“Before I lived with my father-in-law, my father was in the wholesale business and had shops in Kensington Gardens. When he died in 1912 I was so young that I had to give the wholesale up, I couldn’t manage it. He died when I was fourteen or fifteen. ‘Course, my mother sold the shops and all that, then I went on the street as a barrow boy. Mother sold the business in 1924. I met me wife and went to live with me father-in-law…I followed my father into the (Greengrocer) trade… I left school at 12. It was horse and cart in those days. My day consisted of 2:30 down the wholesale, come back at 8:00, went to goods yard at the station- had five tons of potatoes- two of us used two barrows- then from there to the passenger station to meet him, in from London with sixty packages. Sometimes we got finished 12:00 at night. I had to come in and do a day’s work in the shop, oh yes, as well. My pocket money was 2s./6d. a week. He made a marvellous profit.”

Turn right at the North Road entrance and then take the first right into Upper Gardner Street.

 

This was the location for many of the barrow boys and street traders in the past. It is still a busy vibrant market on a Saturday morning selling food, second hand goods and contemporary crafts. 

“We sold along London Road – you had to be careful there – but Gardner Street was our main street. You had to watch out because sometimes the police would be hiding in the shops – we were allowed just that five minutes to stop and serve and that’s all.”

Mrs Wheatley, a shopkeeper, didn’t appreciate the street traders:

“They would be all over the place – some would be down where the mackerel came in, some would carry soft fruit. Well, it was bad for the shopkeeper. If they came through Richmond Buildings with a barrow, they’re selling stuff 2d. or 3d. a pound cheaper than the shops are – naturally that’s going to hit the shop, isn’t it ?”

Turn right at the end of Upper Gardner Street and then turn left into Tidy Street. At the end turn right onto Trafalgar Street. At the end turn left onto London Road and continue along for a few blocks, turning right into Oxford Street.

 

Street sellers included barrow boys, costermongers and street traders, who were itinerants, without capital, a fixed shop or regular customers.The barrow boys were extremely mobile, both geographically and socially.

Mr. Harding recalls his beginnings:

“I first started in Oxford Street with my father after I left school. He was a navy man really, you see. He was called up. Before the war he worked in a fried fish shop: he used to muck about doing a bit of fishing. He used to clean fish.”

“We were living in Claremont Row, in Sussex Street, until we got a little better off. Dad came out the navy and started up on his own in the market, in Oxford Street. Originally, this market was made for ex-servicemen only, see. I don’t know if they paid anything for the stalls”

Oxford St still contains a number of small shops, interestingly no 29 is still dealing with watches as it was in the 1920’s.

As you reach the end of Oxford St you will have arrived at the Level. This was the site of many market stalls in the early part of the 20th Century.

 

The Level was the site for many market sellers at the start of the 20th century.

‘After a while they shifted us out of Oxford Street- I don’t know if there were any complaints or what. Anyway they found us a place on the Level, in Oxford Street,  you more or less took your own pitches. You didn’t argue about it, you just pitched there every day- same on the Level. We had an association – if you can call it that. Some used to go through the street selling fish in barrows – they weren’t barrow boys, they were classed as hawkers. Sunday morning they’d come round with herrings, shouting out. When the markets came, there weren’t many of them left. We were tied – we just stood there. We weren’t supposed to shout out our wares. We were better off than the hawkers, we used to be all day there, didn’t we? People came through there. We sold all kinds, see.’

Turn left and cross over Francis Street and on your left, you will see the entrance to the Open Market the final stop.

 

The Open market has been a feature of Brighton Life since the 1800’s. The market underwent major development in the early part of the 21st century and reopened as a covered market in 2014.

As the Open market moved from Oxford Street after the First World War, to the Level, then to Marshall’s Row, and on to its present position, it took with it some barrow boys who had pitches on these sites. Both Johnnie Stevens and Mr. Harding, a fishmonger, followed this route from barrow boy to the relative security of a position in the open market, virtually a shop-keeper.

One notable feature of the poorer working shopkeeper’s business was its social function. Shopping, though a chore, became a pleasurable and integrating activity in the neighbourhood. This social element was less evident in the professional shops.

Thus the shop functioned as a citizens advice bureau, gossip exchange, information centre and betting office. Some shopkeepers were also money lenders. Distrust of doctors, as well as inability to afford their fees, encouraged many to go to the chemist for advice and home remedies: it was a form of community health centre.

The small local shop served a social purpose in providing a focus for neighbourhood life. The few that remain still carry on this tradition, but today shopping has lost many of its social functions, and has become simply buying.

You have now reached the end of the walk. We hope this has highlighted how shopping has changed in Brighton.