Church Road (2)

2018: 102 Church Road is still easily identified by its number in Church Road, which remains unchanged since first described, and by the elaborate decoration of the frontage above the central door and four upper windows. This double-fronted shop has continued to provide essential foodstuffs – from poultry to dairy products, groceries under the name of Cullens and then locally-owned Cottinghams, and from 2009 as the Four Seasons, a greengrocer and delicatessen providing fresh produce and a wide range of foods and spices from the Middle East and Asia to match contemporary tastes. (Photographer: David Sears)

Most of the south-facing buildings have now been covered in white or yellow painted stucco. The square clocktower of the new Town Hall, which replaced the earlier building after it burnt down in 1966, is visible in the background. The road now carries a high volume of assorted fast-moving traffic and pedestrians are encouraged to keep to the pavements. (Photographer: David Sears)

The Albion Inn has recently changed hands and, after refurbishment, now trades as The Old Albion, selling, in a throwback to Victorian days, ‘gin and victuals’ to the locals. Hove Town Hall, further down the road, is now a lower series of concrete blocks replacing the earlier building which burnt down in January 1966. In the modern image, the motorbikes of Deliveroo, a home delivery service, cluster outside a fast food outlet. Shops and cafés on both sides still pull down their awnings when the sun shines. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The eastern corner of Hova Villas with Church Road, shown in the original image as Slatter’s ironmongers, was demolished and rebuilt in red brick to house the Midland Bank, in turn taken over by the HSBC bank. Behind it, further to the east, is now the Body Fuel Café, formerly Forfars Bakery.

The square tower of the Town Hall is just visible on the left-hand side of Church Road, replacing the original Town Hall which burnt down in January 1966. Opposite is The Old Albion, a recent renaming of the original Albion Inn, and, nearer the camera, a branch of Boots Chemists which closed its doors while the modern photos were being taken in February 2018. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The building on the eastern corner of Hova Villas and Church Road, shown here as the premises of W O Slatter, ironmonger, was partially demolished and rebuilt in red brick to house a local branch of the Midland Bank and, much later, of the HSBC bank, following the takeover by HSBC in 1992. Behind it, further to the east, is now the Body Fuel Café, formerly Forfars Bakery. As can be seen in modern images, there are now only two bay windows out of the original three remaining on the first floor of the buildings in this block facing onto Church Road; the abrupt join between the two buildings is clearly visible in aerial shots. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: The modern image, taken early on a clear cold Sunday morning in February, shows Church Road relatively free of traffic. Diesel-driven buses are readily available. Taxis wait in a nearby side street. The shops meet the diverse needs of today: Johnsons Dry Cleaning, Bankers Fish & Chips, the Giggling Squid Thai restaurant and Timpson’s shoe and watch repairs. The red-brick building on the corner of Ventnor Villas houses a branch of HSBC Bank. In the distance, the square tower and clock of the concrete ‘brutalist’ style replacement for the original Town Hall, which burnt down in January 1966, is just visible. The building is currently undergoing renovation. (Photographer: David Sears)

The skylines on both sides can be matched almost exactly – and the ground floor premises on both sides are still in full use as shops, cafés, offices or restaurants. The purple signage of the NatWest bank, referred to in the original comment on image jgc_13_026, can be seen on the left, at the junction with Tisbury Road. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: This is one of many images of this stretch of Church Road, in this case looking west from the corner of Grand Avenue, which shows the old Town Hall before it was damaged by fire in 1966 and eventually demolished, to be replaced by the concrete and glass building which now stands in its place. The small garden in the centre with overflowing trees has been infilled with Herbs Kingdom, a supplier of Chinese medicines. The nearest corner on the right houses a language school over a branch of Caffè Nero. The only banking premises is a branch of NatWest on the corner of Tisbury Road, this side of the Town Hall. Buses and taxis provide transport for all. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: Today the buildings in the background have barely changed, except that the large villa on the western corner of The Drive and Church Road now houses a busy Caffè Nero and an English language school, ISE, serving a changing population of students from around the world. The buses have also changed – and are now more frequent and travel further and faster. A daily fare from Shoreham to Saltdean is now £2.60. They also now have names: the one approaching is named after William Moon, a pioneering Brighton teacher who developed Monotype – a system of embossed printing for the blind, still in use as being easier to learn than Braille. (Photographer: David Sears)

2018: Buses are now bigger, faster, carry more passengers and are powered by diesel engines rather than horses. This is a Mercedes Streetdeck number 802 en route to Whitehawk on the other side of Brighton. As with other local buses, it is named after someone with strong connections to Brighton and Hove, in this case John Heward who, amongst many other things, worked as a coachbuilder at Harrington’s and served with the Territorial Army in Dyke Road. The building in the background now houses a branch of Timpson’s, offering ‘great services by great people’ – a well-justified slogan. (Photographer: David Sears) 

2018: The original red-brick Hove Town Hall, in ‘Victorian Gothic perpendicular‘ style, opened in 1882 and closed after a devastating fire in January 1966. The replacement, as a lower ‘brutalist’ style set of concrete blocks with a distinctive square tower and clock on Church Road, opened in 1974, with the main entrance on the western side in Norton Road. It is currently being refurbished. The buildings further to the east on Church Road on the far corner of Tisbury Road are largely unchanged and now house a local branch of the NatWest Bank. The red-brick mansion block on the corner on Fourth Avenue, just visible on the right of the image, is also unchanged. (Photographer: David Sears)

The old Town Hall burnt down in 1966 and was replaced by the lower concrete and glass building shown here. The fine row of red-brick turreted buildings opposite extending east along Church Road to the junction with Third Avenue remains unchanged. The road is of course much busier now, with a plentiful supply of double-decker diesel-powered buses; taking pictures from the centre of the road is in consequence no longer recommended! (Photographer: David Sears)

The road in front is now much busier. In 2018 Brighton buses are all named for notable former residents of Brighton and Hove. The No 49 bus to Portslade Station seen here commemorates Sir George Everest, the British surveyor and geographer who mapped and measured much of India and Nepal. Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world was named after him. (Photographer: David Sears)