Temple Street’s tragic anniversaries

Today marks an unhappy anniversary in Temple Street. Every street has had its tragedies, and as the years pass, memories fade, people move away and die, and life moves on. But delve in the coroner’s reports at The Keep*, East Sussex's new repository of local records, and you will find glimpses of sad events which must have been the talk of Temple Street in their time.

The cliffs at Black Rock

83 years ago Arthur Spilsbury threw himself off the cliffs at Black Rock. The records show that on July 2 1934 Arthur Richard Silsbury of 12 Temple Street, Brighton, electrical engineer; 57; on the Undercliff Walk, Black Rock; found dead, laceration of the brain and shock due to throwing himself over the cliffs at Black Rock whilst of unsound mind; suicide

James Gow Brock, 58; 6 Temple Street, Brighton; coal gas poisoning, self inhaled, 25 Oct 1937, suicide

Virginia Ann Sabey of 17 Temple Street, Brighton, old age pensioner, widow of William Samuel Sabey, paper hanger and decorator; 88; at Brighton Infirmary, 250 Elm Grove; shock following fracture of the right femur caused by a fall at [home] on 16 Dec 1928; accidental death

Mary Ann Elizabeth Banister of 19 Temple Street, Brighton, wife of Thomas Banister, retired police inspector; 65; dislocation of the spine between the 1st and 2nd cervical vertebrae caused by a fall down stairs at [home] on 12 Feb 1913; accidental death. No warrant

Florence Evelyn Renton Bird of 22 Temple Street, Brighton; 84; widow; at Brighton Municipal Hospital on 24 Nov 1944; myocardial degeneration accelerated by injuries sustained after a fall at home; accident

Edward Tyrell of 36 Temple Street, Brighton, painter and decorator; 24; at Sussex County Hospital; fracture of the skull caused by a fall from a window at [home]; accidental death 23 August 1905

Anne Katherine Archer of 37 Temple Street, Brighton, widow of John Chapman Archer, banker's clerk; 79; at the Royal Sussex County Hospital; uraemia following shock and fracture of the left legs caused by deceased having been knocked down and run over by a motor omnibus driven by Harry Victor Buckman in Western Road on 28 Dec 1921; accidental death

William Arthur James, riding master, 39 Temple Street, Brighton, 50; pneumonia following injuries caused by being knocked down by a bicycle; accidental death. 1924


* http://www.thekeep.info/

A very short cut to the pub

Number 12 used to have a very useful facility – direct access to the Borough Tavern that was at number 39 Borough Street. The back of the pub was just on the other side of the wall, and there was a doorway between the two properties.

The passage from the pub emerges in Temple Street, giving thirsty punters a very handy short cut.

Ian Burridge, who now owns number 12, told me he had come across a blocked off doorway when he was renovating a room at the back of his property, in the position that can be seen on the Ordnance Survey below.

This seems to explain the glass ball hanging outside the house in the recently discovered photograph, detail below, on which the word 'Spirits' can be seen. Spirits and more were to be enjoyed only a few steps away.

Temple Street on an Ordnance Survey map of the 1890s

 The passageway to the pub (marked P.H.) through Number 11 Temple Street

The glass ball advertising 'Wines, To Order, Spirits' above the passageway to the pub in Borough Street

Rare old Temple Street photograph comes to light

The Warren Farm School prepare in Temple Street to lead a troop of Brighton Cadets c1910-13

Most of us have only ever seen one vintage Temple Street photograph – the one taken from the Western Road looking up the road on a very sunny day sometime in the 1920s. See below. But another one has just surfaced, recently bought on Ebay, and showing the street in a slightly earlier era.

The guess at this stage is that the photograph was taken around 1910. The boys in front of the parade are from the Warren Farm School.

This was an industrial school located in Rottingdean, its aim to give pauper children a basic education and a grounding in industry so that they could go out and earn a living. It opened in 1862, at the time when people began to feel that children should not be brought up in the workhouse.

Boys were taught trades such as gardening, tailoring and shoemaking whilst girls were trained in domestic service.  Many of the boys were also taught to play an instrument, often leading to a career in an army band.

By the by, the school was notable for its well: it was the deepest hand-dug well in the world, which took 4 years to reach water in March 1862, at a depth of 1285 feet.

There is a caption on the photograph: some words are difficult to make out, but most are decipherable: 'Imperial Service Cadets inspected by Col. Sefly (?)   Leaving headquayers (sic) headed by Warren Farm School Band.'

As for the houses in the background, the photo shows the west side of the street from Number 12 upwards. Number 11, just out of sight on the far left, seems to be a cycle shop. 

Number 12, which now has a boxed bay window, was sporting a balcony in those days, and was fronted by a bow window, on the ground floor at least. The Fire Point sign from that time is still there. 

Any further information or thoughts on the photo would be most welcome!

The fascinating Temple Street photograph taken in the 1920s