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Photo of the facade

Belgrave Street Congregational Chapel: Hanover
From the private collection of Jacqueline Pollard

Comments about this page

  • My great grandfather was married here in 1872. As he was of German origin, I am intrigued by the name for the area of Hanover (although apparently designated in 1894). I am especially intrigued, as when my great grandfather lived in South Africa shortly after his marriage, he lived in New Hanover! I wonder if any records persist and if so, where they might be.

    By Ken Jones (23/01/2005)
  • I would be interested in learning more about the shop shown in the photo above on this side of the Congregational Chapel. Unfortunately I cannot quite read the sign over the window. I’ve heard a rumour that it may have been a sweet shop at one point but do not know when or if it was ever any other type of shop or indeed when it was converted to residential. If you know any facts or know where I can find additional photos then please let me know. Many thanks.

    By Andrew Lawrence (30/10/2007)
  • In the 1950s, my dad was the caretaker at the chapel which was then a technical college. He would cycle there each day from home which was 1 Crown Gdns. During my school holidays I would sometimes go with him, it was hard going up the hill.

    By kevin theobald (21/03/2013)
  • Very interesting to see this picture. I am Brighton born and lived in Belgrave Street until 1949 when my family moved to Devon. My sister Audrey and I went to Richmond Street Infants, then Finsbury Road schools.  The shop was run by two ladies, (probably sisters) and sold all sorts of bits and pieces, and there was more often than not a small note in the window stating -‘ Early closing Wednesday, sorry no balls’.  We used to annoy them by going in and asking for ‘balls’ these were the celluloid type of table tennis balls.  Very occasionally there would be balls for sale and the notice would be missing, so we didn’t used to bother them then.  I remember Pipers cooked meat shop on Southover Street, Sylvia Piper was my sister’s best friend, I think she had a brother Ronnie as well.  Both sets of Grandparents and assorted Aunts, Uncles and Cousins all lived in the area, so when we moved to Devon (I  was 10) it was quite a step into the unknown for all the family. I’m still here – the last of my immediate family, although I still have some cousins in Sussex.

    By Rita Hider (nee Foulkes) (24/08/2014)
  • My mother Irene was brought up at No. 29 from her birth in 1914. Her father was Albert Hale and she had sisters Rose, Ivy, Beat(rice) and Win, all married from the house, and all now deceased. Rose was blind from childhood and was the last of the family to leave the house, still lit only by gas, in (I think) the 70s. During WW2 my father served in the RAF and my mother rented No.25 with my aunt Win. She moved to Hove when my father returned. I remember the noise when a bomb destroyed one or two houses on the corner with Albion Hill, and on the night the railway viaduct near Preston Park was damaged. And the street party after the war in 1945 when I was 6 years old. I can still recall the smell of the brewery down Southover Street, and the swings in the Level, always chained up on Sundays. Mother died in 2012. Among her last words was, “Are they all right at No.29?”

    By Alan Batchelor (27/05/2015)

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