James Gray: 57 and 58 New Dorset Street, in December 1941 shortly before their demolition. No 57 was an excellent, though rather late, example of Brighton’s flint faced cottages. This street was built at odd times between 1820 and 1840, which accounted for the different types of houses, which made up the street. It was so named to distinguish it from the much earlier Dorset Street, off Edward Street. jgc_31_133
2018: Where 57 and 58 New Dorset Street once stood is now an open car parking area. The buildings in the background are the backs of the houses in Centurion Road. (Photographer: Frances Lindsay-Hills)
James Gray: The entrance to New Dorset Street from Church Street, showing the prefabricated houses, built immediately after the 1939-1945 war. The year is not known, but it was probably during the 1960s. jgc_31_144
2018: The entrance to New Dorset Street from Church Street was demolished in the mid 1960s to make way for St Paul’s Church of England Primary School and Nursery. The road now curves and joins the south end of Centurion Road, the entrance and exit to both New Dorset Street and Centurion Road being Upper Gloucester Street. The houses in New Dorset Street have been renumbered and this photograph shows the new number 1, partly covered in wisteria and situated some yards north of where the earlier image was taken. The prefabricated houses mentioned by James Gray survived until 1967. (Photographer: Frances Lindsay-Hills)
James Gray: Looking down narrow New Dorset Street, 27 July 1938. The building on the extreme right can be identified also on the previous photograph. It is the back wall of the houses immediately beyond the left of the three cars shown on the car park. In other words the car park has replaced the old cottages seen on the left. jgc_31_130
2018: The houses on the left of the 1938 image have been demolished and the road widened. New houses have been built on that side of the road (see jgc_31_144). New housing has also replaced the buildings to the south of the house with the gable roof with a cat slide visible centre right of the James Gray image but not in the 2018 photograph. The outline of the houses to the north of the house with the gable roof remains recognisable though the view today is blighted by high-rise buildings in Queen’s Road and beyond. (Photographer: Frances Lindsay-Hills)
James Gray: A prefabricated house built with a few others in 1946. This one was on the site of the two old houses, Nos 57 and 58, seen on an earlier page [jgc_31_133 above]. Photographed in 1955, it had a life of a little longer than the anticipated 20 years, being removed in 1967. jgc_31_132
2021: The 1955 and 2021 images have only two things visibly in common – at upper right the rear of 108 Centurion Road and at lower left the small flint wall. The prefab shown in the James Gray image (see also jgc_31_144 above) was situated much further forward and close to the road (see map) than either the pair of old cottages or the modern buildings. The 2021 image is dominated by the rears of the four-storey houses, only 50 years old, whose frontages (seen on the supplementary 2021 image) are on Centurion Road, where only their uppermost two storeys are above street level. See also jgc_31_133 above. (Photographer: Mathia Davies)