Churchill Square revisited: A lost Brighton community, Andrew Walker
Many of the houses demolished to make way for the original Churchill Square were not slums, but were beautiful buildings, though some had been neglected. It did not matter what the reasons for demolition were, any clearance was claimed to be both necessary and 'a good thing' in the name of progress.
In numerous ways the contrast of the lives of people who lived in the area now covered by Churchill Square, with our expectations of life in the twenty first century is dramatic; the inhabitants were united by poverty and the struggle to make a living. A consequence of the lack of social and geographical mobility of its inhabitants was that everyone was surrounded by people like themselves, most of whom they had always known.
They built up strong networks within their community to help them survive the rigours of their lives; not everyone had extended families, but everyone had neighbours. The demolition of a neighbourhood is not just the destruction of buildings, it is also the destruction of communities with complex social support systems, particularly valuable for coping with child rearing, illness and disability. There was resigned gloom in the streets to be demolished - where children could play and mothers chat on the doorstep. The disappearance of the corner shop as a point of integration led to the breakdown of communities.
People felt that they belonged to the area (a very small number of streets around their home), and everyone knew where that area began and ended. Almost all the original buildings only survive as photographs, as memories which are fading fast now that many of the old inhabitants have died.
The photographs in this book are of places not portrayed in the seaside post card (though some of the buildings are beautiful), so they will be unknown to many newcomers to Brighton, as they would have been to tourists and the well-to-do in the town in the last century.
Selma Montford
Above: An extract taken from the book
Churchill Square Revisited: A Lost Brighton Community by Andrew Walker (2002) ISBN: 1901454061 is available from Brighton Books Publishing priced at £6.99 + £1.50 postage & packing. To order please contact them on:
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