Brighton’s fish market was, from time immemorial, situated on the beach below the low cliffs near the end of East Street. When the King’s Road Arches were formed in the 1880s, nos.216-224 were set aside for the use of the fish market with a hard provided in front for stalls. The colourful and lively scene attracted many visitors who watched the proceedings from the promenade above. The market was closed by the council on hygiene grounds in 1960 and moved to Circus Street.

‘There used to be a fish market down on the seafront, just a little way along from the Palace Pier coming west. The boats would bring their fish in, and you would buy it all fresh off the barrows. Then the Council moved the market out to Circus Street where the fruit market was. Some people used to go out all night, come in with fish at six in the morning, and start selling it right away.’

‘One of our boats caught a sturgeon. I suppose it was about the late forties. It had to be offered to the Queen if a sturgeon’s caught. She refused it so we had it ourselves. If they catch an unusual fish they like to keep it alive in a bucket of salt water because they would sell them to the Aquarium and put them in the tanks there.’

‘Well, Eddie, that’s my husband, told me once when the fishermen put their nets down they thought they had got a good catch, so they hauled the net in and it was a German pilot, still sitting in the cockpit of his plane, fully dressed in his flying uniform – not a pretty sight. They said, ‘Let him go, nets and all.’ Anyway, it tore their nets to bits, which wasn’t very good.’

Continue East to the Palace Pier entrance.