thedonkeycentrehalf
Retired
- Jul 7, 2003
- 8,635
So good to see the return of this thread
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[Brighton] Old Brighton Postcard
- Thread starter Klaas
- Start date
marcos3263
Well-known member
Every single old photo is better. stylish, pretty, nicer.
There are also less people and cars, and so less signage, barriers, traffic lights etc.
It makes me wonder why we now build such ugly buildings with little detail or flourishes.
im sure the reality was much worse and "we have never had it do good"
show me one decent modern building......
There are also less people and cars, and so less signage, barriers, traffic lights etc.
It makes me wonder why we now build such ugly buildings with little detail or flourishes.
im sure the reality was much worse and "we have never had it do good"
show me one decent modern building......
Be careful of the rose-tinted spectacles ...
Not sure how old you are but I remember Brighton in the 60s and 70s, even the 80s, and despite the nice pictures it was grotty and run-down. Like a lot of British seaside towns it had seen better days (and as Brighton's heyday was the Regency and early Victorian eras - MUCH better days), and at this time it was memorably described by Keith Waterhouse as a seedy town that 'looked like it was always helping the police with their enquires.'
Now of course it's re-invented itself, quite successfully, as Hipster Central, but your point about the modern buildings though is sadly accurate.
- Aug 7, 2003
- 7,807
I would disagree to a point. Although young I remember the 60’s & 70’s reasonably well and don’t recall the town being grotty or run down. There was a proper parks and gardens dept that kept the same well maintained, the parks having Parkies to deter any bad behaviour. The Madeira Terraces, West Pier, Black Rock and Rottingdean pools were all in great condition. There was no tagging or graffiti and there were only a few celebrity tramps like “spare ten pence” and “cigar butt up the nose Desmond” around. London Road was like a small version of Western Road with department stores. There was little rubbish on the streets as there were regular street cleaners back then. One downside is that no one picked up dog shit so I was forever digging it out of the bottom of my plimsolls with a matchstick.
Comrade Sam
Comrade Sam
Even in the 1990s there was endless shops that seemed perpetually closed. I never had enough anti nazi league or gig posters to cover the amount of available spaces.
You must have been a mate of Bill Posters. He was always being prosecuted.
Dick Knights Mumm
Take me Home Falmer Road
I don't think Bill was ever actually prosecuted. They just used to say they would.You must have been a mate of Bill Posters. He was always being prosecuted.
I'm pretty sure that outside a few notable buildings, most of Brighton in the regency/early victorian era would have been ramshackle fishing / semi agricultural slums.
On the plus side, most people would have been too busy dying of cholera or being hanged for sheep rustling to tag anything.
Is it PotG?
Thrifty non-licker
East Street?
Official Old Man
Uckfield Seagull
That is a very interesting picture. In the forground is Fortes, which I never knew exsisted, but is the venue for the cafe fight scene in Quadrophinia. I always believed that scene was filmed elsewhere. I'm always getting asked where this place is and now I will print this off to show people.
I presume the Queens Hotel just knocked that down and extended their building some time in the 70's.
dolphins
Well-known member
Assorted random unknowns in Pavilion Gardens. Interesting to see how much more interesting the design of the gardens is now rather than just the grass.
Is it PotG?
Thrifty non-licker
Queens Rd / Upper Gloucester Rd ?
Jack Straw
I look nothing like him!
I planted that Kaulreutia paniculata (the tree coming out on the left), in 1985.
- Oct 20, 2022
- 4,896
Disagree with this completely- Almost the whole of Brighton’s seafront (behind the modern hotels are from the regency era - wide sweeping crescents, town houses and public facilities- Brighton has a fantastic regency heritage and was turned into a leading fashionable bathing resort by the Prince Regent and Martha Gunn of course. Our Victorian heritage is even more visible - rows and rows of Victorian terraces throughout the town, the piers, the station and an absolute plethora of churches, notably those of the Oxford movement, the Wagner churches with their fantastic stained glass windows. You can not go anywhere in Brighton (unless it is onto the satellite housing estates) without seeing it steeped in Regency and Victorian history.
Is it PotG?
Thrifty non-licker
Is it PotG?
Thrifty non-licker
Preston Circus?
Is it PotG?
Thrifty non-licker
- Oct 20, 2022
- 4,896
The gardens are beautiful now - I remember when they were being restored in the 1980’s and all the work that had gone in to find archives and literary references to the original Regency gardens that were designed by John Nash in 1815-22
(after the Prince Regent’s acquisition and conversion of the original farmhouse into a seaside home ). Of course the old stables and riding school shown here in the background (that became the Dome) were built earlier in the 1780’s, when the Pavilion was much smaller (and less ostentatious!) and designed by the Prince Regent’s royal architect, William Porden and the gardens were mainly onion fields to feed the horses!.
…. nice picture of ABBA in the first picture, who were presumably playing at the Dome when the image was taken.
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Worried Man Blues
Well-known member
The Abba bloke on the left should have looked a lot happier than that! Some people don't know how lucky they are.......
Absolutely.
But Dr Richard Russell had already popularised the medicinal treatment of bathing in the sea at Brighton. Dr Russell died before the Prince Regent set foot.
Historic Brighton: Dr Richard Russell and the Miracle of Sea-Water Therapy - Brighton Journal
Dr Richard Russell was an 18th Century physician who is known for having encouraged his patients to use a form of water therapy that involved the submersion or bathing in, and drinking of, seawater. But more than this, Dr Russell is credited with having been instrumental in the transformation of...
brightonjournal.co.uk