Rail System 1965

One of the things I love about London is the ease of communication north south. Historically this was not always the case where trains traveled to and from London terminal stations such as Victoria, Waterloo, Kings Cross etc.  These days there is a train that goes from Bedford via St. Alban’s through Central London to East Croydon and thence to Brighton. It does it far quicker than you could possibly do driving by car.

I am old enough to remember the Brighton Belle where you could get on at Victoria, be served a meal, and arrive at Brighton just over an hour later. Those days are alas long gone except for certain ceremonial trains to events such as Ascot racing.

On the way we stopped off at Croydon Town Hall which has an excellent collection of facilities including a library, the David Lean cinema, rooms for lectures and a very nice coffee bar. We met a man who had been interested in photography for 50 years and was the gallery curator for the last 14 years and we were able to reminisce on the Polaroid camera, the brownie Box Camera, which I used when I was a child. The picture below was of car registration numbers and which you are invited to use your imagination

Brighton is called ‘London by the sea’ for good reason. Commuting to London is easy in the days when people used to commute en masse as opposed to working at home that some of them now do. The population is extremely diverse. I could not help noticing a large number of shops that were vacant and we have to remember that even a 10% drop in footfall can make the difference between profit and loss. This time we had to contend with the wind which although only 25 miles an hour was blustery and made walking never mind holding a camera quite a challenge. We visited the famous Pier and noted that the entertainments at the end were closed probably due to safety concerns.

Love the butterfly. This is my power animal

serious wind, and beautiful clouds making dark spaces on the sea

We attended the Foodlic Cafe (shameless plug) 163 Western Road BN1 2BB where we met our friend Simone. She has a great interest in health and diet and has written a book; we were most honored to receive a copy of it. The food and the ambience were absolutely great. Note that the population of Brighton is young. It has a university which does help. The food was absolutely fresh, a good mixture of vegetarian and meat plus a good selection of cakes all for a very reasonable price. Gosh this does sound corny but it is true. Tripadvisor review here

Simone invited us to a posh international hotel overlooking the sea and we enjoyed tea.

There is a feature called the Brighton 360i observation Tower for which they were asking £20 to ascend.  I am sure the view was wonderful but we didn’t feel like spending 40 quid. From thence we wandered around. If you have not been to Brighton before, some of the most interesting niche shops are in the side roads and alleys.

We have a policy of stopping our exploration before we’ve had enough so back to base. There are so many trains to East Croydon that you don’t need to check because the next one will leave in the next few minutes.