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
© Derek Mann
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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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