Arch Nos.146 & 147

Arch No.148

West Street

Arch No.156

Arch No.157

Arch No.163

Arch No.166

Bolla & Biucchi's Restaurant

Free Shelter Hall

The Fortune of War

(Bolla & Biucchi)

Welcome Brothers Inn

Captain Frederick Collins

Beer Retailer and Pleasure Boat Proprietor

Richard Cartwright senior - active as a Beach Photographer in Brighton between 1887 and 1898

Richard Cartwright senior (c1836-1898), a London photographer established a beach photography business on Brighton's seafront around 1887. Richard Cartwright worked from one of the Arches under Brighton's King's Road. Richard Cartwright had a shop and workroom at 107 & 108 King's Road Arches (later re-numbered 146 & 147 King's Road Arches). Richard Cartwright operated as a beach photographer on the stretch of the seafront which ran between his workshop located next to Bolla & Biucchi's Tea & Coffee Rooms and the Free Shelter Hall.

There is evidence that Richard Cartwright senior produced his seaside photographs in the form of collodion positive images on glass. (See illustration on the right).

Richard Cartwright senior took photographic portraits of holidaymakers in the area of the Free Shelter Hall for over a decade, between1887 and his death in 1898.

To read a more detailed account of the Swiss-Italian families that ran the Fortune of War  and Bolla & Biucchi's Restaurant, click on the link below:

Bolla & Biucchi and the Fortune of War

The King's Road Arches east of the Free Shelter Hall

[ABOVE] A detail from a picture postcard produced around 1908 showing the business premises  between the Free Shelter Hall and the ramp leading to the upper promenade on the Kings Road (the Middle Street gap). Alfred Clarke's Sporting and Military Rifle Range at No.  155 Kings Road Arches is closest to the camera. Two arches further along is the Fortune of War, a seafront pub run by Mrs Maddalena Bolla (born c1857, Switzerland). Captain Frederick Collins, the well-known pleasure boat proprietor, was based at Arch No. 163.

[ABOVE] A photograph of the Rifle Range at No. 155 Kings Road Arches, Brighton. on the Lower Esplanade immediately to the east of the Free Shelter Hall. A shooting gallery had been established on this site by Joseph Lyons in 1890.  Alfred Clarke was running a  Sporting and Military Rifle Range at No.  155 Kings Road Arches during the first decade  of the 20th century. When this photograph was taken around 1915, the rifle range was owned by Thomas Grant.

Walter Master Flowers was born in Hastings, Sussex, in 1866, the eldest son of Elizabeth and Walter Flowers senior, a carver & gilder by trade. Walter Flowers senior was born around 1837 in the parish of Heigham on the outskirts of Norwich in Norfolk. By the mid -1860s, Walter Flowers senior was living in Hastings, Sussex. In 1865, Walter Flowers married a local girl Elizabeth Ayers Masters, the 19 year old daughter of Thomas Masters, a tailor. The following year, Elizabeth Flowers gave birth to a son, who was given the name Walter Masters Flowers. [The birth of Walter Masters Flowers was registered in Hastings during the 2nd Quarter of 1866].

In the late 1860s, Walter Flowers and his family moved to Brighton. A daughter, Eleanor Jane Flowers was born in Brighton in 1867 and a second son, William Thomas Flowers, was born in the seaside town on 5^th March 1869. Walter's third son, Charles Percy Flowers, was born in Brighton in 1871.

Walter Flowers senior was a carver & gilder (picture frame maker) by trade and by 1875 he had his own picture framing business in Brighton at 52 Church Street. At the time of the 1881 Census, Walter Flowers and his family were living at his business premises in Church Street, Brighton. In the census return, Walter Flowers senior is described as a 42 year old "Gilder" from Norwich and he is shown living with his wife Elizabeth and six children. Elizabeth Rose Flowers had been born on 5^th August 1874 and her sister Lily Gertrude Flowers was baptised at St Nicholas' Church on 16^th June 1879. Walter Masters Flowers, the eldest boy was now fifteen years of age and working alongside his father as a gilder. The last addition to the Flowers family was Violet Daisy Flowers, who was born in 1882.

By 1890, Walter Flowers and his eldest son Walter Masters Flowers were well established as carvers and gilders in Brighton. Walter Flowers senior was still working from his house at 52 Church Street, Brighton. Walter's son, Walter Masters Flowers, had married a Swiss-born maid servant from Hove named Christina Susanne Marie Payer in 1888, and had set up his own carving and gilding business at 25 Dean Street, Brighton. At the time of the 1891 Census, Walter Flowers senior's second son, William Flowers, was employed as a "French polisher" and his youngest son, Charles Flowers, was working as a clerk. It appears that Walter Flowers senior wanted to provide his family with an extra source of income and so, around 1889, he established a bicycle business on Brighton's seafront, which he hoped would attract the attention of the increasing numbers of day trippers and holidaymakers who were visiting the seaside town.

By 1890, Walter Flowers had established a cycle depot under the West Pier. The office of the cycle business was located underneath the West Pier in one of the arches that supported the recently widened King's Road. Originally marked as Arch No. 26, Flowers' address was given as 63 Kings Road Arches when the arches were re-numbered around 1894. In 1895, Walter Flowers' two eldest sons were shown as the occupants of the Bicycle Depot at 63 Kings Road Arches. Kelly's Sussex Directory of 1895, records Walter and William Flowers as Bicycle & Tricycle Agents and gives their business address as "The Beach, Under West Pier". Walter Flowers is also shown as the proprietor of a "Cycle Store" at 28 Sillwood Street, Brighton.

Around 1895, Walter Flowers opened Refreshment Rooms further along the seafront at 156 Kings Road Arches, between the Free Shelter Hall and The Fortune of War, a long established beer-house. In 1899, Kelly's Directory of Sussex shows William Flowers, bicycle agent, at the site near the West Pier Steps and Walter Flowers as a cycle agent at 156 Kings Road Arches, where the refreshment room was located. Towner's Directory for 1901 names the proprietors of the Cycle Depot at 63 Kings Road Arches as "Flowers & Son".  In the same street directory, "Flowers & Son, cycles and refreshments" are recorded at 156 Kings Road Arches. Walter Flower's eldest son, Walter Masters Flowers, is entered in Brighton's 1901 Census return as a "Cycle Maker". Walter's brother, William Thomas Flowers, had married in 1894 and by 1901 he was living in Worthing with his wife and five year old daughter. In 1901, Walter Flowers' youngest son, Charles Percy Flowers, was employed as a jeweller's assistant and residing in Preston, Sussex with his new wife.

In 1903, William Thomas Flowers died in Brighton at the age of 34. The site near the West Pier where William Flowers ran his bicycle business was abandoned and, from 1903, Walter Flowers ran the cycle depot solely from No.156 Kings Road Arches. In 1909, Walter Masters Flowers was selling confectionery at a shop at 46 Gardner Street, Brighton.

On 4^th July 1910, Walter Flowers senior died in Brighton at the age of 72. After the death of his father, Walter Masters junior, opened a refreshment room at 156 Kings Road Arches. Attached to the tea room was a studio, where Walter Masters Flowers took  photographic portraits. The 1911 census records Walter Masters Flowers as a 46 year old "Confectioner - Shop Dealer", living with his wife Marie(Christina) and their three children Alexander (aged 20), Gertrude (aged 19) and Beatrice Flowers (aged 14) at 46 Gardner Street, Brighton.

A photograph, taken around 1915, shows the Flowers' seafront shop at 156 Kings Road Arches. (See the illustration on the right). The shop advertises refreshments and snack food  - ales and stout beer, tea, coffee, cocoa and mineral drinks, as well as cakes, biscuits and Brighton rock. The shop also sold cigarettes, tobacco and postcards. Signs outside the shop advertise a photographic studio inside the premises and promise photo portraits "within one minute". The three people pictured outside the shop are probably Walter Masters Flowers, his wife Christina Flowers and their son Alexander Walter Flowers (born 1890, Brighton).

Walter Masters Flowers was still running 156 Kings Road Arches as a refreshment room in 1927. By 1932, Walter M. Flowers, now in his mid-sixties, was selling confectionery both from his shop at Arch No.156 and a second seafront shop at 165 Kings Road Arches.

Walter Masters Flowers died in Hove,Sussex, in 1949, at the age of 83.

The Changing Face of the King's Road Arches

[ABOVE] The King's Road Arches photographed around 1870. This view (looking towards the West Pier) shows the Lower Esplanade between the Middle Street Gap and the West Street Gap. The ramp leading down from the Upper Promenade of the King's Road  is lined by wooden railings and the Lower Esplanade consists of an un-surfaced track providing pickings for chickens which roam free on the seafront. In the middle distance is a ramp and stairway which marks the West Street Gap entrance to the Lower Esplanade and beach. When this photograph was taken, the Arches provided accommodation for sporting clubs, refreshment rooms and a beer-house. In 1886, a number of improvements were made to the Lower Esplanade, including the installation of cast-iron railings and the building of a Free Shelter Hall. (See picture opposite).

[ABOVE] The King's Road Arches in 1907. This view shows the ramp known as the Middle Street Gap which led down from the Kings Road promenade. On the right-hand side of the ramp is the sign of The Sea House Hotel Shades, a public house owned by Victor Lanfranchi (c1872-1938). The wooden fencing (shown in the picture opposite) which lined the ramp and the upper promenade have been replaced by cast-iron railings (erected in 1886). In the middle distance, near the West Street Gap, is the Rotunda and Free Shelter Hall (built 1886). The King's Road Arches on the Lower Esplanade now  houses tea rooms, cafes, a restaurant and three public houses. The walkways are now lighted by electric lamp standards (gas lamps were replaced by electric lights in September 1893).

The King's Road Arches on Middle Street Gap Ramp

Captain Frederick Collins and Fred Poste Collins

To read a more detailed account of the life and career of Captain Frederick Collins, proprietor of the pleasure yacht  'Skylark' on Brighton Beach and landlord of the 'Welcome Brothers' beer-house in the Kings Road Arches , click on the link below :

Captain Frederick Collins of Brighton (1832-1912)

Fred Collins junior (Frederick Poste Collins Gillam) - Seafront Photographer and Bowling Saloon Proprietor

Frederick Philip Collins Gillam married Lucy Post (Poste), the nineteen year old daughter of Eliza and George Post (Poste), a Barcombe bricklayer, on 9th May 1858. A few months later, Lucy gave birth to a baby son, baptised Frederick Poste Collins Gillam (known as Fred Collins junior in adult life). Fred's father, Frederick Philip Collins Gillam, the son of Ann Billinghurst and Edward Collins Gillam, began his working life as a fisherman and boatman. At the time of his marriage to Lucy Poste in 1858, Frederick Collins Gillam was already earning his living as a "Pleasure Boat Proprietor".

By the 1860s, under the name of "Captain Collins", Frederick Collins Gillam was taking holidaymakers out to sea in a large pleasure yacht called the Skylark. The famous English novelist Charles Dickens mentions taking a trip on Captain Collins' pleasure craft in a letter dated 8th June 1867. A regular visitor to Brighton, Dickens remarked in the letter that he "had a most amusing conversation" with Captain Collins while on board the yacht, observing that "his (Captain Collins) chatter to the trippers was very witty".

When the 1871 census was taken, Frederick Collins senior was based in the Kings Road Arches on Brighton's seafront. The 1878 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory of Sussex lists Frederick Collins as a beer retailer and pleasure boat proprietor on The Beach, King's Road, Brighton. Frederick Collins senior was the owner of a beer-house in the King's Road Arches named "Welcome Brothers". The 1881 census records Frederick Collins as a forty-eight year old "Beer-house Keeper & Boatman" at the 'Welcome Brothers' Beer House in the King's Road Arches. Residing with Frederick Collins senior was his wife Mrs Lucy Collins, described as a forty-one year old "Beer House Keeper's wife". Frederick Poste Collins, Frederick and Lucy Collins' son, was living with an uncle at 26 Blucher Place, Brighton. Presumably, Frederick Collins junior was then working for his father at the Welcome Brothers beer-house because he is described on the census return as a "Publican's Waterman". We know from a court case that was heard in Brighton in August 1877 that, as a nineteen year old, Frederick Poste Collins worked as a barman in the Welcome Brothers Beer House, which was owned by his father,

Around 1883, Frederick Poste Collins Gillam set up home with Lydia Martha Martin (born c1867, Chatham, Kent). The couple went on to produce four children - Lydia Lucy Collins Gillam (born 1885), Frances Gwendolen Collins (born 1888), Frederick Philip Collins (born 1890) and Ivy Victoria Collins (born 1894).

Frederick Poste Collins Gillam (from this point onwards referred to as Fred Collins junior) established an American Bowling Saloon at 166 Kings Road Arches around 1887. Fred Collins junior's new business was only a short distance from his father's "Welcome Brothers" beer house at 163 Kings Road Arches.

Fred Collins junior - Seafront Photographer

Like a number of other occupants of Brighton's Kings Road Arches in the 1880s and 1890s, Fred Collins junior supplemented the income from his other business operations by taking photographic portraits of holiday makers. In the 1880s, Fred Collins junior appears to have produced many of his photographic portraits on glass using the collodion positive process. Fred Collins junior might have used the collodion positive process on glass throughout the 1890s, but by the early 1900s, like other seafront photographers such as Richard Cartwright and Frederick Marks, Fred Collins junior began to produce his portraits in the recently introduced postcard format. 

Fred Collins junior's other Seafront Businesses

Fred Collins junior and his father 'Captain' Frederick Collins had a number of different seafront businesses over the years. In the early 1900s, Fred Collins junior was mainly occupied with his beach photography business and his American Bowling Saloon at 166 Kings Road Arches. On the death of 'Captain' Fred Collins in 1912, Fred Collins junior inherited his father's beer-house, pleasure boat business and the bathing machines near the Palace Pier. After the First World War, Fred Collins junior still occasionally took photographic portraits of day-trippers and holidaymakers, but more and more of his time was taken up by his various business concerns on Brighton beach.

Frederick Poste Collins (also known as Fred Collins junior) died on 12th November 1940 at the age of 82. [His death was registered in the West Sussex district of Worthing under the name of "Frederick P Collins-Gillam" during the 4th Quarter of 1940]

[ABOVE] Frederick Philip Collins Gillam (1832-1912), a Brighton boatman and beer house keeper who gained fame as "Captain Collins", the proprietor of the pleasure yacht the "Skylark", which took holidaymakers out to sea during the 1880s and 1890s. Frederick Poste Collins Gillam, known as Fred Collins junior, was the only son of Captain Frederick Collins. The above photographic  portrait, signed "Yours truly, Fred Collins, Skylark" was taken by William Hall, photographer of 80 West Street, Brighton, around 1874, when Captain Collins was in his early forties.

[ABOVE] Frederick Collins junior listed as a photographer on The Beach, King's Road, Brighton in the 1882 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex. A few doors away was Fred Collins junior's father, 'Captain' Frederick Collins, who ran a beer-house and a pleasure boat business on Brighton's beach. Based at the other end of Brighton beach, near The West Pier, was a photographer named William Dawson, who had been taking pictures of holidaymakers since the early 1870s. Boat-builder William Tickner of the firm Tickner & Measor began taking photographic portraits on the beach in the 1890s.

[ABOVE] Bathing machines on the stretch of beach  near Brighton's Palace Pier. Originally under the ownership of Frederick Collins & Son, the bathing machines passed to  Fred Collins junior after the death of  'Captain' Fred Collins in 1912.

The Various Types of Photography practised by Brighton Beach Photographers between 1870 and 1920

Photographers who operated on the beach at Brighton during the 1870s and 1880s, such as William Dawson and Richard Cartwright, produced carte-de-visite portraits mounted on thin card or collodion positive portraits on glass (known as "ambrotypes" in North America). As a semi-professional photographer who took photographic likenesses as a sideline to his other occupations, Fred Collins junior appears to have mainly used the collodion positive process; producing portraits on glass, after developing the images in a dark-room located in the Arches. Itinerant beach photographers, who operated without the benefit of a dark-room, were more likely to produce "ferrotypes", collodion positive images on thin sheets of metal. Although generally produced on an iron base, these cheap photographs were commonly nicknamed "tintypes". The "tintype" or "ferrotype" photograph was particularly favoured by itinerant beach photographers and photographers who travelled with fairground entertainers.

The Collodion Positive Portraits on Glass (known as an "ambrotype" in America)

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Philippe Garner]

[ABOVE] A collodion positive portrait on glass of a young woman and her male companion posing outside Bolla & Biucchi's Dining Rooms on Brighton seafront around 1882. As with many collodion positive portraits from this period the image is in reverse because the glass negative itself was used to provide the picture. [TOP PICTURE] When the sign which appears behind the couple is reversed the following text can be read: "BOLLA & BIUCCHI'S DINING & TEA SALOONS - Chops and Steaks, Hot Joints". The other sign reads: "BRIGHTON ROWING CLUB". The evidence provided by the signs indicates that this photograph was taken on Brighton's seafront near where the Fortune of War public house stands today. The collodion positive portrait on glass could therefore be an early example of the beach photography of  Fred Collins junior who was active on Brighton beach from around 1882.

The cheaper photographs were handed to the customer in a plain paper envelope, but established professional photographers often presented their collodion positive portraits in a smart, velvet-lined, leather cases or in pinchbeck metal frames.

[ABOVE] Two collodion positive portraits on glass in their framed presentation cases, produced by beach photographers in the 1880s. The cased portrait on the left was photographed by Richard Cartwright senior on Brighton's seafront around 1887. Both the collodion positive portraits illustrated above have been placed in a frame which could be hung on the owner's wall.

The Carte-de-visite Portrait

[ABOVE] A portrait of a young woman sitting on Brighton beach, holding a book. A carte-de-visite photograph by William Dawson of  No. 6 Arch, West Pier, Brighton. (c1872)

 The Ferrotype or "Tintype" Photograph

[ABOVE]  Three members of the Shuttler Family photographed on Brighton beach close to the Kings Road Arches at the Middle Street Gap (c1900). This beach photograph is on a thin sheet of iron and, although strictly speaking a "ferrotype", this kind of photograph was generally known as a "tintype". Beach photographs produced on metal were seldom labelled and, as in this case, the photographer rarely identified.

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Simon Pettitt]

[ABOVE] A seaside 'Tintype'  photographer showing his finished ferrotype portraits to his customers on a Sussex beach. The 'Tintype' photographer in this picture is George William Berrecloth (born 1842, Clerkenwell, London) a beach photographer active in the seaside town of Hastings between 1880 and 1900. George Berrecloth stands in front of his portable darkroom on wheels. This scene was photographed on Hastings beach in the 1890s by the well-known amateur photographer George Woods (1852-1934).

 A Framed Collodion Positive Portrait

[ABOVE] A collodion positive portrait of two women propped against a sea-wall on an unidentified beach (c1882). The portrait is housed in a pinchbeck type frame.

 The Collodion Positive Portraits on Glass depicting members of the Guilford Family of Brighton and London

[ABOVE] A framed collodion positive portrait of two women posed on front of a sailing boat on Brighton beach (c1880).  The older woman on the left is believed to be Mrs Eliza Guilford (born c1824, Twineham, West Sussex) who worked as a cook in Brighton in the 1880s. The younger woman is thought to be her daughter-in-law Hannah Cousins (born 1853, Manchester), who married Mrs Guilford's son Charles Guilford (1850-1900) in 1880. Mrs Eliza Guilford died in the Preston district of Brighton in 1898 at the age of 74. At the time of the 1901 census, Mrs Hannah Guilford (formerly Cousins) was a widow of forty-seven living  in Battersea, South London with two of her grown-up children - Nellie Guilford , a nineteen year old milliner and Alice Guilford , an eighteen year old tobacconist's assistant.

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Rachel Anderson]

[ABOVE] A collodion positive portrait on glass of a man seated on  Brighton beach (c1890). The man has been identified as Charles Guilford (born 1850, Eastbourne, Sussex), the second eldest son of Henry and Eliza Guilford. Charles Guilford, worked as a wagon maker and as a carpenter & joiner. After the death of his father Henry Guilford in 1862, Charles Guilford and his mother Mrs Eliza Guilford moved to Brighton, Henry Guilford's home town. Charles Guilford married his second wife Hannah Cousins (born 1853, Manchester) in 1880. Charles Guilford died in London in 1900 at the age of 49, leaving a widow and four children - Nellie (born 1881, New Cross), Alice Eliza (born 1882), Maud (born 1885, Battersea) and Charles Sylvan  Guilford (born 1888, Battersea).

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Rachel Anderson]

The Picture Postcard Portrait

[ABOVE] Three women and a baby photographed on the beach at unknown seaside town. This group portrait has been produced in the popular picture postcard format.

[ABOVE] A family group photographed on Brighton's beach in front of the large arches to the east of the Ship Street Gap. This group portrait, which is in the popular picture postcard format, might have been taken by William Lable, who worked as a beach photographer from No. 186  King's Road Arches, Brighton, from 1909 until 1911.

Fred Collins junior's American Bowling Saloon

[ABOVE] The Kings Road Arches, east of the Free Shelter Hall, photographed around 1912. Captain Frederick Collins, who operated pleasure boats from this section of Brighton beach, ran the Welcome Brothers beer house which was situated at the end of this row of arches at No. 163 Kings Road Arches.

[LEFT] The Kings Road Arches, east of the Free Shelter Hall, photographed around 1912. On the left, under the 'Rock Ales' lantern is the Fortune of War public house and, at the end of the row at 163 Kings Road Arches, is the Welcome Brothers, a beer house owned by 'Captain' Frederick Collins. Around the corner, lining the ramp to the Kings Road promenade, are the Arches numbered 164 to 167 (see above).

[ABOVE] A modern photograph showing the Kings Road Arches numbered 164 to 167 which run alongside the Middle Street Gap Ramp (2005). During the first decade of the 20th century, the first two arches on the left (164 & 165) housed the Excelsior Dining Rooms. The third arch, situated left of the turquoise lamp post, is Arch No. 166. Around 1887, Fred Poste Collins opened an American Bowling Saloon in this large arch. Originally numbered No. 54, and  re-numbered No. 124 and 126 around 1890, the arch that housed Fred Collins' American Bowling Saloon finally became No.166 Kings Road Arches in 1893.

American Bowling in Victorian England

[ABOVE]  "Bowling As A Fashionable Ladies' Amusement: The Deciding Shot", an illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published in December 1882. Bowling was an indoor sport which appealed to men and women alike.

[ABOVE] An illustration from an 1893 edition of The Strand Magazine showing a Bowling Alley (The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 28, April 1893)

American Bowling grew out of the old past-time of ninepins, whereby a player would roll a ball towards nine upright wooden skittles or pins, arranged in a diamond pattern, with the object of knocking them over. The game had developed from the traditional games of skittles which had been brought to America by German, Dutch and English settlers. Nine pin bowling became particularly popular in the north-eastern states of America and in 1840 the first indoor bowling alley was built in the city of New York. Nine pin bowling had a reputation for encouraging bad behaviour and in an attempt to curb the gambling, crime and violence which had become associated with the game, there were attempts in the mid-nineteenth century to outlaw Nine Pin Bowling. Because Anti-bowling legislation in Connecticut specifically mentioned the prohibition of "bowling at Nine Pins", bowling alley proprietors introduced a tenth pin to get around the ban. Now ten in number, the bowling pins were arranged in a triangular formation. The new sport became known as American tenpin bowling to distinguish it from the traditional European game of ninepins or skittles.

American Bowling Saloons in England

American tenpin bowling had arrived in England by the end of the 1840s. Renton Nicholson (1809-1861), who from around 1843 was the proprietor of the Cremorne Gardens, a famous place of entertainment in Chelsea, is believed to have established the first American Bowling Alley in London. Slater's Directory of Manchester, published in 1850, lists an American Bowling Saloon in Back Moseley Street, Manchester. Indoor ten pin bowling alleys were generally called American Bowling Saloons, especially if a bar selling drinks was attached. In his 1859 collection of articles entitled Gaslight and Daylight, the English journalist George Augustus Sala (1828-1895) reports on the differences between an old "dry skittle ground" and the new type of American Bowling Alley with its mahogany and gilded fixtures, ground-glass lamp shades, crimson-covered benches and complicated scoring board. The narrator also comments on the cocktails served in a typical American bowling saloon : "an additional bar for the use of the skittle-players, where the scorer, who wore a very large shirt collar and a straw hat ... mixed and sold 'American Drinks:' brandy cock-tails, gin-slings, egg-noggs, timber-doodles, and mint-juleps, which last tasted like very bad gin and water, with green stuff in it, which you were obliged to suck through a straw instead of swigging in the legitimate manner."

American Bowling Saloons in Brighton (1887-1915)

Frederick Collins junior (Frederick Post Collins Gillam) opened an American Bowling Saloon in Brighton at 54 Kings Road Arches around 1887. The address of Frederick Collins junior's American Bowling Saloon changed to 124 Kings Road Arches, Brighton when the Arches were re-numbered in 1890. Fred Collins' American Bowling Saloon, which was located in the Kings Road Arches between the Free Shelter Hall and the Middle Street gap, became No. 126 a few years later. After a full-scale re-numbering of the Arches in 1893, Fred Collins' business address was finally changed to 166 Kings Road Arches.

Frederick Collins junior was not the only proprietor of a bowling alley in Brighton's Kings Road Arches. In 1887, George E. Clark ** was running a bowling alley in an arch situated between the Black Lion Street gap and the Brighton Fish Market ( In an 1894 Brighton street directory, the address of Clark's Bowling Saloon was given as 213 Kings Road Arches). In the 1890 edition of Kelly's Directory of Sussex, Harry Ford was listed as the manager of the Bowling Alley and Rifle Gallery at 170 (later No.213) Kings Road Arches. By 1908, Harry Ford was the proprietor of the American Bowling Saloon at 213 Kings Road Arches. Kelly's 1915 Directory of Sussex records Fred Collins as the proprietor of the American Bowling Saloon at 166 The Beach (Kings Road Arches) and Harry Ford as the owner of the bowling saloon and oyster bar at 213 The Beach (Kings Road Arches).

 **  George E. Clark was probably George Ernest Clark (1855-1888), a beer retailer from Brighton. George Ernest Clark married Hannah Peagram (born 1858, London) at St Nicholas' Church, Brighton on 28th March 1878. George Ernest Clark died in Brighton during the 4th Quarter of 1888 at the age of 33. The bowling alley was continued by his widow Mrs Hannah Clark who married Harry Ford in 1895. Harry Ford had managed Clark's bowling alley since 1890.

[ABOVE]  "The Bowling Season is On", an illustration from Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated  published in October 1895.

[ABOVE] Boys setting up the tenpins in an American Bowling alley, photographed by Lewis Hine in 1910.

[ABOVE] A Victorian bowling alley under the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. This twin-lane bowling alley, which was used by Greenwich Pensioners in the 1860s, was probably similar in appearance to the bowling alleys in Brighton's Kings Road Arches.

Index of Brighton Beach Photographers based in the King's Road Arches

PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME

The Beach, Kings Road

Kings Road Arches

Kings Road Arches

OTHER OCCUPATIONS

1887-1888

1890-1893

1894-1915

 107 & 108 Kings Road Arches

148  Kings Road Arches

146-147 Kings Road Arches

The Beach, Kings Road

 126  Kings Road Arches

166 Kings Road Arches

 The Beach, Kings Road

The Beach (near West Pier steps)

65 & 66 Kings Road Arches

156 Kings Road Arches

46 Kings Road Arches

 131 & 138  Kings Road Arches

174 & 181 Kings Road Arches

186-187 Kings Road Arches

38 Kings Road Arches

149 Kings Road  Arches

193 Kings Road Arches

185 Kings Road Arches

101 Kings Road Arches

78 & 79 Kings Road Arches

113 & 114 Kings Road Arches

113 & 114 Kings Road Arches

170 Kings Road Arches

King's Road Arches -Part 1