Jubilee Street in the middle of Brighton was derelict for so long that hardly anyone could recall what had happened.

Some said Hitler’s bombers had done the damage but the real reason was a series of plans for redevelopment that never got under way.

Few of the buildings there were significant but there was one notable exception. The Central National School near the junction with Church Street was a rare example of Regency Gothic architecture.

It closed in 1967 and progressively became more dilapidated until it was shamefully demolished by Brighton Council in 1971 just hours before a Government order preventing this arrived in the post.

Some people still have fond memories of the school, among them Mrs Jean Turner of Mile Oak in Portslade. Four of her children attended it and were transferred to the new St Paul’s school further up the hill after the closure. The head and many teachers also went there,

The council was keen to see a new library and swimming pool on the site to replace the out-of-date baths in North Road and the overcrowded library next to the Dome.

Developers came forward in 1973 with a scheme that would have provided both but just at that time, responsibility for libraries passed to East Sussex County Council who abandoned the scheme for no very good reason.

Brighton built the Prince Regent pools in the 1970s and they are still in use today, rather austere but much better that North Road.

The flattened land was used as a temporary car park for more than 30 years while schemes came and went. Developers Tarmac had a long-term interest and were keen to provide an ice rink.

This was welcomed by the skating fraternity, deprived of a proper rink since the demolition of the Sports Stadium in 1965, but nothing happened.

The county council proposed a futuristic design for the library but Environment Secretary John Gummer, whose father had been a Brighton vicar, rejected it.

In 1997 Brighton Council resumed control of libraries and was determined to build one in Jubilee Street.

But it took a private finance initiative to get the new Jubilee library built and the doors were opened to the public a decade ago.

It was a handsome building but seemed sadly lacking in books to readers who had become used to the chaos in Church Street.

By the time it opened, Brighton had been waiting more than a century for a purpose-built library and it is one of the best used in the south east.

The development also included a number of restaurants, a civic square, and renewed life for some buildings at the bottom of Church Street.

Jubilee Street was reinstated and is unimaginably different from the dusty old car park that was there so long.

So the story has a happy ending apart from the demolition of the old school. But that caused such a fuss the council never did it again and soon afterwards created the North Laine conservation area nearby.