Looking Back - Reminiscences of Bygone Days

1950s Schooldays

The Society's most far-flung member is Clive Seymour who now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the 1950s he went to school at St. Margaret's School in Queensbury Mews, these are some of his reminiscences from those days... Read More

Faces from the past

It is most unusual to be able to see what people associated with your house or area looked like over 150 years ago but we have been very fortunate.

Thanks to descendants of a family who were in the square in the 1830s and 1840s we can see what these early residents looked like, and, through entries in the family bible, get an insight into the highs and lows of the family's life over a period of 43 years more than a century ago. Read More

Churchill Square revisited: A lost Brighton community

Lost heart... It might be hard to imagine Churchill Square as an intimate community - but for many years it was. Society member Andrew Walker has produced a fascinating insight into the part of Brighton that was lost forever when it was first decided to create a Churchill Square shopping centre. Read More

Russell Square

Long-time Russell Square resident Jim Harris was sorting through some papers recently when he happened upon some papers relating to some of the greens in squares in the Borough of Brighton. It is an interesting coincidence that Jim should find these at a time when long overdue improvements were being made to Russell and Clarence Squares. One document is the local authority byelaws drawn up in 1891 concerning who and how Russell Square green might be enjoyed - it would have been a much shorter document had it said what you could do on the green!!! Read More

The other questions certain legal points in regard to nine greens in the area including references to Russell and Regency Squares. Read More

Both make interesting reading not only for their content but also the style of language used in them.

Tariff Card

And while we're in Russell Square, this is the tariff card from the Ascot House Hotel in the square, which we believe dates back to the 1950's...we won't see prices like this again!!!

Boys will be boys - From Colin Webb

My story took place when I was 12 years old. My father had been invalided out of the navy and had purchased 49 Regency Square in 1942. During the war years the square had, at the south end of Queensbury Mews, a large brick built water tank about six feet deep and the width of the green...Read More

Squaring Up For Another Moan!

It has been said that the residents and hoteliers of Regency Square - the only Brighton seafront square with a green - are not happy unless they are complaining...Read More