"They say you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and looking back at the mid-1970s, that has never been truer for Portslade. At the time, film was an expensive luxury, and every shutter click was a choice. But as the wrecking ball began to swing at the Southern Cross, the urgency to capture our vanishing 'Top Road' took over.
This gallery documents the violent transition of a village crossroads into a modern transit corridor. From the thick, traditional flint walls of the 18th-century cottages on the south side to the small independent shops on Trafalgar Road—like our local Pet Shop, the TV repair man, and the Star Laundry drop-off—these images capture the dust and the drama of a world being 'widened' out of existence.
You’ll notice the total lack of modern health and safety; workmen standing in the fall zones and pedestrians dodging debris while the A270 was carved through our landscape. For many of us, these aren't just buildings; they are the shops where we bought our school sweets or the pubs where our fathers drank.
Welcome to a scrapbook of a Portslade that exists now only in our memories and these few rolls of film."
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| copyright Ray Hamblett The Southern Cross Inn – The landmark Brickwoods pub that anchored the corner. |
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett The Calm Before the Storm: The Road to the Cross: Looking West along the Old Shoreham Road, this view captures the southern terrace in its final days before the widening began. In the foreground is a Facebook group members parents' Ford Cortina MK3 (NAP 789M), while the Southern Cross Inn stands clearly in the distance as the anchor of the junction. It’s a poignant "before" shot of the daily traffic that once flowed past these historic flint cottages, unaware of the wrecking ball that was just weeks away. |
Coughtreys: Cycles and Models
Before the 1974/75 road works cleared that western row, Coughtreys served as a dual-purpose hub for the neighbourhood:
Cycles: They were the local go-to for bike repairs and parts, keeping generations of Portslade kids on the move.
Modelling: For many, the "modelling" side was the draw—filled with Airfix kits, balsa wood, and railway supplies.
The Building: In this "Scrapbook of Destruction," Coughtreys is often the building that shows that transition from the traditional flint cottages to the brick-built retail row.
- Location: Looking East along Old Shoreham Road towards the Southern Cross junction.
- Key Landmarks: The Southern Cross (Brickwoods) pub sign and the large Haig/Belair billboard on the gable end of the south-side terrace.
- Note: This captures the narrowness of the original road before the 1974 widening began.
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett The "Boarded Up" Phase |
- Business: C.W. Reeve, specialist in wedding and birthday cakes.
- Status: Boarded up and awaiting the wreckers. You can still see the "Home Made" signage and a motor racing poster in the door. a real local staple—seeing "Home Made Cakes & Pastries" on a boarded-up window is very poignant.
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett Sussex Flint in the Sunlight: A final look at the traditional flint-knapped cottages on the south side of the Southern Cross before the site was cleared. These buildings were a prime example of the local craftsmanship that once defined the "Top Road". While some at the time questioned their antiquity, the sheer thickness of the walls and the quality of the flint-work revealed during the demolition showed just how substantial these "lost" homes really were. |
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett The Contractor The Act of Destruction |
- The Action: A lattice-boom crane swinging a wrecking ball into the very terrace seen in the first photo.
- Safety: Note the workman standing directly in the "fall zone" with no protective gear—a classic example of the era's lack of health and safety.
- In 1974/75, the main contractor for the East Sussex County Council road works often used Pounds for heavy demolition, but the specific wording "Demolition & Excavation" was a hallmark of W. Rice, a local firm often hired for these precise "small operation" clearances.
- Detail: This shot shows the thick flint construction of the cottages being breached.
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Copyright Ray Hamblett
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Background: The modern Tates showroom is already visible in the distance, marking the transition from old to new.
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett The Ghost Rooms: This striking "slice" through the terrace reveals the private history of the buildings as they were breached by the wrecking ball. You can clearly see the old wallpaper, fireplace alcoves, and even small shelving units of the rooms above the shops. It’s a rare, intimate look at the homes and businesses of the Southern Cross—places like the Star Laundry drop-off or the TV shop—at the exact moment they were being surrendered to the new road layout. |
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Copyright Ray Hamblett The Eastern Corner – E. & A. Watts: This shot features the prominent "Finewear" signage belonging to E. & A. Watts, the local drapers and ladies' outfitters at No. 1 Trafalgar Road. Positioned right on the south-east corner of the junction, this shop was a landmark for quality clothing and hosiery long before the road widening forced a change to the landscape. Like its neighbours, this corner was significantly altered to accommodate the new traffic flow and the subsequent expansion of the nearby Tates site. "Next door to Watts was Mrs E.M. Baker’s sweet shop. For many Portslade youngsters, this was an essential stop for a bag of milk bottles or those chocolate buttons covered in coloured sprinkles—a small bit of magic right on the corner of the Cross." |
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| Copyright Ray Hamblett The Modern Mile: A view looking East from the Texaco filling station, showing the newly completed dual carriageway. The narrow, intimate layout of the old Southern Cross has been completely replaced by the wide lanes of the A270. While it solved the traffic bottlenecks of the early 70s, this perspective shows just how much physical space was required to modernise the junction, leaving the old village footprint behind. |
| Address | Business / Occupant | The Fate of the Site |
| South Side | Flint Cottages & Terrace | Demolished for the A270 dual carriageway. |
| South Side | C.W. Reeve (Bakery) | Specialist in "Home Made" cakes; boarded up in 1974. |
| No. 2 | The Southern Cross Inn | Brickwoods pub; cleared for the Trafalgar Road filter lane. |
| No. 4/6 | Star Laundry Shop | Local receiving office; demolished with the West Side row. |
| No. 8 | R.T.V.S. (TV Shop) | The source of many old valves smashed by local kids at the Rec! |
| No. 10 | Southern Cross Pets | Mr. Saunders’ pet shop; a favourite stop for school children. |
| East Side | Mrs. E. M. Baker | The "Sweet Shop" corner; wiped out for the junction widening. |
| East Side | Whites Hardware | Set back from the road; survived the wreckers but later changed trade. |
| North Side | Tates / Texaco | Shops pulled down for Tates’ covered parking and frontage expansion. |
Looking Back: A Community Refashioned
As we look through these images of the Southern Cross in 1974 and 1975, it’s clear that we lost more than just flint and mortar. We lost a specific rhythm of Portslade life. Whether it was the smell of fresh bread from C.W. Reeve, the window shopping at E. & A. Watts (Finewear), or picking out a new Airfix kit at Coughtreys, these shops were the "Centre" of our daily rounds.
The widening of Trafalgar Road and the expansion of the Tates forecourt created the modern transit corridor we use today, but it wiped a whole row of independent characters off the map. From the TV shop valves that ended their lives on the Rec's tarmac to the last pints pulled at the Southern Cross Inn, the "Top Road" was never quite the same again.
Now it’s over to you:
Do you remember Mr. Saunders at the Pet Shop or the models at Coughtreys?
Did you ever get your wedding or birthday cake from Reeve’s?
What are your memories of the junction before the dual carriageway took over?
Archive Footnote: The Road Opens (1976)
By early 1976, the dust had finally settled on the Southern Cross. Local reports from the time noted that the "New Link" was officially operational, finally connecting the widened stretches of the Old Shoreham Road to the Trafalgar Road filter lanes.
The East Sussex County Council highway reports touted the scheme as a triumph of modern engineering that would "remove the bottleneck at the Cross once and for all." Of course, for those of us living in Portslade, the "triumph" came at the cost of the village’s historic flint-knapped heart. The completion of the dual carriageway marked the moment the Southern Cross transformed from a community hub into a transit corridor.
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