Remember the pet shop?
I lived in Bennett Road with my parents from 1962 until 1967. During that time the shop at the top of the road was a pet shop owned by Mr and Mrs Cottingham, and I used to know their son Peter. We would explore under the shop going through the basement and somehow end up in the garage building in Bristol Gardens.
A small parade of shops
Bridges stores was at the top of the road opposite the pet shop. I think it was called ‘The Ideal Stores’? Round the corner from that, in Bristol Gardens again, was a small parade of shops including ‘Marks Alteration Tailors’. The fish and chip shop was on the corner of Rugby Place opposite Whites Bakers , which I think closed down around this time, although Mr White still lived there above the closed shop.
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Fish shop changes
I remember the fish and chip shop owners moved out, some new owners moved in and changed the layout of the shop, then not long after this the old owners took it on again and changed the shop back to how it was. They had a small photo hung on the wall of their premises in an earlier era, when I think I remember, it was a fresh fish shop.
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My! how Bennett Road has changed. As a young kid I lived there from 1944 at a year old until about 1964 when I got married. My mum lived there until 1985 when she passed away. The premises at the end of the road by No.1 Bristol Street was called Sussex Crumpets where for a tanner you could get a carrier bag full of crumpets. Later on the premises was taken over by a firm called Autobooks which dealt with workshop manuals for cars. In the ’40s the shop at the end of Bennett Road on the left going towards Bristol Gardens was firstly an ice cream factory where we little kids could stand outside with our tongues hanging out on a hot day and more often than not one of the girls would come out with a brick of lovely ice cream for us. Then the shop was a sort of ironmongers selling all sorts of household items including paraffin. It was run by Mr and Mrs Thompson who later on moved to another shop in Whitehawk Road. The shop was then taken over by Bert Summer and his wife as a bicycle repair shop and bicycle hire shop where second hand bikes were hired at something like one and six a day. After that I seem to remember it was a pet shop. On the other corner was the Ideal Stores firstly run by Mrs Smith. She had a parrot that would be outside the shop on sunny days and was a good talker. Later on the shop was taken over by Mr and Mrs Bridges. Mr Bridges was an electrician by trade. On the corner of Rugby Place was a shop that sold wet fish in the daytime and fish and chips at night. That shop was run by Mr and Mrs Campbell. They had a Jack Russell that would sit and beg with Mr Campbell’s pipe in his mouth. For three pence you could get a bag of what we called crackling which was bits of batter left from the fish frying, sort of heart attack in a bag stuff. On the other corner of Rugby Place was the bakers run by Mr and Mrs White. I loved this shop. Before school we would buy a warm loaf from the shop take it home and slice it and butter it which was so tasty. You could buy some lovely stale cakes for a few pence. I don’t know if David Marshall has read the other articles about Bennett Road on the site – the bomb site and the way we kids played when there was only one car in the road. Really enjoyable childhood with the sea just down the road and the countryside just over to East Brighton park, over the golf course to Ovingdean. Lovely peaceful days.
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