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Photographs c1930s

Viewed from Station Road

The first two photographs show views from the Station Road end. I can see Prices fruiterers on the corner, Andrews library and fancy goods shop on the left, on the right Harts furnishers and a boot repair shop. The Baptist Church is visible on the right further down the street and there is a large motor vehicle, perhaps an early bus.

Viewed from Church Road

The third photograph is from Church Road end and these buildings are well remembered by me. There is the Salvation Army Citadel, the picture house which was used as a recycling unit which became Flexers before they moved into new premises, and the Baptist Church which was demolished in my early childhood. I estimate that these pictures were taken around 1930 but I may be wrong on this.

Can you help?

Does anyone have an old Kelly’s directory so we can see how the numbering went? I am interested in numbers 46 and also 67 or 65 North Street. I would love to hear from anyone who has memories of North Street. If you can help, or share a memory, please leave a comment below.

Click on the photograph to open a large version in a new window.

North Street: Station Road end
Reproduced from a F Frith & Co postcard
North Street: Station Road end
Reproduced from a F Frith & Co postcard
North Street: Church Road end
Reproduced from a F Frith & Co postcard

Comments about this page

  • The second photograph was in fact taken looking towards Station Road, from just above Middle Street. The photographer was standing on the north side of the road and the old Baptist Church would have been behind him. The slope of the road gives it away, even without the shops on the other side. The bushes in the front gardens on the left of the second photo can also be seen just behind the car in the third photo. I spent the first ten months of my life living in a flat above number 57 North Street which is just behind the group of ladies standing chatting on the pavement; more or less where the lamp post is. It’s interesting that the lamp post designs are different in all three photos and I would say that the photo’s ages match the sequence they appear here in. The first photo I would say is from around 1900, the second around 1915-20 (look at the style of clothes and the pram) and the third looks more like 1940s/50s to me.

    By Alan Phillips (14/10/2011)
  • Hi Martha, Alan is correct in his dating of the centre photo – Ariss had gone by 1931 and in the evidently boarded up shop next door there was a Grocer called Badeley throughout the 1920’s and early 1930’s. This is clearly not the name above the door and it obviously pre-dates the Grocer’s shop. In the early 1930s the numbering of North Street ascended from Station Road, odds on one side, evens on the other. Number 46 was a few doors beyond George Street and was a Greengrocer called Morley. Number 65 was a Confectioner called Hardy and number 67 (on the corner of Middle Street) was a Watchmaker called Long. Regards, Andy

    By Andy Grant (17/10/2011)
  • Hi Andy, I was interested in reading about a greengrocers shop called Morley in North Street. My name was Morley and I lived in East Street in the 1940s. I have 2 older sisters but have never heard of a greengrocers called Morley. If you could give me any more information on this, I would be grateful. Thanks.

    By Beryl Thompson (nee Morley) (09/03/2012)
  • Hi Beryl, George Frederick Morley had a grocer’s shop at 46 North Street, Portslade, for a very brief period from about 1929 until 1932. After being empty for a brief while, the shop became a ladies’ outfitters thereafter. I regret I know nothing of the family concerned. Regards.

    By Andy Grant (09/03/2012)
  • Hi Andy. Thank you for your reply about the greengrocers. I will let my sister know as she is looking into the family history.

    By Beryl Thompson (nee Morley) (12/03/2012)
  • I lived in the North Street area in the 50s and early 60s. I remember on the north side, the Pavilion cinema, then a sweet shop on the next corner that sold penny drinks Saspirrella, then a row of houses – the Martins lived there: Dinky, Stan, Don, Glad and Rene. I also remember Yvonne Finche in the same terrace, then the road with the Baptist church. I remember the street party for Coronation day, got whooping cough. Then another row of houses opposite Mary Whittaker’s bookies and on the corner: the Windmill pub, Cardens polishing shop, Kings butchers, Snoads sweet shop, second hand shop, florist, the pet shop with two Airedales, then an electrical shop which used to charge accumulators for radios, then a photography shop and on the next corner Feedwell cafe. I missed Baines grocers which became Rios cafe. Also there was Snoads and the florist, Ivor Brown s/h shop, Hatchers newsagents, Citrones ice cream shop, Bohannons s/h shop, Routledge news agent, Clarence Arms. On the next corner was Marcus Wilson s/h shop, Bostels grocers, Gobeils hairdressers, and a car salesroom on the corner at Boundary Road.

    By Camden Street (12/03/2012)
  • Hello Camden Street. what an amazing memory you have. You’ve just brought my childhood memories – and more – back to me.

    By Dudley Whittaker (04/04/2012)
  • Does anyone remember when the white house on the corner of North Street & Church Road was a police house? The policeman lived there with his family, I forget his name but the son went to St. Peters school with us.

    By Tony Clevett (14/12/2012)
  • I recognise the bottom photo well as I worked for H. Baker as a lorry driver for a few years around 1963. My job was the country round which no other driver was keen on, but I loved it. I drove a B.M.C. diesel with a tail lift for all the boilers and other heavy bits and pieces. I always stopped for lunch at the daily delivery to H. Baker’s shop in Uckfield by the railway crossing. One sad day I was driving down Muttonhall Hill in Heathfield when a red Reliant Robin shot straight out of a side road at a rate of knots and smashed into the front left hand wheel of the lorry. The momentum of the car hitting the wheel turned the wheel and I ended up against a pine tree on the other side of the road. The police reckoned that the driver of the car was doing at least 50mph when he shot into the main road. Sadly the driver was pronounced dead at the scene, very sad day for me and his family. Mike Peirson.

    By Mick Peirson (15/12/2012)

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