Albion Street history brought back to life
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Until the bulldozers moved in 50 years ago, Albion Street was a busy, vibrant, changing and mixed community.
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Hide AdCreated at the end of the 18th century, the street grew to be the town’s commercial heart, shopping centre and a densely populated residential district.
There was a shipyard, sail-lofts, horse drawn trams, houses for labourers, ships’ captains and shopkeepers, busy wharves, a coastguard station, the Town Hall, butchers and bakers, grocers, chemists and printers, a cinema and yacht club, two chapels and nine pubs.
Once smugglers drank in the pubs, sailing ships were built and fitted out and the horse tram clattered between Shoreham and Hove. During the war, the Canadian Army guarded it and people needed a pass to enter.
Almost all of this was swept away in the 1960s, leaving just a few ghostly memories, but this new exhibition brings some of these places and people back to life.
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Hide AdThere is an accompanying booklet, called Southwick Remembered by Nigel Divers, secretary of the Southwick Society.
The booklet contains pictures of Albion Street, describes its history and tells the stories of some of the people who lived there.
This is the latest in a long line of exhibitions set up by the local history group at the family-run Tates garden centre.
The society’s headquarters are in The Manor Cottage, Southwick Street. The heritage centre will open on Saturday mornings, 10.30am to 12.30pm, from May 21 to September 17.
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