Preston Road
Preston Village
Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990
Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990. As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.
Preston Road runs the length of the former Preston parish, from Preston Circus to London Road (Patcham) near Clermont Road.
c) PRESTON VILLAGE: Preston Road then runs through Preston village itself, where no.199, the Old House, is an eighteenth-century listed farmhouse in knapped and squared flint . Formerly used as tea-rooms, it is one of the finest examples of flint work in the area and is illuminated at night, but the glazing bars of two windows have been unfortunately removed. The adjacent nos.201-203 have unusual large cockerel decorations in the gables. The Crown and Anchor dates back to at least 1711 when it was the first stop for coaches outside Brighton, but it was rebuilt in 1894. At the rear stood the small Preston parish workhouse until 1844, and later, from the early 1900s, a gymnasium and assembly hall used for training by famous boxers and wrestlers until about 1957. On the opposite side of the road are the Preston Vicarage Lawns, two bowling-greens laid out in 1934-5 on the site of the vicarage which stood opposite the car showroom. {15,44,123,126}
Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.
This page was added on 26/10/2007.