Eastern Western Road - Then & Now

Then being sometime after the Regent Ballroom, whose domed roof can be seen rising above Queens Road, was built in 1923; and sometime before the properties on the far-left were demolished for road-widening and construction of the Imperial Arcade building in 1934.

Now being November 2010:-

What was, for many years, a narrow bottleneck, has long gone. The broken yellow line in the foreground corresponds approximately in the earlier photo to the, then rare, road centre markings. These can just be seen by the offside wheel of the approaching van.

The only features still remaining are the Clock Tower, and the Soper's building (1901) on the right, although in common with most other old buildings in Brighton it has lost its flagpoles. On its ground floor Sopers once had a mini-arcade of elegant curved glass and wood display windows, and free-standing enclosures. When Sopers moved out, in the 1960's, these windows were removed to the Museum where they formed inspired display cases for the costume collection.  Sadly, when the Museum was given its millenium makeover  these were jettisoned in favour of the tedious, ill-lit arrangements we have today.