Caravan of Dreams
Photographs of West pier and Shoreham Cement works
by Barry
Posted 12-Jul-2016
I was going around the RA summer show and thinking that I had more interesting pictures of redundant buildings that the ones on show. Both of these relate to places of special interest to me. The West Pier is something that I remember clearly from my childhood and think of its loss is a loss of part of my childhood. Likewise the Shoreham Cement works which we used to see when we came to visit my grandparents.
The West Pier was where I said my first words, loved using the go carts near to the entrance and spent ages playing the machines many of which are now in the museum under the remaining or going to be renamed as originally the Palace Pier. Our uncle who lived in Embassy Court had to go out by 9 and spend the day out despite having retired in his early 40s. He used to go on the pier, read the newspapers and then went to the Metropole for breakfast. When we were down in Brighton we used to join him and he always arranged for the machines to be free.
When we came down to Brighton to see the family we often used to come through Shoreham and past the old cement works which was then in operation. My father developed brushes for Blue Circle who ran it. I managed to arrange to photograph it when I was doing my foundation and based quite a lot of work on it.
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