Coronation Day 1953

Brighton Palais, now the Sea Life Centre

The Brighton History Centre will be presenting a free talk about life in Brighton in June 1953. Come and find out where you could have gone dancing, what films were on at Brighton’s many cinemas, where you could collect your ration books and, most importantly, which coronation festivities you could have taken part in.

Essoldo Theatre, North Street

The talk is free but limited to twenty people so it is best to book on 01273 296972.  It will take place at the Brighton History Centre (first floor of the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery) on Wednesday 30 May from 11 – 12 and will be repeated on the Wednesday 6 June at the same time.

Paul Jordan, Senior History Centre Officer

Brighton’s Royal Revels: Coronation Day in Brighton

Herald, 16th May 1953

With jubilee celebrations planned around the country, staff at Brighton History Centre have been finding out about life in the city at the time of the Queen’s Coronation. Using cuttings from local papers and ephemera from our collections, we have created a table-top display that, we hope, captures the spirit of the day.

It seems the people of Brighton and Hove celebrated the events of 2 June 1953 with great enthusiasm. Newspapers reported all sorts of initiatives to commemorate the occasion, including concerts and balls, Coronation cake-making and fancy-dress parades. And despite a disappointingly damp day, streets across the city were festooned with bunting and filled with people.

Perhaps the most striking of the public decorations was a giant model of the Imperial State Crown. Measuring 17 feet high and 12 feet wide, it was displayed on the roundabout in front of the Aquarium where, according to the Sussex Daily News, ‘its facets take on an adamantine brilliance and its mundane traffic island site acquires the aspect of a cushion for a royal diadem.’

Princes News Theatre screenings of the Coronation, Herald 13th June 1953

In the days before a TV could be found in every home, following the ceremony was not straightforward. In the weeks leading up to the big day, retailers such as Lambert & Whistlecroft of Western Road, Hove, urged the public to make the most of the occasion and buy their own set.  ‘The Coronation is very near, but there is just time to have your television installed – if you hurry…’ stated an ad in the Brighton and Hove Herald on 9 May.  700 people made alternative plans and booked seats at the Gaiety Cinema, where the Coronation was screened live; others gathered in public places, such as Moulsecoomb School, where three TVs had been installed, or on the seafront, where the BBC coverage was broadcast via loudspeakers.

Our display will show what was on at the theatre and the cinema (Agatha Christie’s The Hollow and Niagara, with Marilyn Monroe, among other things), what was on offer in local restaurants (‘continental’ dishes such as spaghetti Bolognese) and what the stylish women were wearing (beautiful tailored suits and dresses, or more comfortable ‘television loungers’). Fans of 1950s fashion can also admire the Swoonsuit, a fabulous five-piece ensemble that transformed from promenade dress to bikini. Designed for Brighton Corporation, it was worn to mark the opening of the summer season by local showgirl Janet Ball.

If you were married in Brighton in June 1953, your photograph may have appeared in one of the town’s papers; come and have a look! A film reader has been reserved for those who wish to see how events were reported at the time.

The Mayor of Brighton's invitation to Westminster Abbey

The display runs in the History Centre from 1 May – 30 June. And if you’d like to learn more, Senior History Centre Officer Paul Jordan will be giving an informal talk about Brighton in Coronation Year at 11am on 30 May and 6 June. For further details and to reserve a place, please call 01273 296971/2.

Kate Elms, Brighton History Centre

Brighton Rock — the film’s opening night

The world premiere of Brighton Rock, the original film of Graham Greene’s novel starring Richard Attenborough, took place in Brighton on 8 January 1948. The hotly anticipated screening was held at midnight at the Savoy Cinema in East Street.  At the end of the show, members of the cast, together with the film’s director and producer, appeared on the stage.

Local papers noted the enthusiastic response of audiences to the film, but their reports seem to focus more on its impact on the image of the town, and whether its violence and gritty realism might deter future visitors.

‘So far as Brighton is concerned,’ observed The Brighton and Hove Herald, ‘there is a school of thought which maintains that any publicity is good publicity. This film shows the fallacy of the argument. It is true that there are some favourable shots of Brighton’s amenities; but Brighton is also shown as a town of squalid slums, furtive, slouching degenerates, and a place where the police ignore evidence thrust under their noses.’

Similar criticism had been made when the novel was first published in 1938. A report in the Brighton & Hove Gazette, published on 3 September 1938, stated that, ‘its description of Brighton implies that the Queen of Watering Places is the home of squalid crime, that its hotels are haunted by gangsters, that the police are indulgent blockheads and that its coroner’s department is nitwitted enough to be taken in by a boy criminal of 18.’

Extract from a review of the novel Brighton Rock published by the Brighton and Hove Herald, 16 July 1938

The national press took a slightly more balanced view. A review of the film published in The Times begins by saying, ‘An apologetic foreword explains that, while Brighton is now a model town, there were, regrettably, in the 1930s times when razor gangs fought on the racecourse and in the back streets and life, for some, was a violent and precarious business.’ It goes on, however, to praise the film and its entire cast, adding that ‘Brighton itself has no insignificant part and carries it off superbly.’

When the film was released in the US, Brighton’s role was diminished by a change in title. Referring to Howard Hawks’ popular 1932 movie Scarface, the film was retitled Young Scarface for American audiences.

Kate Elms
Brighton History Centre