Adam Trimingham tells us all about the history of Brighton’s slum clearance...

Some of Britain’s worst slums were in the unlikely setting of Brighton for the best part of a century.

Many of them were built on the east side of the resort close to Edward Street and a few elderly people can still recall what they were like.

Sun Street was so narrow that the sun’s rays only penetrated the road for about two hours on fine days.

Most families were distressingly poor and had few material possessions. Children played in the streets because there were no parks.

Brighton’s councillors realised there was a problem and started to build council houses at the top of Elm Grove from the 1890s.

But the really big push came after the First World War when there was a move to create homes fit for heroes.

Hundreds of families were moved from their cramped, damp homes in east Brighton to the new estates such as Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb where every house had an allotment-size back garden for growing vegetables.

But some people missed the close knit atmosphere of the old houses even though they were barely fit for human habitation.

The new homes were spacious and near the Downs but felt a long way from the town centre and the estates developed social problems.

More slums were demolished after the Second World War so that in the mid-1960s the council was able to declare that all of them had gone.

This time some of the people were decanted to suburban estates like Hollingdean but more were housed in tower blocks. These kept most residents in the town centre but were not good for children.

Some towers were also remarkably ugly and those in Albion Hill formed a blighted backdrop for views of the Royal Pavilion.

By this time about one fifth of the housing was owned by the council amounting to 13,000 houses and flats.

But the number was reduced from the 1980s onwards as the right to buy policy of Margaret Thatcher allowed tenants to buy their homes with tempting discounts.

Brighton had been selling some of its stock, notably in Coldean, up to 30 years before that but on a much more limited basis.

Another change dating from the 1980s was that councils built few new homes. Social housing was left to associations such as the Guinness Trust which rebuilt much of the Whitehawk estate.

Ironically the worst housing then and now was to be found in some of the best looking properties.

There is many a listed building in Brighton with an imposing cream stucco front which hides a maze of poorly built bedsitters and maisonettes at the back.

It was lucky slum clearance stopped when it did as many prized areas of Brighton could have been for the chop including Hanover and North Laine.

Homes built for railway workers and other manual jobs in the mid-1800s have been tastefully renovated and reach high prices on the property market.

The slums may have gone but the problems caused by lack of space and poverty in a popular resort still remain.