Distractions from school
I moved to Brighton from London with my parents in the mid 1950s and we lived in a basement flat in Belgrave Place, off the seafront. Those five years in Brighton as a teenager hold some great memories. I had passed the 11 Plus and managed to get a place a Varndean Boys’ School, but the distractions were many in those days; Black Rock Swimming Pool and the Brighton Jazz Club to name but two. I must admit school was not a priority, particularly in the summers.
A tough paper round
I worked hard to get the necessary spending money though. I had a paper route mornings and evenings, that took me from Chichester Terrace to Marine Parade. It was tough at the best of times but really hard in the winter, especially on Radio Times day. And I do not remember any of the stars of stage and screen that lived along my route as being particularly generous, except maybe Max Wall who lived just across the road from The Bristol Hotel.
Joined the RAF
I had a job in a greengrocers on St. George’s Road just up from the cinema. I worked Friday evenings and all day Saturdays for a gay couple that owned and ran the place – yes, even then. I left school in the summer of 1959 and two months in an insurance office prompted, no, convinced me, to join the RAF. I waved goodbye to Brighton in January of 1960 and haven’t been back since – maybe one day. Oh by the way I live in Canada now.
Comments about this page
Surely you mean Max Miller who lived at Burlington Street?
I was interested to read your comments regarding Belgrave Place and your time there. My mother, brother Dale, and I moved to number one Belgrave Place in 1955 when we arrived from Canada. At that time we rented the whole house and also took in two paying guests who lived in bedsits. In 1958, we returned to Canada and returned to Belgrave Place in 1960. We then rented the basement flat at number one as the owner offered it to us to buy for £2,000 but we could not raise that much money. We rented the basement flat off the new owners and lived there until the 70’s. (I moved out to get married in 1967)
I remember clearly the fruit and veg shop near the Odeon cinema and the cake shop and newspaper shop on the corner of the ‘twitten’ that ran behind Belgrave Place where you had to dodge where the dogs had been to the toilet.
Obviously, we must have been both living there at the same time in the 1950’s. I live in Suffolk now though I lived in Brighton until the 80’s.
Add a comment about this page