Introduction to Albion Hill

Albion Hill Fruit and Veg Stores c1900

By Dennis Parrett

My grandparents had a shop near Albion Hill. It was called the Albion Fruit and Vegetable Stores. In the photograph here you can just see the sign of the Albion pub next door. On the other side was Sinden the undertaker. A delivery boy who worked for my grandparents is pictured outside with his donkey, which was used to pull a cart around, delivering to houses in Brighton. I think my grandmother is the lady in white but I do not know the others. Looking very close, I think faces can be made out on the inside of the shop but it may be my imagination.

Frank Edward Parrett
My grandfather, Frank Edward Parrett, was born in 1866 in Wadhurst. The family, which was poor, presumably moved to Brighton seeking prosperity but found the reverse. His wife, Alice Maud Luxford, was born in Brighton in 1865. They had various businesses including one at 54 Hanover Terrace in early 1900. He was not a successful man. In fact perhaps the positioning of the Albion Store was significant in that it was next to a beer house and an undertaker.

A very deprived area
The whole area was deprived with many very poor families living in the Edward Street area (and further north). Alcohol was a solace. The Salvation Army worked hard to support families which were affected by alcohol.  Staff Captain Kate Lee, whose photograph is show here, was in charge of branches of the Salvation Army at different times in Brighton, Reading, Coventry, Sunderland and London. I am not sure exactly when she died but a newspaper cutting I have has, on the reverse, an announcement for the following day of the 57th wedding anniversary of Queen Alexandra and King Edward!