The Temple Inn was situated on the corner of Victoria Road and Montpelier Street, opposite St Michael and All Angels church. The building is still very much the same, although it is now housing. The main difference is the corner entrance is now walled up and, of course, the painted wall advertisements have been obliterated. The licencee’s (landlord’s) name, M G Tilbury, is prominently displayed above what is probably the saloon bar entrance with that to the public bar being on the corner. This was a legal requirement (and still is though a very much smaller plate is now affixed on the entrance door frame).
In 1900 there were some twelve Brighton Brewers. These had been reduced by the process of takeover and closure to two by 1930 – Tamplins and Kemp Town. The number of public houses, over 700, remained about the same and most were “tied” to these two breweries i.e. they could only sell their beers. These two remained the major suppliers during the thirties, forties and fifties. The Temple Inn was “tied” to Kemp Town, whose brewery occupied the whole area between Seymour Street and Paston Place (except the houses directly bordering Marine Parade). There were also brewery premises fronting the west side of Seymour Street. The brewery had been established prior to 1833. In 1954 it was taken over by Charringtons Ltd (now Bass Charrington) but continued brewing with last brew taking place on the 10th April 1964. The site is now housing.
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This building is now a surgery in which my father is a doctor. I wonder if it is possible to get a copy of this photograph?
This building is now a Doctors’ surgery, rather than housing.
Just wondering whether it was indeed true that the Kemp Town Brewery was badly bombed in 1940? My great-gandmother was injured in the blast – she lived close by – and never recovered from the injuries she received.
I’ve lived in Montpelier St for 20 years now. We all love Montpelier Street – we are the Montpelier Streeters! ‘Wimbledon’ was filmed here and up the road in Powis Square I recall ‘The Phoenix and the Carpet’ being filmed. Has anyone some pictures of this? On a sunny day one can gaze out over the sea.
Hi again,
Having posted nearly 2 years ago about my gt-grandmother, I have a better idea now about where she lived in Brighton in the 1930’s. Certainly from 1937 she was in the Kemp Town area in Sussex Square, but before that, from 1931-7, she was living at 3, Montpelier Street. I have just been to stay in Brighton for a couple of days, and went to see the house. I imagine the house was divided up into flats then, as someone else, called Herbert Moullin, lived at the address too. What must once have been a wonderful uninterrupted view of the sea is obscured by at least one ugly high rise block of flats.
I don’t suppose there’s anyone in the area who would remember characters who lived in the Street before World War Two…
Very best wishes,
So very glad that I found your page and this lovely photo of days gone by! I am very pleased to add that my Great Great Great Grandfather was the Proprietor at this pub in 1854. He is recorded in The Original Brighton & Hove Directory, July 1854. By the 1871 census he was the Hotel Keeper for New Ship Hotel (now the Old Ship Hotel).
Tim, small confusion as the New Ship was demolished and rebuilt as Henekey’s in 1928, in what is termed ‘Brewer’s Tudor’; it is now Hotel Du Vin. The Old Ship is opposite .
My great-grandmother ran this pub once upon a time, my mother lived there as a child so this would have been around the early ’60s. I happened to walk by the building yesterday and it’s so amazing to see where my mother spent her childhood. My Mum said that this building was used in a film once, too.
Today it remains a GPs’, but would anyone know when it became a Doctors’ surgery and if the the building was used for anything else in between?
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