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Where and when was this photo taken?

Can you identify this Brighton street?

Do you remember any of the shops here?

What date do you think it is?

Please leave your answers in a comment below.

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Where is this Brighton street?
Image reproduced with kind permission of The Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove

Comments about this page

  • There may be a clue if you check out the shop called Eric Hutchings and the sign saying Crusade office. There is a link to Eric Hutchings on this link: http://sasesearch.brighton.ac.uk/view/?from=search&fromid=&film=168

    By Lorraine Luke (01/04/2011)
  • The white car on the right is a Ford Prefect. They were made between 1953 to 1959. I’m not an expert on the differences between models, but my guess would be earlier rather than later, given that all the other cars are pre ’55. I’ve no idea where it is but at least this will help to narrow the year down.

    By Eric Cook (01/04/2011)
  • Eric Hutchings Crusade Office (on right) is listed as Grenville Place. An alternative location is Victoria Gardens. Neither of these locations appear on my maps of Brighton although Churchill Square has been constructed since.

    By Bob (01/04/2011)
  • Looks to me like one of the streets that ran parallel to Western Road and were cleared for Churchill Square.

    By Simon (01/04/2011)
  • I was rather interested in “Christine’s Parlour” next door. The mind boggles!

    By John Wall VK22 (02/04/2011)
  • It has the feel of somewhere near Cannon Place back in the 40s or 50s. Just a surmise, however!

    By Stefan Bremner-Morris (02/04/2011)
  • I’m sure this photo was taken looking east along Grenville Place. The building in line with the lamp post on the left side of the street is The Cranbourne pub now The Western Front pub. At the end the road drops away into Cranbourne Street to form the junction with West Street

    By Michael Brittain (02/04/2011)
  • This Street is Grenville Place, it took some looking but after the clue that was given I am more than certain. It brought back a lot of memories as I was born at 29 Genville Place.

    By John Wignall (02/04/2011)
  • Yes, this looks like Grenville Place, which ran just south of and parallel to Western Road at its eastern end, and was swept away when the shops on the south side of Western Road were demolished to make space for Churchill Square. The charming bow-fronted houses on the right are typical of those still fortunately remaining in the Clarence Square/ Russell Square area. Looking into the distance where the buildings intrude on the far left, I reckon that’s Cranbourne Street sloping away down to the top of West Street. In the 1950s my grandmother lived in a large bedsit in Clarence Square, and I would have walked along Grenville Street to visit her. The third car in on the right is a Standard Ten which first appeared in 1954, so the picture is no earlier than that. In a time of austerity when car ownership was limited, this picture represents a lot of them parked in a small space, and they probably mostly belong to affluent shoppers enjoying the Western Road emporia. Another example of how pictures of ordinary locations which must have seemed humdrum at the time prove to have such historic attraction years later: how fortunate that someone took the time to snap them – and keep the prints.

    By Len Liechti (02/04/2011)
  • I can confirm that this was Grenville Place as there is an almost identical scene depicted in the James Gray Collection volume 29, no 224, taken a little further along the street. As the James Gray photo is dated September 1964 and even the posters look the same, it is most likely to be early 1960s. The buildings are identical but obviously vacant in his photo. I would suspect the premises were rented at a peppercorn rent for a very brief time of time prior to their demolition (as is evident by the boarded up building). Hutchings was an evangelist based in Eastbourne for many years and ran a series of crusades in Sussex during the early 1960′; the picture depicts an advert for an event at the Ice Stadium on My 05th until June 03rd, probably 1963 or 1964.

    By Andy Grant (03/04/2011)
  • Some interesting things about Grenville Place fron the forties early fifties, on the left hand corner looking down toward Cranbourne Street was a wartime air raid shelter, this was demolished in the early fifties, a little further on was the back of Langfords where the local kids would congregate and play any kind of game that they fancied, the three shops on the right were used for a variety of different things, the first one had that many people use it that people lost count. There was also a newsagent, a laundry, and at the far end was Whitwells the Greengrocers. On the corner of Cranbourne Street was a Pub called the Lamb and Flag and a little further down on the left The Eight Bells.

    By John Wignall (03/04/2011)
  • Another interesting facet of Grenville Place is the house on the extreme corner, the well known Journalist John Sandilands lived in this house. I was only a kid at the time but can remember to this day of how he would give me a ride on the crossbar of his bike.

    By John Wignall (03/04/2011)
  • Quite an interesting selection of vehicles in this photo; There appears to be a Ford Anglia 105E 997cc ohv van parked on the left hand pavement behind the lamp post; This model was introduced in 1961 when the old square shape 100E (like the car shown extreme right) was discontinued. Ford had commenced production of the 105E ohv car in 1959 but continued to make the van on the old shape with the side-valve engine presumably to use up stocks of parts and it wasn’t until 1961 that all models used the new ohv Kent series engine and later styled body shape. I can’t make out the number plate which seems to be quite long, so if it is from the seven symbol system it post dates 1964. The photo therefore is early 1960s. TCS.

    By Tim Sargeant (20/04/2011)
  • My father had a bespoke tailoring shop at No. 44 Grenville Place from 1953 until it was demolished in 1965 for Churchill Square. We were the last to leave. I have posted a full story on this on the Grenville Place page.

    By Linda Freedman (16/03/2017)
  • According to phone books from the period, my grandfather ran a tobacconist/general store at 26 Grenville Place between 1960-1961, relocating to 3 Pool Valley in 1963.

    By Michelle (30/03/2022)

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