In business from c1912 until 1968

The Meat Market in Russell Street, Brighton
Photo reproduced with permission from the Evening Argus

The town’s wholesale meat market was formerly situated in Russell Street, in a building originally erected in 1876-7 as the Church of the Resurrection. Built for the Revd Arthur Wagner, it was intended as a simple chapel of ease to St Paul’s for the fishermen of the area.

Built partly below ground
The adjacent Cannon Brewery objected to the proposed height of the building, so the architect, R.H.Carpenter, built it partly below ground; it was reached by thirty-two steps. The red-brick exterior was extremely plain, while the interior had a north aisle and a very tall nave.

Demolished in 1968
The church was consecrated in 1878 but closed in about 1912, and it was then used as a meat market until it was demolished in 1968 for the Churchill Square scheme. The market was replaced by a new facility adjacent to the abattoir at Upper Hollingdean Road.

Comments about this page

  • I certainly remember The Meat Market as on a hot day it could be smelt in the playground of St Pauls School when I was a pupil there in the mid 1950s. I remember also that some of the more naughty (or venturesome) boys would bring severed chickens’ feet into school and make them open and close by either pulling or letting go of a tendon. This usually disgusted the girls much to the boys’ delight.

    I have forgotten the name of the brewery but it too added its effluvia to the smells that could be experienced in St Pauls School playground.

    By Edward (15/06/2007)
  • I worked for Weddell’s in 1960 and you are right about the smell of meat and offal mixed with the maltings at the Pompey United brewery next door, what a pong. We started very early and the pub opposite – The Pelham Arms – was open at 06:00 am, where the porters spent their tips.

    By Richard Black (15/06/2012)
  • The man in the middle is Charles Smith, my grandfather, of Smith and Son butchers in Oxford Street.

    By Carol Savage (06/09/2016)

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