Buildings of interest

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.

b) OTHER BUILDINGS: At the corner of Paston Place and St George’s Road stands the Bombay Bar, a low, square, listed building with oriental details and a pagoda roof. It was built in 1892 as a mausoleum for Sir Albert Sassoon. Sir Albert, who lived at 1 Eastern Terrace, was buried there in 1896, and his son Sir Edward followed in 1912, but their remains were removed to London by the grandson, Sir Philip, when he sold it in 1933. During the war it was used as an air-raid shelter, and it became part of the adjacent Hanbury Arms public house in 1953. {3,44,45}
On the opposite side of St George’s Road stood the Odeon Cinema, opened on the site of the Sassoon family’s riding school on 1 February 1934. It held 900 people and also presented variety shows, but the building was badly damaged in an air raid at 3.30 p.m. on 14 September 1940 when four children and two adults were killed, and twenty others were injured. The Kemp Town Odeon closed in November 1960 and was converted into a bingo hall in 1962, but in 1983 it was used by the Bethany Fellowship as an entertainment and social centre for the needy (‘The City’). The building was demolished in January 1986 to be replaced by the flats of Cavendish Court. {68,123}
Pearson House is part of the St Dunstan’s Institute (q.v.), but although it stands on the northern side of St George’s Road, it is actually numbered 12-14 Portland Place of which it forms the terminal view (see ” East Cliff “). On the south side of the road are the modern Regency -style houses of Seymour Square, built on the site of the Kemp Town Brewery. The best nineteenth-century houses are those of the rusticated terrace at nos.29-33, dating from the 1830s.
The community centre known as the ‘Kemp town Pier’ was built in 1912 as a church hall for St Anne’s, Burlington Street , in memory of John Nixon. {311}
Kemp Town Post-Office, just off St George’s Road in College Road, is unusually decorated for such a building. It has shell motifs and opened in 1887. {15}

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.

Comments about this page

  • The Odeon Kemp Town was the main cinema of my childhood. Saturday morning pictures, and going with my mum was such a treat. The inside is just how I remember it from that time. Sadly now it has gone.

    By Mick Peirson (27/03/2011)
  • When I first came to live in Brighton twenty years ago this building was St Anne’s Church Hall and had a rather interesting market, twice weekly selling bric-a-brac, produce (eggs, jams veg etc) and a tea stall. Cheap and very cheerful

    By David Fielder (18/04/2015)
  • For those like me, who didn’t know where in St George’s Road this building could be found, it is at No 110, on the south side at the corner of Crescent Place. The inscription on the white-painted arch above the main central door reads: “St Anne’s Church Hall”. The building is currently occupied by Brand Vaughan, Estate Agents.

    By Alan Hobden (19/04/2015)
  • I lived just round the corner at 7 Crescent Place, and from about 1958 to 1960 spent many happy hours in this building (then St. Anne’s Church Hall) at weekly Brownie meetings. 

    By Sylvia Schwarz (née Carroll) (20/04/2015)

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