit further down the road and then had the strange experience of seeing our old offices demolished, with those big swinging spherical balls that crashed into the walls and knocked them down. Later, I worked at the District Bank, (also in North Street, on the same side) which I don't think exists any more. The shops in North St were wonderful - Hanningtons, as I've mentioned, and Vokins, where you could buy cheerful cotton fabrics to make skirts or dresses - often for a compulsory Domestic Science project at school. There was always a wonderful display of fabrics, most of them beyond the range of my pocket in those days. Vokins had one of those vacuum tubes (if that's the right term) where the bill and your money was whooshed away overhead and your change came whizzing back a few minutes later.

I have lived in Brighton my whole life and I think your satement is a little unfair. I know North Street is not the best but it's 100% better than the London Road-the main road which all tourists drive out of- that is a hole that should be removed. Plus times have changed since 1972 when you had your stag do... move on and live for today.

Unfortunately, I also think this area has gone to the dogs. Do the local council not have the wanting or belief that their town could be better?  Why waste money on arty things that have no meaning to most, spend money on what can save an area and attract much needed investment. Open your eyes, there are a million visions for you.