The uniform generations
If you stand with your back to the Clock Tower, looking towards the sea, there is a shop on the left hand corner opposite. For many years this was Hornes (or was it Horne & Co?). Anyway, that was where generations of schoolboys were taken to get their uniform for the next term. They had agreements to be sole suppliers of uniform to many schools. Don’t think they did girls’ stuff. Later it became Cito Citerio, and I believe it still sells clothes today, but I doubt if school blazers are among them.
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The firm was called Horne Brothers Ltd and was a Brighton institution. It provided a school uniform service to many private schools. I was taken there for my preparatory school uniform whose colour was brown and yellow. My school, Taunton House School, was at 2 & 4 Stanford Avenue. The principal was the Revd. L. T .Comber, B.A, B.D.
I got my school uniform from Potters in the London Road. I went to Patcham Fawcett and the reason I got my uniform from there was the green grass on the school badge was greener there than the sickly effort produced by Horns.
I went to Fitzherbert School in Woodingdean and our blazers were bought from Hornes.
Who remembers Horne Brothers’ system of vacuum pipes that sent the money off to the cashiers and then the cylinders thudded back with the change and receipt? An alternative system, using cradles on overhead wires fired by spring loaded catapults was used in Belmans of London Road.
Yes, you are correct Patrick Kite. Potters Patcham Fawcett blazer badge was much crisper in design and more colourful than the Hornes version. My parents purchased all of my school kit from Potters as they were cheaper but still good quality.
My uncle, Jim Shaw, worked at Horne Bros. for many years. I’m not sure when he retired, but he would have been 65 in 1980 – was Horne Bros. still in existence then? I got my Hove County uniforms there (1957 – 1962).
Horne Bros. was one of two ‘official’ suppliers of blazers, ties, scarves and caps for Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School (now BHASVIC). The other was Cobb’s of Church Road Hove, opposite Shaw’s Store, which was on the east corner of George Street and Church Road (Chiesman’s/ Stuart Driscoll’s/ Army & Navy). It was possible to identify the store from which the outfit had been bought by minute differences in appearance, and, since Cobb’s had higher prices, this resulted in petty oneupmanship. There were further ways of extracting money from hapless parents with variations such as prefects’ ties and house shirts (there were six houses), etc..
I think Hornes was a really old fashioned firm even in London. My father used to go to one in Fulham in the 70s to get flat (‘cheesecutter’) caps, which he alternated with a French-style beret. He found these fitted conveniently in the cabin of his black cab, rather than something like a trilby, or ‘pork-pie’ hat! If you look at old photos of football crowds they all seem to have cheesecutters on. Perhaps in these days of austerity they might make a comeback?
I attended Brighton Hove and Sussex Grammar School in the ’60s and initially my parents would buy my chosen grey tweed jacket from Hornes. The other store that sold the jackets was actually called Cobley’s (not Cobb’s) and was a little more expensive. My parents were delighted when I found an alternative, and cheaper, supplier of identical tweed jackets. This little store was just up Queen’s Road from Hornes towards the station, opposite the Regent and right next to the bus stop where I used to catch the 12 bus up to Withdean.
Horne Bros DID supply school uniforms for girls as well. Parents (including my own) of pupils at St. Anselm’s Preparatory School, Tooting Bec, SW London compulsorily bought the full uniform from representatives of the company who would travel up to the school on at least an annual basis. Buying similar but less expensive clothing from other outlets was strictly prohibited – every item had to be from Horne Bros!
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