Photos:then and now

Comments about this page

• Can you tell me what year the first picture was taken? I live near this pub and I’d be interested to hear how long it has stood on that site.

  By Michaela Lucking (16/03/2006)

• The name and architecture imply the late 20s / early 30s. Good Companions is the title of the biggest selling novel of that period (by JB Priestley).

  By Lolly (24/03/2006)

• This pub opened on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany.

  By Steve Gee (21/01/2008)

• My friend Peter Ford’s grandparents ran the Good Companions, not sure exactly when, around the 1940s till the early sixties. Peter’s father is Malcolm Ford, they now live in Cambridgeshire. Malcolm used to have a caravan site behind his house I think. I knew peter when his family lived in Hurstpierpoint, in the 1950s

  By Helen Aldridge (nee Lewry) (06/06/2008)

• My Dad had the Dials Vegetable Market in Prestonville Road, (later owned by Harry Barton). He knew Harry Ford, the landlord of the Good Companions. Harry Ford was on Brighton Council and was famous for improving the lot of policemen. All policemen wore uncomfortable jackets that buttoned up to the neck. Harry proposed that Brighton Police should wear open collared jackets and this was adopted first in Brighton and then copied all over the country.

  By Tony Hill (21/10/2008)

• To the rear of the pub, on the corner of Prestonville Road, was a workshop with a very large tree growing through the roof. During the 50’s when I was walking to school, there was a printing company doing silk screen printing. Is this workshop still there or did the storm of ’87 bring down the tree and the workshop?

  By John Boxell (25/07/2009)

• In the mid 60’s the local Sea Urchins band used to practice next to the Good Companions pub. After the practice sessions we would go to the Good Companions for drinks. The landlady who I think was called Jess was a charming lady who greeted each of us with a ‘Hello love’, however her husband, although equally charming, would put on an air of bluster around last orders such as ‘ c’mon aart (out)’ or ‘January February MARCH’

  Lovely days,

   

  By Sea Urchins Bass Player (30/06/2014)

• My mother’s mother was landlady at Good Companions and I have many childhood memories in the caravan site run by Mrs Ford’s son Malcolm, brother of my mother after whom I am named. Any info, even war stories of pilots dancing around the upper edges of the pub, I am willing to give as told to a disbelieving child. Malcolm Dodd, son of Joan Ford, daughter of Mrs Ford – landlady pre and post law.

  By Malcolm Dodd (12/04/2015)

• Looking at the bottom photo it looks as if the tree is still there but the workshop has gone. I remember walking by this as a child as I grew up in York Villas.

  By Marilyn Jones (de Lacy) (13/04/2015)

• I used to live in Stanford road and the GC was second home for 5 years (1980-1985). Roger and Jackie were the governor’s then, with Angus and Simon working the bar. Lovely pub with good grub. And a great bunch of regulars. Greetings from Malaysia. Jack.

  By Jack (02/02/2024)

• My Grandparents, Mildred and Harry Ford ran the pub from 1939 till around 1970, when my grandfather died of kidney failure.
  We lived at South Lodge ( opposite) and as my school was just around the corner, I often visited my nan for a lunchtime lemonade!!

  By Mr Peter A Ford (13/02/2024)