Gloucester Place

View of the New Church of St. Peter, c. 1829: Women and children can be seen in what is now the northern part of Victoria Gardens. On the left, on Gloucester Place, is the Gloucester Hotel, which opened in 1819 and is now a night-club. A sign points in the direction of the female orphan asylum which was at the top of Gloucester Street until 1853 when it moved to Eastern Road.

Image reproduced with kind permission from Brighton and Hove in Pictures by Brighton and Hove City Council

Houses in Gloucester Place, 1899: This photograph shows two early 19th Century houses being re-stuccoed in 1899. The front gardens were removed by road widening soon afterwards. These houses were demolished to build the Astoria Cinema, which opened in 1933.

Image reproduced with kind permission from Brighton and Hove in Pictures by Brighton and Hove City Council

Astoria Cinema, Gloucester Place, c. 1935: Opened on 21 December 1933 by Sir Cooper Rawson M.P., the Astoria had a relatively simple interior including a stage, organ, tea-rooms and restaurant. It could seat 1823 people. A banner above the entrance proclaims the "Personal stage appearance of Gordon Fellowes and Miss Marsh" who starred in the film "G-Men" which came out in 1935. The cinema closed in May 1977 and became Coral Social Club. It is now largely disused.

Image reproduced with kind permission from Brighton and Hove in Pictures by Brighton and Hove City Council

25-26 Gloucester Place

Photo by Tony Mould

27 Gloucester Place

Photo by Tony Mould

27 Gloucester Place

Photo by Tony Mould

Former Astoria Cinema

Photo by Tony Mould

Gloucester Place Baptist Church

Photo by Tony Mould

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

b) GLOUCESTER PLACE: Built in the 1800s, Gloucester Place was widened by the removal of front gardens around the turn of the century and has been somewhat rebuilt, but nos.25-26 remain, four-storey buildings with ironwork balconies and canopies. No.27, now the Gloucester night-club, was opened as the Gloucester Hotel in about 1819 in a four-storey building with bows, balconies, verandahs and a Doric doorway, but it was considerably remodelled and enlarged in 1925 when the Gloucester Mansions flats were added. {26,108,115}
Trustcard House was erected in 1985 on the site of Telephone House, an eight-storey red-brick block used as offices by the General Post Office and constructed in 1938 on the site of some Regency houses; it was found to be structurally unsafe in the early 1980s. The new building is relieved by its soft colour and use of bay windows. {123,129}
The Astoria Cinema was formally opened on 21 December 1933 by Sir Cooper Rawson, M.P., with a relatively simple interior, stage, organ, restaurant and tea-rooms, and room for 1,823 people. It was soon acquired by Associated British Cinemas Ltd and presented many long runs of epic films in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s on its giant screen, but in May 1977 the cinema closed and became the Coral Social Club. {68,68a}
Lombard House was built in 1957 for the Royal Sussex Regiment. The houses that formerly stood there were destroyed by enemy bombing in the war and the site was given to the regiment on the occasion of it being granted the honorary right of entry to the borough in October 1944. The development includes flats for the benefit of all ranks, past and present. The adjacent Gloucester Place Baptist Church was damaged in the same air-raid. It was built by George Baines in 1904 to replace the former Queen Square Baptist Church which had been sold to the Union Church. {62,115,242,311}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.