The East Brighton Seen exhibition came about as a result of funding from the National Heritage Lottery to display a selection of photographs from the East Brighton Archive. The original exhibition was held at St Mark's chapel in Eastern Road during the Brighton Festival in May 2007 and subsequently at Whitehawk Library, the Wellsbourne Centre and the Manor Road shop.
The area covered in the exhibition was from the seafront in the south to the racecourse in the north, from Paston Place in the West to Black Rock (and beyond) in the east - most of the land once having belonged to Frederick William Hervey, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol. A benevolent landowner, Lord Bristol donated the land upon which St Mary's Hall School was built and personally paid for St Mark's Chapel to be erected.
We printed approximately 400 photographs onto A4 paper. Each photograph was then laminated and joined to others at the corners. In this way we created 8 'sheets' of photos, 7 across and 6 down. These sheets formed the main backbone of the exhibition and offered a digital tour of the area, from the seafront to the top of Whitehawk Hill.
Each of the 8 geographical areas had its own Special Feature focussing on a little known aspect of that area. These spotlighted displays, beautifully presented by Hazel Imbert on columns donated by Rachel Cohen, formed the vertical supports for the sheets of photographs.
2. Black Rock
Mainly postcards showing the landslips that claimed so much of the cliffs
3. Rifle Butt Road
Replaced by the Marina approach road, this selection shows what Riflebutt Road used to look like.
6. Whitehawk
Tracing the development of the estate and the racecourse
6a. Wilson's Laundry
Demolished in 2007, Wilson's Laundry was once one of the largest employers in this area.
7. Manor Farm
Photographs showing the old Manor House and surrounding area
Donated
All of these photographs were scanned during the course of the exhibition