“This is the paddling pool where I first learnt to swim when I was about four. It was great fun to go in there every day after school. The highlight of the afternoon was three o’clock. We used to go and watch the Punch and Judy show next to the West Pier; in fact, it’s exactly the same place that I took Mr Punch back to exactly 20 years ago.”
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There was indeed a Punch and Judy show here, just to the left of the steps leading up to the promenade level and to the pier entrance, past the end of the paddling pool in the background of the picture. The steps are still there but this is a shamefully neglected part of the Brighton seafront – the West Pier allowed to fall into the sea, the paddling pool virtually derelict, the elegant green metal 1930s lamp standards replaced by plastic lollypops (there is one of them bottom left). All a pity.
I had many a happy time paddling in this pool,from when I was about 5-7 years old in the 1950s. A big girl trod on my arm one day and made a very sore graze and I wouldn’t go any more. We lived on the seafront in Hove. I remember the Punch and Judy shows and the music from the band stand. Happy days.
The picture of the old pool is simply magic to me. Every Sunday, Rain or Shine, my mother and grandfather climbed aboard the Clapham Junction train to Brighton. I was around 5 to 7 years old in the 1950s and spent many wonderful hours in the pool next to the Punch and Judy and of course the old Pier. I left England in the early 1960s for Canada but Brighton and my little pool was never very far from my thoughts and dreams. I returned to Brighton this year after 43 years and made straight for the pool. Well it’s gone, Big time! black top and crumbling stone work. Thank you so much for the photos and the magic that it brings to this old Battersea boy.
My dad used to perform the Punch and Judy show near the King Alfred in the 1950s and I spent many days on the seafront there. If anyone has any photos of his show, it would be much appreciated.
I was in Brighton this week and walked along the seafront and had many happy memories of my childhood holidays spent in a Brighton I spent most afternoons in the paddling pool making new friends and was sad to see it’s go. I didn’t like paddling in the sea with the pebble beach, but this week had to as I was with my daughter and grandaughter. Happy days.
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