Andy Garth: What a view

Having the shop, as I have said in the past, is not only great fun but also an appreciation of how many people love Brighton and Hove. And strangely quite a high proportion of these aren’t your born and bred type as you would think.

This week I acquired approximately 80 antique prints from an estate of a Spanish man who came here in the 1970s, fell in love with the city, and collected many unusual and rare prints which I have now got in the shop for sale.

I never met him but he had great taste and appreciated the beauty of coloured and black and white prints depicting how Brighton and Hove was in its day.

The first one shows that the piers in Brighton were always trying to improve and give the public more, as the picture is an ambitious plan to extend the Chain Pier and call it the Brighton Marine Kursaal – which doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. It’s a shame it never happened as it was due to costs and the fact that the pier itself was getting a bit rickety.

Every minor and major incident involving a tram car across the town

The second print shows the original Dyke Hotel, which would have been a welcoming sight as the horse and carriage eventually got you to the Dyke on the bumpy dirt tracks that existed in those days!

The final picture is a view from today’s Hove Lawns at the bottom of Adelaide Crescent looking East towards Brighton. As a regular driver on that stretch of road, what a joy it seems to have been to travel along with no lights, roadworks or – come to think of it – traffic!

If you have anything Brighton and Hove you would like to have looked at please pop along to the shop at 28 Western Road Hove or email me on
Brightonandhovestuff@gmail.com

Or just come in and look at all the new prints and everything else that is there.