Upper Gardner Street dates back to the 1820s when Thomas Kemp sold the land, then open field, to property developers. It was a tenant-occupied, working-class neighbourhood.

View the plaque at 40 Upper Gardner Street. The building, which dates back to 1826, became the Brighton National School’s Central Infant School in 1887.

In the nineteenth century, many private schools for the wealthy were established and Brighton was even dubbed ‘School Town’. However, a minority of poor children went to charity schools. In 1811 the Church of England set up the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. The Central Infants School, which was attended by up to 260 local children, aimed to inculcate religious knowledge. The building was enlarged in 1887.

I went to the Central School in Church Street (demolished 1971) when I was seven, after that to Central Infants’ School in Upper Gardner Street; it was a church school and so we had to march to St. Peter’s every week.

After the second world war, the building was leased to the Central Boys’ Club. In more recent history, it has been used as an arts centre, a squat and is currently the site of the Little Dippers baby swim centre.

Return to North Road and cross over. Bear right then take the first left into Tichborne St. At the end of the street, cross over Church Street, bear left and turn immediately right into Jew Street.