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Albion Hill Fruit and Veg Stores c1900

My grandparents had a shop near Albion Hill. It was called the Albion Fruit and Vegetable Stores. In the photograph here you can just see the sign of the Albion pub next door. On the other side was Sinden the undertaker. A delivery boy who worked for my grandparents is pictured outside with his donkey, which was used to pull a cart around, delivering to houses in Brighton. I think my grandmother is the lady in white but I do not know the others. Looking very close, I think faces can be made out on the inside of the shop but it may be my imagination.

Frank Edward Parrett
My grandfather, Frank Edward Parrett, was born in 1866 in Wadhurst. The family, which was poor, presumably moved to Brighton seeking prosperity but found the reverse. His wife, Alice Maud Luxford, was born in Brighton in 1865. They had various businesses including one at 54 Hanover Terrace in early 1900. He was not a successful man. In fact perhaps the positioning of the Albion Store was significant in that it was next to a beer house and an undertaker.

A very deprived area
The whole area was deprived with many very poor families living in the Edward Street area (and further north). Alcohol was a solace. The Salvation Army worked hard to support families which were affected by alcohol.  Staff Captain Kate Lee, whose photograph is show here, was in charge of branches of the Salvation Army at different times in Brighton, Reading, Coventry, Sunderland and London. I am not sure exactly when she died but a newspaper cutting I have has, on the reverse, an announcement for the following day of the 57th wedding anniversary of Queen Alexandra and King Edward!

Albion Fruit and Veg shop
From the private collection of Dennis Parrett
Kate Lee of the Salvation Army
From the private collection of Dennis Parrett

Comments about this page

  • Were the fruit and veg shop and other two businesses still in Albion Hill in 1920?

    By Adam Dennis (26/09/2007)
  • Is the greengrocers in Jersey Street?

    By Jane Goodwin (28/12/2008)
  • I have not yet established exactly where this shop was, but I understood that it was lower down than Jersey Street. I have an old photograph of the Albion Inn Jersey Street (as well as the current ones on the website) dating from about 1920 and it does not look like the Albion next door to the fruit and veg shop. Sinden’s on the other side of the shop were well known Brighton undertakers and it might be possible to establish where they were. I need to get to the reference library to try and sort this out when I can get to Brighton. I belive there was an Albion Brewery as well somewhere.

    By Dennis Parrett (07/01/2009)
  • Henry John Sinden, Undertaker, traded at 1 Richmond Buildings according to the 1905 Kelly’s directory. So I think that is where the shop was too, and the pub next door.

    By Dennis Parrett (27/01/2009)
  • My great great grandfather (Arthur Elliott) was the Beer House Keeper of ‘The Good Intent’, 4, Albion Hill. Which was an Albion Brewery’s pub.  According to the 1891 Census the pub was at the “back of Albion Brewery”.

    By Steve Keen (15/02/2009)
  • My parents, Bob and Elsie Jones, bought a grocers / greengrocers shop I think it was No. 60 Albion Hill opposite the corner of Montreal where the Montreal Arms was in 1950 on the other corner (Windmill Terrace)? Was the dairy where it was just dairy produce?  I remember vividly when they knocked down all the terraced houses at the bottom of Albion Hill and built the flats.  The name in the previous comments … Swaysland and Smallwoods(greengrocers) – they were all friends that I went to school with at St Luke’s.

    By Alison Coates (07/06/2009)
  • I lived in Albion Hill with my family from 1950 until 1969. We lived on the corner of Newark Place, on the other corner of Newark Place was a sweet shop, below that a pub. On the corner of Jersey Street there was a shop that opened as a grocery store and on the opposite corner was another pub.

    By Eunice Pike (14/06/2009)
  • I am Eunice Pike’s younger brother; we lived at 23, Albion Hill from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The name of the shop was Uptons. They had two shops – one on the corner of Newark Place/Albion Hill, and the other in Dinapore Street. I went to St Luke’s Infants and Juniors, then Fawcett School from 1961-1965.

    By Cliff Pittam (03/08/2009)
  • We lived at the Spread Eagle from 1959, Mr Upton had the sweet shop next to our pub, which his wife ran, they lived there too. Mr Upton had a small grocer’s shop in Dinapore Street, he used to ‘commute’ between the two.

    By Terrie Hounsome (19/01/2010)
  • I lived in Dinapore Street no 24. I remember the Uptons very well - both Mr Upton and his wife. Very nice people. Great times there.

    By Roy Sargeant (16/02/2010)
  • I have now visted the excellent Brighton History Centre. From Kelly’s I have established that somewhere between 1913 and 1917, Frank Parrett took over the Albion Fruit and Vegetable Shop at 2 Richmond Buildings. It was in Frank’s name in Kelly’s but changed to Alice after his death in 1925. The shop was disposed of between 1933/34. It was next door to Sindens the Undertakers at No 1 and the business next door at No 3 was actually a fishmongers W J Way not, as I thought, a pub.

    By Dennis Parrett (18/03/2010)
  • My father and mother Owen and Pam were licencees of the Spread Eagle from 1968 to 1976. It was a fantastic family pub, my brother Russ and I were brought up there.

    By Stuart Payton (18/04/2010)
  • Does anyone remember the fishmongers at 3 Richmond Buildings? It was run by William James Way.

    By Margaret Stewart (30/10/2010)
  • Well done Dennis Parrett you’re spot on, it is you say the top of Richmond Buildings. I lived in 47 Cambridge Street 1946 to 1957, it was then that the Council got round to demolishing the rest of the homes left after the bombing and shipped us out to a far away land known as Woodingdean – still here. Geoff Wells

    By Geoff Wells (22/02/2011)
  • On a different note,I noticed the latest Lucazade advert on TV was filmed in this area.

    By Paul (27/08/2011)
  • Hello Dennis, for our Tarner Stories project book and website we’re trying to locate photographs from private collections – never been seen images of Albion Hill, Carlton Hill and the surrounding area as far back as the 1930s. Please contact us if you would be happy to share your collection with us, we’d at least love to see it and meet you! Email us at info@tarnerstories.org

    By Jess Huffman (16/01/2012)
  • My great great grandmother Ellener Blunden nee Wood is listed in 1851 as living at 1 & 2 Richmond Square, with occupation ‘Good Intent, beer house’. Is this the same Good Intent as the one mentioned above behind the Albion Brewery? I’m trying to find where exactly Richmond Square was, but no luck so far. Thanks.

    By Linda Hall (06/04/2016)
  • Hi Linda. Richmond Square was a courtyard at 1 Albion Hill, on the northern side. There were no less than three Good Intent public houses and the one you refer to was probably the one at 4 Albion Hill, which stood on the western corner of Albion Place.  Regards, Andy

    By Andy Grant (07/04/2016)
  • Hi Linda. I suggest a visit to The Keep to look at directories. It is Woollards Way, Brighton 01273 482349.

    By Dennis Parrett (07/04/2016)
  • My Family ran a shoe/bootmakers at No1 Richmond Buildings, after they were relocated from Little Russell Street. This was before the undertakers took this shop. Harry Gorringe Snr and Harry (Jnr) and Minnie Gorringe after him. 9 Generations (back to 1700’s) of putting boots and shoes onto the good people of Brighton.

    By Rachel Gorringe (07/03/2020)

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