Magazine
The Deckchair Guide
The Deckchair Poll
The Top Ten Cafes

Voted number 4 in Brighton and Hove

Pavilion Gardens Cafe.
Royal Pavilion Grounds,
New Road, Brighton

Fantastic cake, friendly staff, perfect location. - Sonja
At first glance, this looks simply like a nice cafe in the gardens of the Pavilion, but its heritage stretches back to a 1920's stall selling cockles, mussels and whelks by the sea.  This stall and a nearby pub was owned by the current cafe owner's great grandparents.  His grandfather Mr T, then owned two stalls under the Arches selling ice cream, cakes etc.  He would bring his pies, breads and cakes down to the sea in a wheelbarrow from Elm Grove.  If the weather was bad, much of it was thrown to the fish on a Sunday night.  And so it was that Mr T. began baking his own cakes.  If it wasn't for the war, perhaps the operation would still be down by the beach. 
However the stall had to close in order to make way for beach reinforcements in case of invaders, the result being that the Pavilion Gardens Cafe was born.  Today, it is run by Mr T's descendants and the family has now held the lease for approaching 70 years.  A Brighton fixture, the cafe was almost closed down in 1989 by the Brighton Tourism Committee demanding the site owners give up their lease after almost 50 years.  But there was a public outcry.  A good thing too: in the summer you can hardly get near the place it's so popular, and it's almost as full on cold days when the sun's out or indeed on any day that's not bitterly cold or rainy.  Today the cafe has given up it's whelks, mussels and cockles, and now sells salads, sandwiches, baguettes, cakes, baked potatoes, teas, coffees etc.  There is a space for artists to show or perform their work and the gardens are never dull in the summer.
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Parks and Gardens
Pavilion Gardens, City Centre, Brighton.
On the edge of the North Laine area, the grounds of the Royal Pavilion provides a pleasant environment for lunching office-workers, visitors and sun seeking locals.  Deckchairs are available and there are often buskers, some rather better than others.  Pavilion Gardens Cafe serves delicious homemade cakes and sandwiches, and a variety of teas. 
Mark Bredon: Paintings
Mark Bredon worked for his father at Bredon's Bookshop which later became Sussex Stationers. He created a Classical record shop in Bartholomews Brighton. He was also in charge of Greetings cards, Pictures and Framing.

He later worked for the BBC in the Gramophone Library (the largest in the word) as a senior librarian.

Now retired, he enjoys painting, mostly in pen, ink and watercolours.

He loves to travel and has produced paintings and cards of Provence in France, also Venice. He painted many scenes of Brighton.

His cards are available from the Pavilion Gardens Café.
David Parker
David Parker

I Left School in 1958 and started in August 20th 1958 at Stanmer. I then moved to Preston Park in 1960 and spent six years in this area.

I  moved into the Royal Pavilion area in 1966. Here I was responsible for the Royal Pavilion and surrounding gardens.  Bill Streeter was the superintendent at this time with Doug Goodchild as his foreman. My main work was looking after the Dahlias on the border in front of the Dome.  When these had finished in late autumn we used to store them in the wine cellar under the Royal Pavilion (Near Palace Place).  In the spring they were brought back up the wooden stairs and re-planted in the borders.

I spent three years on the Seafront Gardens and all the Squares; Regency, Brunswick, Norfolk and on New Steine.

In 1969 I returned as foreman to take charge of the New Labour Cost Control Incentive Scheme which involved looking after housing estates and floral decorating.   The Royal Pavilion was one of the buildings in this project; during the summer (two to three months every year) the Regency Exhibition was decorated with trees, shrubs and flowers in every room.  In the following year I was responsible for the Annual Garden Party for the Mayor and Courtiers on the West Lawn and sometimes on the East Lawn for the many political conferences held in the Dome and the Corn Exchange.  Flower shows which eventually moved to the Brighton Centre. The passage between the Dome and the Pavilion was decorated.  In these years the two lawns were sacred to walk on and during the summer deck chairs were used on the top side (by Tennents Cafe) with a climbing rope half-way across the lawn.  I remember Mr Dougie Reeve asking people to move off.  (In the passage under North Street Y.M.C.A.).  Serco came in as the first private contractors and in these years the 80s the first of the work started on the Pavilion grounds moving the entrance beds and the roads.  East Sx moved in landscaping the area.

When this work started the floral work in the Royal Pavilion stopped.  The major conferences stopped and were moved to the Brighton Centre.  During the 80s and the early 90s work carried on in the Pavilion Grounds adding an Irrigation System.  I was made Superintendent in this time and worked from Moulscomb Place.  Many jobs were done:

1. The East Lawn Border around Ballustrade.  These were planted with winter bedding wallflowers. In the Summer.  Annuals were established by the Pond Bed.

2. Dahlias were planted in the Summer in front of the Dome. On the East Lawn Wallflowers in the Summer.

3. Welcome to Brighton Bed.

4. Sir Cordy Burrow’s Corner- mixture of stove house plants, Fushcia Standard,  Comna, Chloraphtum, Ferns est.

The Gardeners Huts were in the North East corner by the North Gate, this held the office mess room.  Tool sheds est., the main mess room was where the new toilets are.  The mowing was done weekly with a 32” Ransoms mower ride on and the lines on the lawn looked like Wembley.  Edging and weeding was done weekly.  I met many celebrities and Prime Ministers in my time as a member of the staff and being a Superintendent, also meeting many members of the Royal Family.

During very cold weather during the winter we were sent down in the Royal Pavilion wine cellars to dust Sulpher on the Dahlia tubers. We used to floral decorate the tunnels between the Dome and Royal Pavilion. This was used for Royalty and V.I.P.s to get from the Dome to the Royal Pavilion.  The other tunnel is from the wine cellars to Mrs Fizherbert House- mostly demolished under North Street.   

The Annual Garden Party was held in late June on the East Lawn or West Lawn. If on the West Lawn, the Gardens were closed to the public. At this time Mr Herbert Tennent who ran the cafe shut the day of the Gardens Party.
Brighton’s Good Books
By Adam Trimingham

Many of Britain’s top stage and screen stars made a beeline for Kenneth Bredon’s bookshop when they were in Brighton.

They included the top three theatrical actors of the post war period, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, along with Alec Guinness.

There was also Anna Neagle, who lived in Brighton with her director husband Hebert Wilcox, and Michael Wilding, who had a restaurant nearby.