West Street - then & now

Looking north from Boyces St.

West Street was originally much narrower than shown here. The eastern (r.h. side) was widened in 1868 and the Academy cinema on the same side built in 1911. Widening of the western side did not start until 1928 which dates this picture to the period 1911-1928.

On the corner of Boyces Street, the Half Moon lasted until at least 1970 when the licensee was a 'Gizzi', a family more usually associated with Italian ice cream. Although at first sight the building now looks completely different it seems to have retained the same fenestration even though it has had the roof replaced.

Of the two buildings up from the Half Moon, 61 West Street with the canted first-floor bays appears still intact, but 62 with the elegant first-floor bow window has been replaced with modern mock-Georgian.

The building that replaced the Academy deserves no comment.

A Plaque to Lt. Jacqueline Nearne

This plaque originally unveiled at a special ceremony in November 2106 has found its permanent home at Jaqueline's birthplace, 32 West Hill Street.

She moved with her family to France in 1923. When France fell, she made her way back to England  and joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.  Nearne's fluency in French quickly brought her to the attention of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) where, in 1942, she trained as a courier for the French Resisitance.

On 25 January 1943, she was parachuted into France to work for the 'Stationer' circuit in central France and maintained contact with SOE networks in the Paris area. She carried spare parts for radios inside a cosmetics bag. After fifteen months in the field, she finally returned to Britain in April 1944.

In 1946 she played "Cat", a character based on herself, in the RAF drama-documentary School for Danger, 1948, about the wartime training and deployment of SOE operatives.

Save the Madeira Terraces - special event

Little Russell Street

c.1950 

Photo:RPM

Little Russell Street looking east from near its junction with Russell Street which now lies under the Churchill Centre. The 1958 street directory lists just the three properties on the left, no.15, a motor repairers, 15a & 16, privately occupied, and further down the entrance to St. Paul's School. At the far end on the left can be seen the side of the old Odeon cinema in West Street which was demolished in 1990.

Little Russell Street is now the easterly part of Russell Road and Russell Place is now located at the former entrance to the school. St. Paul's school moved to St. Nicholas Road in 1967. 

Russell Road today.

A Plaque to Minnie Turner

The first of a series of plaques planned to commemorate the centenary of a significant period in the Women's Suffrage movement was unveiled today at 13 Victoria Road. Minnie Turner ran her boarding house Sea View as both holiday destination and refuge for suffragettes recovering from imprisonment, hunger-strikes and forcible feeding.

Minnie was present exactly 100 years ago today when suffragettes marching to Parliament were violently attacked by police for six hours. Also present were several of her former guests and, in particular, her boarder, Mary Clarke, the WSPU organiser for Brighton, who later tragically died.

Minnie Turner was for 12 years the Honorary Secretary of a branch of the Brighton Women’s Liberal Association and a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1908, frustrated at the government’s refusal to grant women the Vote, she joined the militant WSPU.

Minnie expressed great pride that more of the suffragette leaders and speakers had stayed with her than in any other home.

The plaque was funded by the City Council with a contribution from the Brighton & Hove Heritage Commission.

Members of the Women's History Group who researched and proposed the plaque.