6 Victoria Road was a working mans Cafe owned and run by my Mum Monica and Dad Phil from 1960 to 1981.
I was born round the corner at Buckingham Road materinity hospital in 1960 and grew up living above the Cafe.
The introduction of residents parking in the late 1960s had a big impact on trade and when my parents split up in the early 1970s the Cafe went into a slow decline and was eventually sold off in 1981 and developed into two houses.
Memories of Phil's Cafe Victoria Road
1965 My Mum Monica Mann outside the Cafe. She was Austrian and came to UK in 1946 when Dad was part of the occupation force in Austria after WW2.
© Derek Mann
1965 25th May My Dad Phil. Prior to the Cafe in Victoria Road they both ran a Cafe in Gloucester Road
Then and now 1965 and 2019 6 Victoria Road Brighton
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I do guided tours of Clifton Hill and Montpelier in Brighton Festival Fringe and for groups at other times and this is part of my’beat’!
I have street directories for many years of the 20th century and the earliest I have for 1914 shows #6 Victoria Rd as Arthur V Barnes, butcher,
1925 was South Coast Electrical & Mechanical Co engineers and contractors.
1927 Basil Marsh electrical engineer.
1932 Basil Marsh electrical contractor.
1934, Percivals Radio Supplies & JA Piercey electrical contractor.
1937 Southdown Electical Co radio.
1938 Not listed.
Thanks for the information, Geoffrey.
It was also a green grocer in the 1950s before my parents bought it.
I grew up at number 38 Victoria Street and remember the cafe very well. My mum Doris used to chat to both Doris and Phil when passing by. As a young child I remember someone working there had gold teeth which fascinated me. On the opposite corner to the cafe was the greengrocers and in Victoria Rd itself a post office, newsagents and The Temple pub where my mother working as a barmaid met my dad in the 1950s . My twin sister and I were also born at Buckingham Rd maternity hospital.
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